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King Salmon: The Blind Slough/Wrangell Narrows Terminal Hatchery Fishery has been ongoing since May 15th with catches improving each day and peaking in a couple weeks. The majority of marine waters in the Petersburg / Wrangell area are open to king salmon retention by June 15. The exception to that are waters adjacent to the Stikine River which will not open until July 15. King salmon regulations have changed since last year. We have a separate set of regulations for the Blind Slough / Wrangell Narrows Terminal Harvest Area, Anita Bay, Gunnuk...
After nearly 40 years in aquaculture – 25 of those years managing Crystal Lake Hatchery – Loren Thompson is passing the torch to Cody Peterson, and as the hatchery transitions leadership a multimillion dollar renovation is also taking place. "It's been a good occupation and I'll miss it," Thompson reflects on his career. "It's provided a very unique way of life for me and my family ... the 10 years remote with our kids ... so many things we wouldn't have done or seen if we'd gone another rou...
After a poor showing last year, Alaska’s statewide commercial salmon harvest appears poised for a rebound, according to projections by state biologists. This year’s total salmon harvest is expected to be more than twice as big as last year’s total, thanks primarily to stronger returns of pink salmon, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual statewide run forecast and commercial harvest projection. The report was released this week. The department’s projected 2025 total harvest is 214.6 million fish, above the 2000-2023... Full story
On April 15 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, announced the sport fishing regulations for Alaska hatchery-produced king salmon in areas near Petersburg and Wrangell. Anita Bay Terminal Harvest Area Described as the waters of Anita Bay south and west of a line from Anita Point to 56° 14.26’ N. lat., 132° 23.92’ W. long. The following regulations will be in effect Sunday, June 1 through Saturday, June 14, 2025: Bag and possession limit (all anglers) of one king salmon greater than 28 inches in length; Nonre...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is announcing the 2025 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in marine waters of Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday, April 3, 2025, through 11:59 p.m. Thursday, April 30, 2026. The regulations are: Alaska Resident The resident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length; From October 1 through March 31, a resident sport fish angler may use two rods when fishing for king...
SITKA — Seiners scooped up sets of maturing herring on Saturday and Sunday as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game opened this year’s commercial sac roe herring fishery in waters off the east shore of Kruzof Island from Shoals Point north to Mountain Point, and extending east to 135 degrees 32 minutes west longitude. Fishing efforts shifted north today. At 9:45 a.m., ADF&G announced that the fishery would open at 10:15 a.m. in Hayward Strait and the southern portion of Krestof Sound. The Sitka Sound guideline harvest limit is 36,720 tons of...
While meeting in Ketchikan in late January and early February, members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries will hear 11 proposals that request changes to state regulations for the commercial dive harvest fisheries that primarily target sea cucumbers, geoduck clams and sea urchins across Southeast Alaska. All 11 proposals come from commercial dive fishermen, many of whom are concerned that the dive fisheries are faltering as sea otters are preying on species like geoduck and sea urchins. The state in 1965 released 412 sea otters on outer coast of...
A proposal coming before the Board of Fish in January, if adopted, would make it almost impossible under the current management plan to ever reopen the Southeast Alaska commercial red king crab fishery. Proposal 242 - put forward by Territorial Sportsmen, Inc of Juneau - seeks to allocate 100% of the red king crab available for harvest in Section 11-A to the personal use fishery. Section 11-A accounts for around a quarter of all the mature red king crab biomass available in Southeast Alaska acco...
Next season's Tanner crab biomass numbers in Southeast Alaska are down, but the area's golden king crab numbers continue to climb. The two commercial fisheries open on the same day – Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 – and that is by design. "Tanner seems to fluctuate across the region ... on any given year," Adam Messmer, Regional Shellfish Biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game explained the Pilot. "Permit holders with dual permits GKC/Tanner will focus on one species while it is up and provide...
Proposal 243 — which was developed over several BOF cycles through collaboration between ADF&G and permit holders — asks for major changes to the Southeast Alaska Red King Crab Management Plan. The 200,000-pound GHL threshold currently required before the commercial red crab fishery can be opened is an economic threshold, ADF&G Regional Shellfish Biologist Adam Messmer told the Pilot. “Processors said they couldn’t make any money if we fished under that amount,” said Messmer, and the level “was set years ago when red king crab was not worth a...
Two major Alaskan seafood processors have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging wage violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBI Seafoods and Ocean Beauty Seafoods were ordered to pay a total of $2.1 million as part of a settlement approved last week by Judge Marsha J. Pechman in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The case, brought by former employees Marija and Dusan Paunovic on behalf of processing facility workers, accused the companies of delaying wage payments and underpaying workers during...
The five men lost in the sinking of a commercial fishing boat near Hoonah early Sunday had just delivered a load in Juneau and were making a last run before the fishing season ended. The Sitka-based Wind Walker was transiting out to North Pacific fishing grounds when the boat capsized about 25 miles southwest of Juneau, according to several fishing industry representatives. The National Weather Service had forecast gale-force winds in the area, as well as freezing spray and snow. The Coast...
Deer season in Southeast Alaska is in full swing with hunters reporting high success rates. However, hunters are cautioned about the temptation to be too successful. Hunters should think twice about harvesting more than one deer at a time or caching a deer in the field to continue hunting. This season a Sitka hunter was fatally mauled by a brown bear while retrieving part of a deer he had harvested the previous day. Other hunters this season have reported caching deer so they could continue hunting, only to return and find their harvest...
State and federal fisheries managers predict that Southeast Alaska fishermen will harvest about 29 million pink salmon in 2025, making for an “average” harvest based on catch data going back to 1960. The prediction comes from a joint National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries/Alaska Department of Fish and Game 2025 Southeast Alaska Pink Salmon Harvest Forecast that ADF&G released last Tuesday. NOAA and ADF&G forecast that throughout the 2025 commercial salmon season, seine, gillnet and troll fishermen across Southeast Alaska wil...
State officials and industry leaders trying to rescue the ailing Alaska seafood industry are facing daunting challenges, recently released numbers show. The industry lost $1.8 billion last year, the result of low prices, closed harvests and other problems, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Direct employment of harvesters last year fell by 8% to the lowest level since 2001, when counts of harvesting jobs began, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development said. The monthly average for... Full story
A variety of market forces combined with fishery collapses occurring in a rapidly changing environment caused Alaska’s seafood industry to lose $1.8 billion from 2022 to 2023, a new federal report said. The array of economic and environmental challenges has devastated one of Alaska’s main industries, said the report, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the losses extend beyond economics, casting doubt on prospects for the future, the report said. “For many Alaskans the decline of their seafood industry affec... Full story
Hunters harvested 131 moose this season, which according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was the third highest harvest on record for this area. According to Fish and Game, 45 of the moose were checked in at the Petersburg ADF&G office, 50 were reported to the Wrangell representative and 22 were reported to the Kake representative. The rest were checked in at other ADF&G offices throughout the region. Among the 131 total moose taken this year, 120 were legal harvests and the remaining 1...
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) officials hear that processors have mostly cleared out their overflowing inventories of Alaska salmon from the 2022 and 2023 seasons, but the problem remains that Americans don’t buy enough seafood to sustain consistently profitable sales, particularly in years of strong salmon runs. And while last year’s problem was an oversupplied market, which pushed prices paid to fishermen to as low as 20 cents a pound for pink and chum salmon, this year’s harvest may come up short of a robust supply, Greg Smith...
A two-hour debate on Alaska fisheries issues turned contentious in its final moments as Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich criticized incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola over an ad stating that a Begich victory would mean “our fish are gone.” The exchange was the lone heated issue between the two frontrunners in Alaska’s U.S. House election, which will decide one of only a few tossup races in the 435-seat House of Representatives. With the House closely divided between Republicans and Democrats, the winner of Alaska’s race is like... Full story
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this month that it finished revamping its scientific documentation for state-managed salmon fisheries in Southeast Alaska after a U.S. District Court judge ruled in May of 2023 that the 2019 authorization that NOAA created for the regional salmon fisheries did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act process, nor the Endangered Species Act. NOAA’s new documentation responds to a 2020 lawsuit by the Seattle-based nonprofit Wild Fish Conservancy. WFC sued federal f...
Halfway through the RM038 moose hunt, the harvest numbers show 64 moose harvested in the management area so far, six of them illegally. ADF&G managers describe the number as approximately consistent with this point in the season last year. Last year's total harvest was an all-time high at 141 moose. With 54 of them taken on Kupreanof Island. Managers expect the rate of harvest to tick up somewhat as the rut, or peak mating season, is reportedly beginning. Rutting bulls are noticeably more...
The commercial dive fishery for sea cucumbers will kick off across Southeast Alaska on Monday, Oct. 7, and divers this season can harvest up to 1.76 million pounds of sea cucumbers across the region, up from last season's "guideline harvest level" of 1.67 million pounds, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Aug. 28. Commercial sea cucumber fishery openings will be announced on a weekly basis with different fishery areas open during different time windows until each individual area's specific guidelines harvest level has been...
Federal managers shut down a major Alaska fishery Wednesday after two Kodiak-based boats targeting whitefish caught some 2,000 king salmon — an unintentional harvest that drew near-instant condemnation from advocates who want better protections for the struggling species. The Kodiak-based trawl fleet has caught just over one-fourth of its seasonal quota of pollock — a whitefish that’s typically processed into items like fish sticks, fish pies and surimi, the paste used to make fake crab. But about 20 boats will now be forced to end their season...
A handful of Alaska seaweed farmers and oyster growers hung up their bibs this week to mingle with droves of professors, tech industry representatives, state and federal government staff, bankers and consultants who converged in Ketchikan's Ted Ferry Civic Center for the third-ever international Seagriculture USA conference, the first such conference in Alaska. All eyes of the 190-some conference participants were on the promise of developing a profitable seaweed industry in Southeast Alaska, with people traveling to Ketchikan from California,...
One of the original investors in a troubled Alaska seafood company has narrowly outbid competitor Silver Bay Seafoods in an auction for the firm’s assets — including a major processing plant in the Alaska Peninsula village of King Cove. Rodger May, an entrepreneur and fish trader, bid $37.3 million for the assets of Peter Pan Seafood, including two other processing plants — one in the Bristol Bay hub town of Dillingham and another in a remote part of the Alaska Peninsula called Port Moller. May’s bid was $257,000 higher than the bid offered... Full story
