The Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is seeking letters of intent through Sept. 26 for 2017 research projects seeking a portion of the $500,000 available to fund those studies.
The PCCRC was established in 2000 to improve knowledge about the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea through research and education, with a focus on commercial fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
Through the end of 2014, the PCCRC put over $20 million into marine research and education at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
The center provides grants to faculty and research stipends to graduate students for research on pollock, other groundfish, fisheries for these species, and on marine mammals, plus funds for marine education, technical training, and equipment, and for research in the area of marine resource economics.
Details on how to apply for funds and other relevant information on letters of intent for projects can be found online at http://www.npfmc.org/wp-content/PDFdocuments/MISC/PCCRC%202017%20request%20for%20LOI.pdf
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Seafood Harvesters Seek New Executive
A Washington, DC-based non-profit whose mantra is ensuring a plentiful and lasting seafood harvest for America is looking for a new executive director.
Seafood Harvesters of America put the word out this week, asking interested parties with plenty of background in the fisheries industry to read the job description at www.seafoodharvesters.org/harvesters-recruit-for-new-executive-director/.
The application deadline is Sept. 8. Anyone interested is asked to send a cover letter and resume to Recruitment@AssociationOptions.com.
The organization is hoping to attract candidates very well informed about the seafood industry who also have skills in communications, non-profit management, government relations and sustainable seafood.
Current Harvester board members include two with plenty of experience in Alaska’s commercial fisheries, Buck Laukitis of Homer and Brent Paine of Seattle. Laukitis is a veteran harvester who also serves on the board of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation. Paine has served as the executive director of United Catcher Boats since that organization was formed in 1994.
Seafood Harvesters of America put the word out this week, asking interested parties with plenty of background in the fisheries industry to read the job description at www.seafoodharvesters.org/harvesters-recruit-for-new-executive-director/.
The application deadline is Sept. 8. Anyone interested is asked to send a cover letter and resume to Recruitment@AssociationOptions.com.
The organization is hoping to attract candidates very well informed about the seafood industry who also have skills in communications, non-profit management, government relations and sustainable seafood.
Current Harvester board members include two with plenty of experience in Alaska’s commercial fisheries, Buck Laukitis of Homer and Brent Paine of Seattle. Laukitis is a veteran harvester who also serves on the board of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation. Paine has served as the executive director of United Catcher Boats since that organization was formed in 1994.
Alaska Board of Fisheries Proposals Online
A total of 276 proposals up for consideration by the Alaska Board of Fisheries during its 2016-2017 meeting cycle are now online in the state board’s proposal book at http://www.boardoffisheries.adfg.alaska.gov.
They may be downloaded individually, or in sections or for entire meetings from that website. A total of 46 proposals are online for the Lower Cook Inlet finish meeting, to be held Nov. 30 through Dec. 3 at the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor’s Center in Homer, including amendments to the Cook Inlet sablefish management plan and Cook Inlet rockfish management plan, both from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Another 23 proposals will be up for discussion when the board meets at the Kodiak Convention Center Jan. 10 through Jan. 13 on Kodiak finfish issues, including rockfish, Pacific cod and salmon management plans.
At the Upper Cook Inlet finfish meeting in Anchorage Feb. 23 through March 8, the board will consider 170 proposals, including some related to the Central District drift gillnet fishery management plan, Kasilof River salmon management plan, and Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon management plan.
The last 34 proposals will be taken up by the board during its meeting on statewide king and tanner crab and supplemental issues, except Southeast Alaska and Yakutat, from March 20 through March 24 in Anchorage. These include issues such as the fishing seasons for the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, and the shellfish onboard observer program.
They may be downloaded individually, or in sections or for entire meetings from that website. A total of 46 proposals are online for the Lower Cook Inlet finish meeting, to be held Nov. 30 through Dec. 3 at the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor’s Center in Homer, including amendments to the Cook Inlet sablefish management plan and Cook Inlet rockfish management plan, both from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Another 23 proposals will be up for discussion when the board meets at the Kodiak Convention Center Jan. 10 through Jan. 13 on Kodiak finfish issues, including rockfish, Pacific cod and salmon management plans.
At the Upper Cook Inlet finfish meeting in Anchorage Feb. 23 through March 8, the board will consider 170 proposals, including some related to the Central District drift gillnet fishery management plan, Kasilof River salmon management plan, and Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon management plan.
The last 34 proposals will be taken up by the board during its meeting on statewide king and tanner crab and supplemental issues, except Southeast Alaska and Yakutat, from March 20 through March 24 in Anchorage. These include issues such as the fishing seasons for the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, and the shellfish onboard observer program.
Alaska’s Pink Salmon Numbers Way Down
Alaska salmon harvests reached the 99 million fish mark through Aug. 16, with the preliminary harvest of 52 million sockeyes exceeding a forecast of 47.7 million reds, while the 33 million pinks caught was far below the forecast of 90 million humpies.
The humpies, said a spokesman for one major processor, are big, but the numbers are way down. Even for an even numbered year, when the harvest of pink salmon traditionally falls far below odd numbered year harvests, this harvest is looking to be one of the worst humpy harvests in years.
Just what is behind the low return of pink salmon, nobody is sure, but given the income they contribute to paying the overhead in processing plants, the low catch is raising some concerns.
A year ago, the harvest of pink salmon in Alaska reached 190.5 million fish, and the projection for 2016 was 90.1 million, this being an even year, to bring the projected total statewide commercial salmon harvest to 161 million fish.
In 2014, the last even year, pink salmon harvests reached 95.8 million fish, on the heels of the record pink salmon harvest of 219 million humpies in 2013 was worth $277 million.
There are surprises every year in Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, and among the pleasant ones this year were the late, but then steady harvest of sockeyes in Bristol Bay. The Chinook salmon projection for this year was 99,000 kings in areas outside of Southeast, but to date the 337,000 kings caught have included 250,000 from Southeast, leaving the overall total some 12,000 short of the forecast.
The coho salmon projected harvest this year is 4.4 million silvers, and the chum projection is for 18.7 million fish. Those fisheries are now underway, with preliminary harvests of 1.9 million and 11.7 million fish respectively.
A harvest to date report released this week by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute showed that harvests of all five salmon species were lingering below the harvest pace of a year ago, sockeyes by 3 percent, kings by 42 percent, cohos by 20 percent, and chums by 25 percent, while humpy harvests were 63 percent behind the last even year, 2014.
The humpies, said a spokesman for one major processor, are big, but the numbers are way down. Even for an even numbered year, when the harvest of pink salmon traditionally falls far below odd numbered year harvests, this harvest is looking to be one of the worst humpy harvests in years.
Just what is behind the low return of pink salmon, nobody is sure, but given the income they contribute to paying the overhead in processing plants, the low catch is raising some concerns.
A year ago, the harvest of pink salmon in Alaska reached 190.5 million fish, and the projection for 2016 was 90.1 million, this being an even year, to bring the projected total statewide commercial salmon harvest to 161 million fish.
In 2014, the last even year, pink salmon harvests reached 95.8 million fish, on the heels of the record pink salmon harvest of 219 million humpies in 2013 was worth $277 million.
There are surprises every year in Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, and among the pleasant ones this year were the late, but then steady harvest of sockeyes in Bristol Bay. The Chinook salmon projection for this year was 99,000 kings in areas outside of Southeast, but to date the 337,000 kings caught have included 250,000 from Southeast, leaving the overall total some 12,000 short of the forecast.
The coho salmon projected harvest this year is 4.4 million silvers, and the chum projection is for 18.7 million fish. Those fisheries are now underway, with preliminary harvests of 1.9 million and 11.7 million fish respectively.
A harvest to date report released this week by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute showed that harvests of all five salmon species were lingering below the harvest pace of a year ago, sockeyes by 3 percent, kings by 42 percent, cohos by 20 percent, and chums by 25 percent, while humpy harvests were 63 percent behind the last even year, 2014.
Feds Still Seeking Comment on Cook Inlet Lease
Officials with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are seeking public comment through Sept. 6 on a proposed 1.7 million acre oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
BOEM plans to have its final environmental impact statement completed by early 2017 and the sale, if held, would be in June 2017.
BOEM announced a 45-day comment period back on July 22, and the conservation organization Cook Inletkeeper is now asking BOEM to extend that comment period on Lease Sale 244 for an additional 60 days.
Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, in Homer, Alaska, told BOEM that by opening the comment period in the middle of Cook Inlet’s commercial, sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries many harvesters would not have enough time to read, digest and submit comments on the draft environmental impact statement released on July 22.
Mark Storzer, regional supervisor at BOEM’s Office of Environment, said the oil and gas industry’s level of interest in the sale was hard to tell at this time.
Industry spokesman Carl Portman, deputy director of the Resource Development Council, and a supporter of the lease sale, said that while industry investment is slowed due to low prices, no one can accurately predict what the price of oil and gas will be when the lease sale occurs. Portman said if there is no interest, the government doesn’t have to hold the sale. But BOEM should let market dynamics decide the fate of that lease sale, he said.
Portman was one of several people who testified at BOEM’s hearing in Anchorage earlier this week. BOEM has scheduled hearings at Homer today and at Kenai on Aug. 18 to gather more public comment.
Shavelson said that Cook Inletkeeper would present testimony at the Homer hearing.
He noted that back in 2009 Congress charged BOEM with promoting renewable energy development in federal waters and said BOEM should pursue renewable energy programs for Alaska rather then spending money on fossil fuel leasing.
BOEM announced a 45-day comment period back on July 22, and the conservation organization Cook Inletkeeper is now asking BOEM to extend that comment period on Lease Sale 244 for an additional 60 days.
Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, in Homer, Alaska, told BOEM that by opening the comment period in the middle of Cook Inlet’s commercial, sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries many harvesters would not have enough time to read, digest and submit comments on the draft environmental impact statement released on July 22.
Mark Storzer, regional supervisor at BOEM’s Office of Environment, said the oil and gas industry’s level of interest in the sale was hard to tell at this time.
Industry spokesman Carl Portman, deputy director of the Resource Development Council, and a supporter of the lease sale, said that while industry investment is slowed due to low prices, no one can accurately predict what the price of oil and gas will be when the lease sale occurs. Portman said if there is no interest, the government doesn’t have to hold the sale. But BOEM should let market dynamics decide the fate of that lease sale, he said.
Portman was one of several people who testified at BOEM’s hearing in Anchorage earlier this week. BOEM has scheduled hearings at Homer today and at Kenai on Aug. 18 to gather more public comment.
Shavelson said that Cook Inletkeeper would present testimony at the Homer hearing.
He noted that back in 2009 Congress charged BOEM with promoting renewable energy development in federal waters and said BOEM should pursue renewable energy programs for Alaska rather then spending money on fossil fuel leasing.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Salmonfest Brings Music, Education
Rain clouds pouring down on Salmonfest on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula failed to dampen the spirits of some 6,500 participants, who turned out for three days of fish, love and music.
In rubber boots, sandals and bare feet, they danced to the music of Indigo girls, Dead Winter Carpenters, Trampled by Turtles and dozens of other musicians, and learned from conservation groups on hand for the event, Aug. 5, 6 and 7th, about the importance of protecting fisheries environment in Alaska.
The effort to educate the public on how critical clean habitat is to fish was led by the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, with support from Cook Inletkeeper, who arranged for Maria Finn, author of “The Whole Fish,” to give workshops on how to utilize the whole salmon.
StandforSalmon.org had leaflets talking about the importance of Cook Inlet salmon to the economy of the Kenai Peninsula, noting that while the price of a barrel of oil is about $30, the price of a single king salmon is $73. The group warned against permitting resource projects that fail to protect salmon habitat.
A spokeswoman for the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova offered information on how to join in a letter writing campaign urging the US Navy to move the location of its Northern Edge military training exercise, set for 2017 in Prince William Sound.
Others spoke about the potential adverse impact of a proposed hydropower project in the Susitna River on salmon habitat and the need to protect salmon runs in Bristol Bay from mining and salmon runs in Southeast Alaska from the impact of logging.
Salmonfest, which began six years ago as Salmonstock, was organized to educate the public about the potential adverse impact of the proposed Pebble mine at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. It has since attracted thousands of visitors to hear nationally known bands, and learn about fish habitat issues in a family friendly atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of Woodstock.
The effort to educate the public on how critical clean habitat is to fish was led by the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, with support from Cook Inletkeeper, who arranged for Maria Finn, author of “The Whole Fish,” to give workshops on how to utilize the whole salmon.
StandforSalmon.org had leaflets talking about the importance of Cook Inlet salmon to the economy of the Kenai Peninsula, noting that while the price of a barrel of oil is about $30, the price of a single king salmon is $73. The group warned against permitting resource projects that fail to protect salmon habitat.
A spokeswoman for the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova offered information on how to join in a letter writing campaign urging the US Navy to move the location of its Northern Edge military training exercise, set for 2017 in Prince William Sound.
Others spoke about the potential adverse impact of a proposed hydropower project in the Susitna River on salmon habitat and the need to protect salmon runs in Bristol Bay from mining and salmon runs in Southeast Alaska from the impact of logging.
Salmonfest, which began six years ago as Salmonstock, was organized to educate the public about the potential adverse impact of the proposed Pebble mine at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. It has since attracted thousands of visitors to hear nationally known bands, and learn about fish habitat issues in a family friendly atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of Woodstock.
Wild Salmon Catch Hits 93 Million, Humpies Slow
Alaska’s preliminary wild salmon forecast, compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has reached 93 million fish, but the humpy harvest, projected to be below average this year, is dragging.
Through Aug. 9, the total preliminary catch added up to 51.6 million sockeyes, 28.4 million humpies, 11 million chums, 1.6 million cohos, and 333,000 kings.
Some 12 million pink salmon have been harvested in Southeast Alaska, out of a forecast of 34 million humpies.
ADF&G noted in a discussion paper that their forecast of 34 million pinks was below the recent 10-year average harvest of 38 million pink salmon, saying that perhaps the largest potential source of uncertainty are anomalously warm sea surface temperatures that have persisted throughout the Gulf of Alaska since fall 2013.
Pink salmon that went to sea in 2014 returned in numbers well below expectation in 2015, particularly in the southern half of the region, and pink salmon that went to sea in 2015, and were set to return in 2016, experienced similar above-average sea surface temperatures, biologists said.
There were also widespread reports of more southern species in the eastern Gulf of Alaska in 2015, suggesting pink salmon could experience more competition or predation than normal. Jeremy Botz, gillnet area management biologist for ADF&G in Cordova, said that hatchery returns were looking weak so far, and that there appeared to be weak pink salmon returns across the Gulf. The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Association was busy conducting cost recovery at three hatcheries, with management priorities to meet cost recovery and brood stock needs.
Botz said that water temperatures had been above average for most of the summer. On the Yukon River, meanwhile, in the wake of a very healthy summer chum salmon run, the fall run of chums appeared to be coming in stronger than forecast.
Yukon River fall season manager Jeff Estensen in Fairbanks said so far the fall chum run was looking good, with a strong pulse at the start of the fall season, and biologists were anticipating the run would come in at or above the forecast.
Managers on the Yukon, Estensen noted, are tasked with spreading out the harvest over the entire run, to provide enough opportunity for commercial harvesters and enough fish upriver for subsistence users.
Other preliminary commercial salmon harvest totals include catches of 39 million fish in Bristol Bay, 3.4 million fish in Cook Inlet, 9.4 million fish in the Alaska Peninsula, 1.6 million fish at Chignik and 4.3 million fish at Kodiak.
Through Aug. 9, the total preliminary catch added up to 51.6 million sockeyes, 28.4 million humpies, 11 million chums, 1.6 million cohos, and 333,000 kings.
Some 12 million pink salmon have been harvested in Southeast Alaska, out of a forecast of 34 million humpies.
ADF&G noted in a discussion paper that their forecast of 34 million pinks was below the recent 10-year average harvest of 38 million pink salmon, saying that perhaps the largest potential source of uncertainty are anomalously warm sea surface temperatures that have persisted throughout the Gulf of Alaska since fall 2013.
Pink salmon that went to sea in 2014 returned in numbers well below expectation in 2015, particularly in the southern half of the region, and pink salmon that went to sea in 2015, and were set to return in 2016, experienced similar above-average sea surface temperatures, biologists said.
There were also widespread reports of more southern species in the eastern Gulf of Alaska in 2015, suggesting pink salmon could experience more competition or predation than normal. Jeremy Botz, gillnet area management biologist for ADF&G in Cordova, said that hatchery returns were looking weak so far, and that there appeared to be weak pink salmon returns across the Gulf. The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Association was busy conducting cost recovery at three hatcheries, with management priorities to meet cost recovery and brood stock needs.
Botz said that water temperatures had been above average for most of the summer. On the Yukon River, meanwhile, in the wake of a very healthy summer chum salmon run, the fall run of chums appeared to be coming in stronger than forecast.
Yukon River fall season manager Jeff Estensen in Fairbanks said so far the fall chum run was looking good, with a strong pulse at the start of the fall season, and biologists were anticipating the run would come in at or above the forecast.
Managers on the Yukon, Estensen noted, are tasked with spreading out the harvest over the entire run, to provide enough opportunity for commercial harvesters and enough fish upriver for subsistence users.
Other preliminary commercial salmon harvest totals include catches of 39 million fish in Bristol Bay, 3.4 million fish in Cook Inlet, 9.4 million fish in the Alaska Peninsula, 1.6 million fish at Chignik and 4.3 million fish at Kodiak.
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