Fisheries

This week on The Alaska Fisheries Report with Terry Haines:  Theo Greenly’s extensive interview with Wesley Loy about the pollock TAC for KUCB, and Davis Hovey’s report on the end of the Kodiak Tanner crab season from KMXT.   Factory Trawlers like the F/T Alaska Ocean, pictured here in Dutch Harbor in 2023, harvest Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea …

The Southeast section of Kodiak’s Tanner crab fishery will close at 6 p.m. Monday evening, marking the end of this year’s commercial fishing season. Nearly 3.5 million pounds of Tanner crabs have been caught in the Kodiak District and along the Alaska Peninsula about a week after the 2024 fishery opened on Jan. 15 at noon. That is down from …

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries approved small changes for the local salmon set net and purse seine fleets at its meeting in Kodiak last week, January 9th – 12th, while opting to keep the status quo overall for the westside of the island’s management strategy. But as KMXT’s Davis Hovey reports, the growing divide between the two gear groups was on …

This week on The Alaska Fisheries Report with Terry Haines: At the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting in Kodiak compromises are crushed, but gear gets an update for set net salmon fishermen. Photo: Davis Hovey

An important spawning area for salmon outside of the mouths of Danger and Cold creeks on Afognak Island will be closed to subsistence fishing. The Board of Fisheries announced its decision to put up subsistence markers at the head of Danger Bay during their finfish meeting in Kodiak last week, January 9th – 12th. Proposal 58, brought forward by longtime …

For the first time in Alaska Board of Fisheries history, a portion of the finfish meeting in Kodiak last week, January 9th – 12th, was dedicated to traditional knowledge. As KMXT’s Davis Hovey reports, the discussion covered a variety of topics, including equitable fishing for rural Kodiak Island residents. Four people testified during the first-ever traditional knowledge report at Kodiak’s …

Kodiak’s Tanner crab season started Jan. 15 at noon.  The Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative, which represents the fleet, agreed to ex-vessel prices between $3.50 and $3.70 per pound with the island’s processors over the weekend, according to fishermen.  Several boats left the harbor on Sunday ahead of the season to prepare for the January 15 Tanner crab opener. (Brian Venua/KMXT) …

Updated Jan. 10, 2023.  Trident Seafoods will participate in Kodiak’s upcoming Tanner crab fishery, which starts Monday. That’s despite the company announcement last month that it will sell its Kodiak processing plant and that they would operate “a significantly scaled-back winter season.” At the time of Trident’s announcement, officials would not confirm which marine species the Kodiak facility would buy …

More than 5.5 million pounds of Pacific cod can be caught within state waters during this year’s A season in the Kodiak area. That’s over a million more than 2023’s harvest level.   According to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game in Kodiak, three boats have already registered for the fishery, one week after the season opened at the …

The Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley started the year by towing a fishing vessel in distress to Adak on Monday.  The crew of the Aleutian No. 1, a 127-foot boat, reported to Watchstanders on Dec. 28 that its propeller was stuck after getting caught on some fishing gear. That left the vessel adrift in the middle of the Bering Sea.  …