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Want to know the average fish prices at the docks over a decade … or where most Alaska fishermen and fishing fleets call home? Or how Alaska’s seafood industry stacks up against other state industries? What is likely the most comprehensive, user friendly report ever done on Alaska’s seafood industry by region was just released by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Titled “Economic Value of the Alaska Seafood Industry,” the report was compiled by the Juneau-based McDowell Group, and it includes all of the direct and indirect economic...
Alaska salmon continues to get snubbed by ill informed, far away big wigs who believe they are best suited to make the seafood choices for their customers. Last week Sodexo, one of the world’s largest food purveyors - said its policy is to only serve seafood certified by (you guessed it) the London-based Marine Stewardship Council. In this case, the fish is targeted to the US troops. Sodexo, a Fortune 500 company home based in France, has an eight year contract to provide food services to US military mess halls, including $22 million of s...
The more fishermen who volunteer their vessels to field test new electronic monitoring systems (EMS), the faster the program will replace that extra body onboard. Starting this year and for the first time, fishery observers are required aboard Alaska’s long line fleet of roughly 1,500 boats, most of which are well under 50 feet. Observers have been aboard other types of Alaska fishing vessels for decades to collect data and monitor catches and bycatches; now scientists and managers want a better idea of what’s coming up on those miles of hoo...
Alaska salmon catches are poised to blow past the pre-season forecast of 179 million fish due to a plug of pinks that is coming in stronger than expected. “We are going to be short on sockeyes by five million or so, and we’re probably not going to make the chum salmon numbers either. So we’ll have to go over with pinks, but at the rate things are going that is entirely possible,” said Geron Bruce, deputy director of Fish and Game's Commercial Fisheries division. As of Friday the total pink salmon catch had surged to nearly 114 million (the fo...
Holy Oncorhynchus! Any doubts about the brand power of Alaska salmon can be put to rest after the high visibility contretemps over the past few weeks – and the fish story has a happy ending. All of Alaska’s ‘powers that be’ converged on Wal-Mart and the National Park Service (NPS) when both reportedly snubbed Alaska salmon over a labeling issue. Both Governor Parnell and Senator Mark Begich sent letters to Wal-Mart blasting the ill-advised decision, and Senator Lisa Murkowski verbally (and very publicly) spanked the NPS for not followi...
The same warm summer weather that killed 1,000 King salmon two weeks ago in Blind Slough is also contributing to a larger than average presence of humpback whales in Frederick Sound. Barry Bracken, retired whale tour guide and marine biologist, said the sunlight warming the sound produces a large phytoplankton bloom last spring. “And that’s what started the chain reaction for the krill,” Bracken said. Krill feed on phytoplankton. Because the plankton population increased, so did krill numbers. T...
If a picture is worth a thousand words, get ready for millions of undersea images - brought to you by a handmade, high definition undersea camera. “Alaska Cam Sled is a towed imaging system that takes a lot of high resolution pictures of the bottom of the ocean,” said Gregg Rosenkranz, a state scallop biometrician based in Kodiak. Rosenkranz and his colleague Rick Shepherd built the cam sled, which lets them experience a live stream of the sea floor while onboard a research vessel. They hail it as a non-invasive way to observe and collect dat...
It might sound like a whopper of a fish story – but Alaska salmon is not good enough for Wal-Mart or the US National Park Service. The reason? Alaska’s wild caught salmon does not brandish a specific eco-label verifying that it is sustainably managed – as determined by two Outside groups: the London-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Alaska’s seafood industry recently opted out of high priced eco-endorsements from elsewhere, believing the State’s brand of fisheries oversight can stand on its ow...
The rules that govern our nation’s fisheries are being retooled so it’s reassuring that Congress isn’t traveling in uncharted seas. Over 80 percent of Alaska’s fish landings hail come from federally managed waters, and the Magnuson-(Ted) Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the primary law ruling US fisheries. The Act is undergoing reauthorization for the first time in seven years. First enacted in 1976, the MSA “Americanized” the fisheries by booting out foreign fleets to beyond 200 miles from our shores. It created the nation...
Alaska spends more than $20 million on fish feed each year for its 35 salmon hatcheries — feed that comes primarily from anchovies caught in South America. Meanwhile Alaska seafood processing companies produce over 200,000 tons of fishmeal each year — for customers in Asia. Last year 33 million fish - 20% of the total Alaska salmon harvest - originated in hatcheries; in some years the figure has topped 30 percent. At Prince William Sound, for example, 73% of the salmon catch originated in local hatcheries. The most costly part of any hat...
It’s back to the drawing board for halibut iTags that will soon tell us more about where the fish travels than ever before. The internal tags, which were deployed in 30 halibut two years ago, were the first to test Smart Phone geomagnetic advances to track the migrations of fish. The tags record magnetic field strength on three axes and have accelerometers and pitch and roll detectors, explained Tim Loher, a biologist with the International Pacific Halibut Commission. “Without being able to tell whether or not your tag is horizontal, you can...
A pod of 7 Orca whales, including a juvenile, hunted for salmon along a tide rip near Beacon Point last Sunday afternoon. The group later continued west along the Kupreanof shoreline. Humpback whale sightings also are increasing as the mammals migrate back to Frederick Sound and other parts of Southeast following their winter stay in the waters around Maui, Hawaii. Twelve humpbacks were sighted the same day....
Amidst the salmon fisheries starting up all across the state, several Alaska crab seasons also get underway each summer. In mid-June, the summer Dungeness crab fishery opens in the Panhandle, as does red king crab at Norton Sound. Those are followed in August by golden kings along the far flung Aleutian Islands, which might soon take the title as Alaska’s largest king crab fishery. Unlike other Bering Sea crab stocks, surveys on golden kings have been limited due to distance and high costs. The deep water stocks have sustained a fishery for 3...
Alaska Department of Health reminds residents that paralytic poisoning, or P-S-P, is an ever present danger in locally harvested shellfish-including clams, mussles, cockles and oysters. PSP can cause a tingling sensation in your lips and fingertips, followed by numbing of your arms and legs, and in some cases can lead to death. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should seek immediate medical care. Remember, PSP cannot be cooked or cleaned out of shellfish, but commercially grown shellfish is tested and considered safe. Lab results from the...
Salmon set net families were streaming out of Kodiak all week, heading to their summer sites to get ready for the June 9 season opener. Their departure wrapped up a busy week of Memorial Day festivities on “the rock,” including festivals, fleet blessings, a landslide on Cannery Row and visits by both of Alaska’s US Senators. I caught up with Sen. Lisa Murkowski over a beer at Kodiak Island Brewery; she spoke candidly on several hot button fisheries related topics. It’s well known that Murkowski and the rest of Alaska’s congressional delegatio...
It takes quite a crew to get an Alaska salmon from “boat to throat,” and everyone along the line gets a cut of the catch. How that “value chain” has paid out in the past few years shows some nice gains for Alaska fishermen and processors. “We often get asked what share the fisherman retains, and how much each segment of the supply chain gets for salmon. The answer depends on the species, and the product you are talking about, and what gear type,” said Andy Wink, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group in Juneau who compiled the report...
National Maritime Day on May 22 is a holiday created by Congress in 1933 to honor America’s sea-going industry. It marks the day when the steamship Savannah set sail from Georgia on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power. As celebrations are underway, another maritime benchmark will be set as the first full container of 18 tons of fresh salmon from Chile is offloaded from a cargo ship in California after an iceless month at sea. How can that be? By using fuel cell technology in a new way. A fuel cell is an electrochemical e...
Between 60 and 70 percent of Alaska’s seafood is exported to customers around the globe, and the strength of foreign currencies against the US dollar plays a big role in annual sales. Tracking by the Juneau-based McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute shows mid-year ups and downs for Alaska’s biggest seafood buyers. On the down side: The Japanese yen has taken a 20% drop versus the dollar this year – not good for Alaska seafood exporters. Japan is a leading buyer of salmon roe, pollock roe, surimi, sablefish (black cod),...
Coast Guard Commercial Fishing Vessel Examiners will be conducting voluntary dockside examinations from Noon May 16 – Noon May 19. Anyone interested in a Voluntary Dockside Examination sign-up at the Petersburg Harbormasters Office. Voluntary dockside examinations are free, take about an hour and help foster public awareness of fishing vessel safety, regulations and safety carriage requirements. Any commercial fisherman interested contact Scott Wilwert at (907) 957-0152....
It might still feel like winter but Alaska’s 2013 salmon season will officially get underway on May 16, when the first runs of reds and kings are scheduled to arrive at Copper River. The season’s first fish will attract the usual media hoopla – helicopters whisking salmon from the fishing grounds to awaiting planes, ready to fly them to eager restaurateurs and retailers in Seattle and other regions. New among the salmon groupies will be two Texas chefs who will fish for Copper River salmon themselves, then stop over at the Alaskan Brewing Compa...
NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service will hold a meeting on Mon., May 13, 6-7:30pm in the Petersburg Assembly Chambers about the Alaska Mammal Observer Program for drift gillnet permit holders in Southeast Alaska. Those who cannot attend in person may participate by phone. Call toll-free 855-212-0212. When prompted, dial the access code 956093278 followed by the # sign. The Alaska Marine Mammal Observer Program (AMMOP) will soon begin monitoring the level and nature of interactions between Southeast Alaska drift gillnet fishery and marine m...
Fishing industry stakeholders and federal managers in June will begin crafting a bycatch reduction plan for trawl groundfish fisheries in the Gulf. It will include some form of catch share plan, and as the main delivery port for more than $100 million worth of pollock, cod, flats and other fishes, Kodiak is closely guarding any giveaways. It’s similar to a chess game, said Duncan Fields, a lifelong Kodiak fisherman and a member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council charged with designing the new plan. “You have multiple moving pie...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Small Game Program is asking upland bird hunters to submit one wing and the tail of each grouse and ptarmigan they harvest in Southeast Alaska this spring. Samples can be placed in wing envelopes available free from local ADF&G offices or the samples can be dropped off in a paper bag. Hunters are asked to include information regarding the date and approximate harvest location along with each wing and tail sample submitted. By submitting a wing and tail from each harvested grouse and ptarmigan, hunters...
