Alaska Fisheries Report

  Alaska’s fishing industry was allocated $50 million in the CARES funding act, which is designed to help businesses suffering losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a report on who is eligible and what comes next. An American Dynasty factory trawler based out of Seattle is back in port—and in quarantine after 86 crew members tested positive for COVID-19. …

  A COVID-19 mystery in Valdez — A Peter Pan Seafoods worker tested positive for the virus, even though he had been in state for a month, completed a two-week quarantine and not left the city of Valdez. Officials aren’t sure how he got it. Also, Alaska’s fishing charters are suffering this summer, as travel restrictions and pandemic worry put …

  If it’s salmon season it must be summer, right? The commercial salmon season kicked off on Thursday in the Copper River district. The first fresh salmon out of Alaska is usually met with a lot of hoopla and salivating by restaurants in Seattle. This year, it’s doubtful someone would be willing to pay $80 or $90 per person for …

  The COVID-19 pandemic has slowly begun to spread into rural Alaska, and it’s forcing fishermen and processors to take a hard look at the summer fishing season. Three tribes in Bristol Bay have joined Dillingham in asking the governor to consider closing the fishery. Meanwhile processors have presented a plan to address local concerns about keeping small fishing communities, …

Like other industries in the U.S., Alaska’s commercial fishermen are taking a wallop from the COVID-19 pandemic. This week we look at some of the issues and concerns fishermen, processors, and fishing communities face as they navigate the ever-changing, never-before-travelled rough seas of rules and regulations. Let’s start in Togiak where processors are gearing up for the biggest herring fishery …

  The Alaska Legislature is working on the state’s budget which begins on July 1. No surprise that there are a lot of cuts planned. One thing on the chopping block is state funded PSP tests for commercial shellfish. Shellfish farmers and divers fear they will be put out of business if they are forced to pay for testing. We …

  Gulf of Alaska cod loses its sustainability certification. The loss of the blue sticker is not because of poor management. Rather it’s warmer waters which mean smaller fish and fewer young cod in the fishery. Warmer waters are directly related to most recent iteration of The Blob. Now biologists say The Blob may be subsiding. The general manager of …

  Alaska’s first and most lucrative herring fishery at Sitka Sound is not likely to open for the second year in a row, and for only the second time in the fishery’s nearly 45-year history. Small fish and a weak market are to blame. Meanwhile, farther north, the Norton Sound winter crab fishery opened last weekend, but nobody showed up …

  Gulf of Alaska Cod could soon lose its blue certified sustainable label, which has proven to be an incentive for consumers to purchase the fish. The reason’s got nothing to do with fishermen—blame it on climate change. Warming waters are depleting stocks and deplete stocks puts the fishery at risk. Also this week, the heart wrenching story of the …

  The Alaska Legislature is in session and working on the budget. Fisheries programs across the state are on the chopping block—this after last year’s major cuts to the commercial fisheries division. Kodiak’s Representative Louise Stutes hopes the legislature will fix a measure approved previously that requires some fishing boat owners to double register their vessels. The intent was to …