Bristol Bay Sees 2 Billionth Salmon

Gary Isaksen, of Lake Stevens, Washington, has claimed the honor of harvesting the 2 billionth salmon caught commercially in the Bristol Bay fishery.

Isaksen owns and operates the F/V Heidi of Norway, and is a veteran of more than four decades as a commercial fisherman in the Bay. He decided to answer the call on July 6 when a reporter on Alaska public radio KDLG in Dillingham said the station was looking for someone to deliver the 2 billionth salmon.

So Isaksen delivered a 5.5-pound sockeye salmon to Casey McManus, captain and owner of the F/V Cornelia Marie, who was tendering for Peter Pan Seafoods in the Nushagak district of Bristol Bay.

“It was just fun,” he said.

Word got out a year ago that delivery of the 2 billionth salmon caught in Bristol Bay’s 133-year fishing history was expected in the summer of 2016. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notes that since the inception of Bristol Bay’s canned salmon industry in 1884, fishermen had landed 1.99 billion salmon, 93 percent of which were sockeyes.

The catch officially declared to be the 1 billionth salmon was caught on the afternoon of June 28, 1978, also in the Nushagak River district.

Isaksen is the son of Bert Isaksen, who was born in Norway in 1928, and came to America to fish in the 1940s, after the end of World War Two.

“Dad started in the sailboat days,” said Gary Isaksen, who fishes these days with his son, Anders, his older brother Karl, and Dustin Gust, who recently graduated from high school in New Stuyahok, a Bristol Bay village.

The best part of fishing in Bristol Bay, he said, is fishing with his son, his brother, and Gust, who joined the crew a year ago. The Isaksen brothers have been fishing the Bay for over four decades and Anders for the past 14 years.

When he’s not fishing, Gary Isaksen stays busy building scale models of fishing boats, yachts and other vessels, through his company, Isaksen Scale Models, (www.isaksenscalemodels.com).

The family owned business of more than 22 years produces models that range from building prototype interior rooms, that display all furniture and details, to finished detailed exterior models showing all shapes, equipment and features.

The models aren’t just for show. Many builders order models early in the concept and design phase, to provide their client a tangible representation of what the finished product will be, the company said.

Wild Salmon Harvest Rises, Bristol Bay Waits

Alaska’s wild salmon commercial harvests more than doubled from July 4 through July 12, with deliveries to processors rising from 18.3 million to 42 million fish, in another late run year that left Bristol Bay driftnetters waiting for the surge.

As of July 12, the state’s preliminary commercial salmon harvest report showed a total Bristol Bay harvest of 20 million salmon, including 19.4 million reds, up from 6.8 million reds a week earlier, but the run was indeed late, said Greg Buck, the state Department of Fish and Game’s Bristol Bay area research biologist.

On one hand, it is uncertain whether the run will make the sockeye forecast, a run of some 46.55 million fish, with a Bristol Bay harvest of 29.52 million reds, Buck said. On the other hand, the situation isn’t all that unusual, he said.

Water temperatures have been very warm the last two years, and last year was a late run as well.

“The consensus is we are definitely late, but the question is how much,” he said. There are large scale ocean processes that go through long time series oscillations, such as the Pacific Decadal oscillation, and it is thought that some of these processes are related to the timing of returns,” he said.

Meanwhile, the overall statewide harvest continued to grow through July, bringing in 42,048,000 salmon through July 11, including 27.1 million sockeyes, 8.9 million humpies, 5.6 million chums, 256,000 kings and 244,000 silvers.

The bulk of the harvest was in the central region, including Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, following by the Westward region, the Southeast region and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region.

Bristol Bay driftnet deliveries to processors included 19.4 million reds, 548,000 chums, 26,000 kings, 6,000 pinks and fewer than 1,000 cohos.

Cook Inlet fishermen brought in 950,000 salmon, including 802,000 reds, 108,000 pinks, 23,000 chums, 5,000 kings and 12,000 cohos.

In Prince William Sound, processors had received 9.6 million salmon, including 5 million humpies, 2.9 million chums, 1.6 million sockeyes, 12,000 Chinooks and fewer than 1,000 silvers.

On the Lower Yukon, fishermen delivered 405,000 Yukon River chums and 87,000 humpies, and Norton Sound fishermen brought in 23,000 pink salmon.

The north side of the Alaska Peninsula had a catch of 1.9 million reds, 15,000 chums and 2,000 kings, while the south side of the Alaska Peninsula brought in 2.7 million pinks, 1.7 million reds, 301,000 chums, 5,000 kings and 5,700 silvers.

Kodiak processors saw delivery of 655,000 reds, 207,000 chums, 121,000 pinks, 15,000 cohos and 4,000 kings, and Chignik delivered 768,000 sockeyes, 44,000 chums, 35,000 humpies, 7,000 cohos and 4,000 kings.

Southeast Alaska harvest totals added up to 1.1 million chums, 689,000 humpies, 180,000 reds, 170,000 kings and 111,000 silvers.

Harbor Improvements Key to St. George Economy

Work is underway in the Pribilof Islands in Southwest Alaska this summer on repair of the south breakwater into the harbor at St. George, while in Anchorage the US Army Corps of Engineers is engaged in a study on further harbor upgrades.

The problem, says St. George Mayor Pat Pletnikof, is time is running out for upgrading the harbor to allow for year-round fish processing critical to the economic survival of the small Aleut community.

The summer project will repair breakwater damaged in a severe winter storm last December, and the three-year Corps of Engineers feasibility study on harbor upgrades still has over a year to go.

“But we don’t have three years,” said Pletnikof, who has watched too many residents leave for lack of jobs, as he fights to find enough money for diesel fuel to keep the city power plant going. “We have absolutely no economy at St. George and we keep pointing out that the federal government in 1983 said they would build us a harbor and that hasn’t happened.” To make the harbor viable for year-round seafood processing, additional breakwaters are needed for safe passage, he said.

What Pletnikof wants is for the federal government to deliver on its promise to help transform the Pribilofs from a fur seal to a more diversified fisheries economy.

Given a functional year-round harbor, St. George would be able to process Pacific cod, black cod and crab, some of the tons of seafood harvested annually from the waters that surround them, he said.

Every fisheries community that has a year-round processing plant is at the very least stable, and every community that does not is in a state of decline, and to move to year-round seafood processing you have to have a viable harbor, says Larry Cotter, chief executive officer of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association.

The responsibility, said Cotter, rests with the federal government, to complete its promise of transitioning St. George from fur seal hunting to a fisheries economy.

Pletnikof, Carter and Nathan McCowan, chief executive officer of the St. George Tanaq Corp., have been working with the Corps and Alaska’s congressional delegation in hope of speeding up the process of upgrading the harbor.

“This is a grievance that needs to be settled,” said Cotter.

Alaska’s congressional delegation has asked the Corps to expedite its economic analysis so that the long overdue St. George harbor project can be completed.

Alaska’s Commercial Salmon Harvest Tops 21 Million Fish

Commercial harvesters in Alaska have delivered upwards of 21 million wild salmon to processors to date, and even as drift gillnetters on Bristol Bay wait for the annual surge for which that fishery is famous, the numbers keep growing.

As of July 6, the preliminary harvest figures compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game showed deliveries to processors included 12.9 million sockeyes, 4 million humpies, 4 million chums, 174,000 Chinooks and 47,000 silver salmon.

For Bristol Bay alone, the catch of 8 million fish included 7.5 million sockeyes, 391,000 chums and 22,000 kings, with some 19,000 of those kings from the Nushagak district.

On the Lower Yukon, deliveries have reached 32,000 of those famed oil-rich chums, and in Cook Inlet, the harvest of 339,000 salmon includes some 314,000 reds, 13,000 pinks, 6,000 chums and 4,000 Chinooks.

Prince William Sound processors have taken delivery of over 4.6 million salmon, a catch of 2.2 million chums, 1.4 million reds, over 1 million humpies and 12,000 kings.

On the Alaska Peninsula, fishermen have harvested 5.4 million salmon, including 2.6 million humpies, 2.5 million sockeyes, 268,000 silvers and 6,000 kings.

For Chignik, the catch stands at 704,000 salmon, with 631,000 sockeyes, 39,000 chums, 30,000 pinks and 3,000 Chinooks, while Kodiak processors have received 587,000 fish, including 391,000 reds, 152,000 chums, 37,000 humpies, 4,000 cohos and 3,000 kings.

A number of retail shops in Southcentral Alaska featured specials on wild Alaska sockeye salmon fillets for the Independence Day holiday, boosting sales.

Susitna River Hydroelectric Plans On Hold

Alaska has put a hold for now on a multi-million dollar hydroelectric project on the salmon rich Susitna River in the Southcentral part of the state, due to a fiscal crisis brought on by the downturn of oil prices globally.

Gov. Bill Walker’s decision in late June to shut down that project, along with a halt on the proposed Knik Arm Bridge, drew kudos from the Susitna River Coalition, which represents upwards of 13,000 individuals, groups and businesses in Alaska who want the river to remain free flowing.

The coalition contends that the project, which would include a huge dam and 42-mile long reservoir and power plant, would have a devastating impact on all five species of wild Alaska salmon in the river, do damage to the visitor, recreation and hunting sectors of the economy, and have an adverse impact on habitat for caribou, bears, moose and migratory birds. The coalition also contends that public safety would be threatened by locating a dam in an active earthquake zone.

The coalition issued a statement praising Walker’s decision for showing leadership “that will be the governor’s lasting legacy. He is on the right side of history-preserving our salmon rivers, putting the state’s economy first and listening to Alaskans,” they said.

New Tongass Management Plan Said to Benefit Salmon

Managers of the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska have a new draft management plan that is winning praise for its protections of salmon habitat.

The alternative selected for the draft plan by the US Forest Service incorporates Tongass Advisory Committee recommendations to protect certain watersheds known as the “Tongass 77,” watersheds identified by Trout Unlimited as having high priority for protection because of their habitat, fish production and diversity of fish species.

Earl Stewart, supervisor of the 17-million acre forest, said the advisory committee also recommended protection of conservation priority areas identified by The Nature Conservancy and Audubon Alaska. Old growth timber harvests would not be allowed in some of those watersheds, although new growth harvests would be, he said.

The draft plan is online at www.fs.usda.gov/land/tongass

The transition from old growth to new growth harvests of timber would take place over a 16-year period, during which the Forest Service would try to make up to 46 million board feet of timber available annually, with the amount of old-growth timber harvest gradually decreasing, Stewart said.

A final decision on the plan is not expected until December.

Meanwhile the Forest Service is accepting objections to the draft plan only from those who had previously submitted substantive related formal comments.

According to Trout Unlimited, the draft plan would put fisheries and recreation on a more even footing with other industries in the Tongass.

“Commercial fishermen, guides and outfitters, conservationists and sport anglers commend the Forest Service, the Tongass Advisory Committee and the people of Southeast Alaska for recognizing that salmon drive Southeast Alaska’s economy,” said Mark Kaelke, Southeast Alaska project director for Trout Unlimited. “Conserving healthy salmon habitat on the Tongass will help ensure that’s always the case,” he said.

ASMI Seeks Comment on Fisheries Standards

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute in Juneau is seeking public comment through Aug. 4 on its Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management Certification Fisheries standard.

It’s the first full review and reissue of the standard since the RFM program standard was launched in 2011.

ASMI said all comments received would be presented for review to the Alaska Fisheries Standard Committee, formerly known as the Conformance Criteria Committee, before releasing the final version of the Fisheries Standard. To ensure the review process is inclusive, ASMI is calling on all parties with an interest in responsibly managed fisheries to review and offer their expertise on the matter.

Interested stakeholders will find everything they need in the “Open Public Consultation” page of ASMI’s website, http://www.alaskaseafood.org/rfm-certification/stakeholder-involvement/open-public-consultation/

Comments must be submitting using the Alaska RFM V 2.0 public comment form.

Additional information on stakeholder involvement can be found at

http://www.alaskaseafood.org/rfm-certification/stakeholder-involvement/

A full copy of the Alaska RFM Certification Procedure can be downloaded at:

http://www.alaskaseafood.org/rfm-certification/about-rfm/quality-management/

Additional information on the RFM program is also available at that website.