Three Plead Guilty to Trawling in Closed Waters

Operators of three commercial trawl vessels who fished within closed waters in the Aleutian Islands in February have pled guilty to charges, Alaska State Troopers reported on Sept. 3.

Daniel Skauge, Oregon, operator of the Katie Ann; David Willmore of Washington, operator of the Muir Milach; and Michael Murdock, also of Washington, operator of the Aleutian Challenger, pled guilty during a hearing conducted by Assistant Attorney General Arne Soldwedel with the Office of Special Prosecutions.

Skauge pled guilty to three counts of commercial fishing in closed waters, was fined $6,000 and forfeited 6,989 pounds of Pacific cod. Murdock pled guilty to one count of commercial fishing in closed waters, was fined $3,000 and forfeited 138,766.61 pounds of Pacific cod. Willmore pled guilty to one count of commercial fishing in closed waters, was fined $3,000 and forfeited 248,035.37 pounds of Pacific cod.

State troopers said the total forfeiture to the state was 393,801.37 pounds of Pacific cod, representing an approximate value of $106,326.37.

The case was first reported to Alaska Wildlife Troopers at Dutch Harbor on Feb. 24, and referred to the wildlife investigation unit in Anchorage.

Investigation revealed that the three vessels made multiple tows with their trawls through state waters in violation of state harvest regulations, troopers said. 

A non-pelagic trawl used to harvest Pacific cod during the state waters “A” season may not be more than 60 feet in overall length.

The Katie Ann, at 296 feet, the Muir Milach, at 100 feet, and the Aleutian Challenger, at 88 feet, all exceeded that limit.

President Visits Alaska, Talks With Fishermen

There is tremendous excitement in the Bristol Bay fishing community of Dillingham today as residents brace for the arrival of President Barack Obama.

Among scheduled events for his visit are private meetings with fishermen.

It’s one of four stops in Alaska on the president’s historic three-day visit to the state.

On Aug. 31 the president delivered a major speech on climate change before the GLACIER – Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience – in Anchorage. He warned that if nothing is done, “temperatures in Alaska are projected to rise between 6 and 12 degrees by the end of the century, triggering more melting, more fires, more thawing of the permafrost.”

Obama called for sweeping collective action on climate change, which has already begun to have some impact on fisheries.

The president’s visit to Dillingham is a Bristol Bay and Alaska event, said Norm Van Vactor, of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. “Everybody is just pumped. We are putting our best foot forward.” Residents are prepared to offer President Obama tastes of a wide range of the best of their wild Alaska sockeye salmon, from traditional to modern and everything in between, Van Vactor said.

The welcome mat is already out in force, with signs including opposition to the proposed Pebble mine near the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. Former Republican state senate President Rick Halford, an outspoken opponent of the Pebble mine, has been flying folks from the Obama contingent in town for the past few days around on sight seeing tours, and white House aides have been guests of local folks who invited them for home cooked dinners.

Kim Williams, executive director of Nunamta Aulukestai, Caretakers of our Land, in Dillingham, said she planned to thank Obama for protecting Bristol Bay from offshore drilling. But Williams, herself a commercial harvester, said she will tell Obama his help is needed in protecting the region’s rivers and streams from mining.

Williams is among many residents preparing a gourmet feast of many varieties of salmon and other wild Alaska seafood for the president to sample, from smoked salmon to fillets of fish, salmon dips and agutak – the Eskimo ice cream that includes wild salmon and other fish among its ingredients. “We’re just giving him a little of the flavor of Bristol Bay,” Williams said.

Alaska Salmon Harvest Tops 248 Million Fish

Commercial harvests of wild Alaska salmon grew to an estimated 248,645,000 fish through September 2, including upwards of 178 million pink salmon – the third highest harvest on record. Chinook harvests of 503,000 fish also were far and above the statewide forecast of 54,000 kings.

Harvesters have also delivered to processors a total of nearly 53 million sockeyes, more than 14 million chum and 2.6 million silver salmon, according to the latest 2015 preliminary commercial salmon harvest data compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Chum harvests continue and the silver season isn’t yet in full swing, and many are waiting to see what happens with the roe, frozen and canned markets for the humpies. “If processors in Alaska froze more and canned a little less, that might work out well this year,” said Andy Wink, senior seafood analyst for the McDowell Group, a research and analysis firm in Juneau.

Markets currently for pink roe are not big enough to handle all that roe, which has been a really important market for the Alaska salmon industry for the last few years, and now with the Russian embargo on food imports from Western nations and the change in currency values, a lot has changed, Wink said.

In some years the wholesale value of roe can be more than 40 percent of the fish, but the Japanese market is just not going to absorb that much more of the pink roe, at least at the market price that sales in Russia did, and the value of the yen is weaker too, he said.

Frozen headed and gutted pink salmon can be made into several product forms, but if you are not getting the value you were getting from roe, there is no other product form to put it into, which explains a lot of the declining exvessel prices seen for pink salmon, he said.

But all things considered, said Wink, the frozen and canned markets are in decent shape. Given how much pink salmon was caught this year and how much was expected to be caught, there is a chance we could come out stable in the canned market, he said.

Transboundary Meetings Called ‘Productive First Step’

Commercial fish harvesters say meetings between Alaskan and British Columbia officials are a productive first step in resolving concerns over mining near transboundary rivers critical to wild salmon.

“While cross-border cooperation is essential for protecting fisheries, it involves more than provincial and state agreements regarding the sharing of data and perspectives,” said Dale Kelley, executive director of the Alaska Trollers Association. “Fishermen want commitments regarding the watersheds that impact our fisheries to be backed up by the full force of the US Government and Crown because that offers the greatest change that they will be binding and upheld over time.”

Kelley and the environmental groups Salmon Beyond Borders and Rivers Without Borders say that British Columbia’s aggressive program of mine development in the transboundary region bordering on Southeast Alaska includes projects that threaten clean water, wild salmon, tourism, indigenous communities and Alaska’s unique way of life.

Thousands of Alaskans have asked that the International Joint Commission, created under the Boundary Waters Treaty, examine potential risks to Alaska posed by mining development in British Columbia.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott invited BC Minister of Energy and Mines William Bennett to come to Southeast Alaska in late August to meet with people whose lifestyle depends on healthy salmon production in those rivers flowing from Canada into Southeast Alaska.

Both sides, said Mallott, are looking to build on existing collaboration whereby members of Alaska’s large mine review team participate in the environmental assessment and permitting processes relating to the province’s authorization of development of transboundary mines.

Mallott said they would move forward on several fronts, collaborating on a draft memorandum of understanding, and also exploring federal engagement from Ottawa and the US State Department.

Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders said he felt progress had been made in demonstrating Alaskans’ concerns, but that his organization stands firm for the need of an international solution under the Boundary Waters Treaty.

Aleutian Islands Ruling Favors NMFS

A US District Court in Anchorage has come down on the side of the National Marine Fisheries Service in litigation in which Oceana and Greenpeace challenged expanded commercial fishing in the Aleutian Islands.

US District Court Judge Timothy Burgess said the plaintiffs failed to meet their burden to show that either the 2014 biological opinion or the final environmental impact statement is arbitrary and capricious.

Burgess denied their motion for summary judgment.

The location of the fisheries includes an area of critical habitat for the endangered western Distinct Population segment of Steller sea lions. Plaintiffs argued that actions by NMFS violated the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. Defendant-intervenors Alaska Seafood Cooperative, the Adak Community Development Corp., the Aleut Corp., and the Groundfish Forum said as participants in the federal groundfish fishery they stood to suffer economic and other losses as a result of fishery restrictions.

NMFS officials in Juneau said they welcomed the court’s ruling, “which clears the path for NMFS to continue fishery management measures in the Aleutian Islands which protect the endangered Western Steller sea lions, while minimizing economic losses to the fishing industry.”

Judge Burgess found that NMFS had complied with its legal obligations under all applicable laws and granted summary judgment in our favor, NMFS officials said.

Mike Levine, Pacific senior counsel for Oceana, said the plaintiffs are disappointed by the decision.

“This court decision does not alter the fact that we can and must find a more sustainable way to take fish from the ocean,” Levine said. “Better management to address the rapid and ongoing loss of endangered Steller sea lions in the Aleutian Islands is one step we can take in that direction.”