Good Samaritans, Coast Guard Rescue 46 Mariners

Forty-six crewmembers forced to abandon a sinking fishing vessel near Kiska Island, some 690 miles west of Dutch Harbor, were safely rescued on July 26 through the combined efforts of the US Coast Guard and private vessels.

Coast Guard officials said all 46 crewmembers from the Alaska Juris were transferred to the Good Samaritan vessels Spar Canis and Vienna Express and transported to Adak. All of them had donned immersion suits after their vessel took on water and started sinking. No injuries were reported. Weather in the area was reported as calm seas and limited visibility.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is monitoring the situation.

No details on the condition of the Alaska Juris were immediately available.

The rescue effort began after Coast Guard watchstanders from the 17th District received an electronic position indicating radio beacon alert from the Alaska Juris, and contacted the crew to confirm they were in distress, donning survival suits and abandoning ship.

The Coast Guard Cutter Midgett and an Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules aircraft were diverted to the vessel’s location, and two Air Station Kodiak MH_60 Jayhawk helicopters were launched to Adak as a staging and refueling area. Motor vessels Spar Canis, Vienna Express, Seafisher and Ocean Peace diverted to assist after hearing the Coast Guard broadcast an urgent marine advisory.

The willingness of Good Samaritans to respond was paramount to getting the crew to safety, said Lt. Greg Isbell, District 17 command duty officer.

Wild Alaska Salmon Harvest Tops 74 Million Fish

Commercial salmon harvests in Alaska rose by nearly 11 million fish over the past week, as deliveries to processors reached a total of 49 million sockeyes, 15 million humpies, 8.9 million chums, 957,000 silvers and 313,000 Chinooks.

Bristol Bay saw its catch rise from 33 million to 37.5 million fish, including 36.8 million sockeyes and harvesters learned that the base price would be 75 cents a pound, while on the Lower Yukon River, Kwik’Pak Fisheries has been busy processing a robust harvest of 597,000 chums and 127,000 pink salmon, and more coming now that the fall chum run is under way.

Jack Schultheis, general manager of Kwik’Pak, a subsidiary of Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association, said there were some 420 permit holders out in their small boat fishery, and another 315 workers busy processing fish at Emmonak.

And the fall chum run, which got under way on July 18, is also producing very good quality fish, Schultheis said. It’s a record run, topping a harvest of a half million chums in 1984. To top it off, prices are up, demand is good, and Schultheis said he has folks he’s never done business with before asking for Yukon fish.

And the catch keeps rising in each region, with 11.9 million fish delivered in Prince William Sound, 2.8 million fish in Cook Inlet, 8.9 million fish in Southeast Alaska, 8.6 million fish in the Alaska Peninsula, 1.2 million fish in Chignik and 2.5 million fish for the Kodiak area.

BBRSDA is Out to Promote Bristol Bay Brand

The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association will head into retail markets in Boulder, Colorado this fall with a pilot project to promote the Bristol Bay brand of wild Alaska salmon.

While the focus will be on retailers, the BBRSDA also has a project going with the Chefs Collaborative in the Boulder area to get Bristol Bay salmon on menus and teach chefs about the value and unique quality of Bristol Bay sockeye, says Becky Marcello, executive director of the BBRSDA.

Boulder was selected in part because of its size, and also because of its predominantly young, affluent, health conscious population, said Marcello.

The important thing, says Mike Friccero of Kodiak, a veteran harvester and president of the BBRSDA, is to tell Bristol Bay’s story.

“People want wild fish from a sustainable source. We are trying to make sure our fish is presented as Bristol Bay sockeye in more markets in the United States, and to make sure they have quality fish,” Friccero said.

The BBRSDA is getting support from the project from Copper River Seafoods.

“Partnering with the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association was a positive collaborative experience, says Scott Blake, president and chief executive officer of Copper River Seafoods. “They’ve done a great job beginning to develop a strong platform for the Bristol Bay brand.”

Blake said his company took the branding concept to their customers and successfully executed it by doing what they do best- supplying the highest quality fresh fish that matches the image the fishermen and the RSDA, are working so hard to achieve. “The fresh programs we built this year with our customers have momentum and we see potential to grow them in 2017,” he said.

Salmon Habitat Information From UFA

United Fishermen of Alaska is preparing to roll out a new online Salmon Habitat Information Program to keep the commercial fleet informed about a wide range of issues affecting their fisheries, from water quality to federal and state legislation.

But first the statewide umbrella group for commercial fisheries wants to hear from fishermen on what they want to be informed about and how to get that information to the fleet.

UFA has posted an online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UFAhabitat that will be available through Labor Day, Sept. 5. Every commercial harvester or family member who completes the survey will be entered to win a $500 Alaska Airlines or $200 LFS gift card. More information is at https://www.facebook.com/UFAAlaskaSalmonHabitat/.

Commercial harvester Lindsey Bloom of Juneau is heading up the program.

Bloom said she hopes that the SHIP website will prove to be a valuable resource on information about the health of salmon habitat that is critical to the fishery.

Plans are to fill the website with updated information on issues ranging from water quality and quantity and ocean acidification, as well as pending state and federal fisheries legislation. Also to be included will be information on how to comment or otherwise submit testimony to federal and state fisheries entities and more.

Salmonfest Celebration August 5-7

Salmonfest, a celebration of the connection of Alaskans to salmon and its habitat, is back at the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds at Ninilchik for three days of fish, love and music August 5-7.

Headliners this year include the Grammy Award winning folk rock duo of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, plus several dozen other musical groups.

Salmonfest is supported by and benefits The Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, a Homer-based nonprofit organization whose goal is to educate the public, and both protect and promote Alaska's fish-filled waters. A second conservation entity, Cook Inletkeeper has joined the festival this year also as a primary sponsor and partner in “fish first” advocacy, to coordinate educational and outreach components of the event.

Speakers will include Maria Finn, author of “The Whole Fish: How Adventurous Eating of Seafood Can Make You Healthier, Sexier, and Help Save the Ocean.” Finn is scheduled to speak on how to eat the entire fish, from gill to adipose fin.

Also on the speaker’s platform will be Emily Stolarcyk, of the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova, Alaska, who will talk about the council’s campaign to get the US Navy to conduct military training exercises in the Gulf of Alaska in the fall rather than during the summer fishing season.

Salmonfest got its start several years ago as Salmonstock, as effort of the Renewable Resources Coalition to preserve and protect the viability of Alaska’s abundant fishing and hunting resources in the face of efforts by Canadian mining interests to build a massive copper, gold and molybdenum mine near the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. The Pebble Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Northern Dynasty, which is a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Inc., a diversified global mining group based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has yet to file for permits for the development of the mine, but has made clear its plans to do so.

The US Environmental Protection Agency, after hearing extensive testimony from the public, environmental and mining industry entities, has said development of a large open pit copper mine at this location would threaten one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.

The Bristol Bay watershed, said the EPA, is an area of exceptional ecological value with salmon productivity unrivaled anywhere in North America, and its salmon populations are critical to the health of the area’s entire ecosystem, home to more than 20 other fish species, and 190 bird species, as well as bears, moose and caribou. Mining interests contend that the mine can be developed and operated in harmony with the fishery.

Draft EIS on Potential Cook Inlet Lease

Public comment is being sought through Sept. 6 on a draft environmental impact statement analyzing possible environmental impact of a potential oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, a major commercial salmon harvest area.

A notice of availability of the draft EIS was scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 22, opening a 45-day public comment period.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also has scheduled meetings in Anchorage on Aug. 15, Homer on Aug. 17, and Kenai/Soldotna on Aug. 18.

The draft EIS and directions for providing public comment online are available at www.boem.gov/ak244/ While recognizing that interest in exploration and development in Cook Inlet may be limited at this time, BOEM officials said they were conducting the necessary environmental review to aid in decision on whether or how to proceed with lease sale 244, currently scheduled for June 2017.

The draft EIS analyzes important environmental resources, commercial fishing of Pacific salmon and halibut, subsistence activities, sea otter and beluga whale populations, and more that currently exist within the Cook Inlet planning area, and identifies robust mitigation measures to be considered in leasing the area. The draft EIS also analyzes a range of alternatives to be considered for leasing.

Abigail Ross Hopper, BOEM’s director said that while Cook Inlet has oil and gas potential, there are sensitive marine and coastal resources that Alaska Native communities depend on for subsistence. Once the EIS is finalized, the Department of the Interior will then make its decision on whether to hold the lease sale.

Bristol Bay Salmon Tops Forecast

Bristol Bay’s wild salmon harvest has reached upwards of 33 million fish, surpassing the harvest forecast of 29.52 million fish, and the preliminary commercial salmon harvest for Alaska statewide is climbing toward 64 million fish.

Processors in Bristol Bay are offering a base price of 75 cents a pound, plus another 15 cents for salmon iced or in refrigerated seawater.

“This run came in so picture perfect for the processors, you couldn’t have asked for better for the daily catch volume,” said Shawn Dochtermann, a veteran Bristol Bay harvester, aboard the F/V Isanotski at Egegik. After the long wait, the sockeyes have been arriving in the Bay at the rate of several thousand a day. The preliminary harvest breakdown through July 19 was 11.2 million fish for the Naknek-Kvichak District, 7.5 million fish each in the Nushagak and Egegik districts, 5.7 million fish in the Ugashik District, and 508,000 fish in the Togiak District.

Harvests were also on the upswing statewide.

On the Lower Yukon, small boat fishermen have delivered 521,000 chums and 109,000 humpies for processing. And in Cook Inlet processors have received more than 2 million salmon, including 1.7 million sockeyes. On the north side of the Alaska Peninsula, 2.7 million salmon have been harvested, while on the south side of the Peninsula, deliveries to processors have reached more than 5 million fish.

In Chignik, the catch has reached over 1 million salmon, at Kodiak, upwards of 1.6 million fish, and in Southeast Alaska, 9 million fish.