New Public Hearings Underway on Permitting Pebble Mine

Public hearings are being held in the Bristol Bay region and Southcentral Alaska through April 16 as part of the national public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed Pebble mine near the Bristol Bay watershed in Southwest Alaska.

Thirty-one of the 33 people who testified at the first hearing at Naknek on Monday, March 25, spoke in opposition to the mine. Among them was Bristol Bay harvester Martin Speak of Seattle, Wash. He told the US Army Corps of Engineers “it is complete folly to think you can contain these proposed massive tailing ponds,” citing the Mt. Polley mine disaster in British Columbia as an example. “To date, nobody is being held responsible for that disaster, and they’re telling us this time they’re getting it right,” he added.

Commercial harvester Everett Thompson of Naknek said he saw a lot of language in the draft EIS like “not expected to” or “unlikely” in response to fishermen’s concerns. He said he saw no seismic analysis that gives him certainty that something catastrophic won’t happen to the mine, nor a reclamation plan that he trusts, knowing that many mines change ownership and end in bankruptcy and superfund sites.

Another meeting was held yesterday in Kokhanok and today’s hearing is in Newhalen. Others are scheduled for

• March 28 in Igiugig

• March 29 in New Stuyahok

• April 8 in Nondalton

• April 9 in Dillingham

• April 11 in Homer and

• April 16 in Anchorage

The current deadline for all comments is May 30. According to John Budnik, public affairs specialist with the US Army Corps of Engineers, no decision has been made yet on whether to extend that 90-day deadline beyond that date. Comments may be mailed to:

USACE Alaska District, Attn: DA Permit Application 2017-271, Pebble Limited Partnership, 645 G Street Suite 100-921, Anchorage, Alaska 99501

Further information is available at www.pebbleprojecteis.com.

Fresh Halibut Available in Shops and Restaurants

It’s halibut season and harvesters in the commercial halibut are seeing their harvest for sale from Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington to fine restaurants in Washington state, Alaska and beyond.

Fresh whole halibut are going for $18.99 a pound, while fresh halibut fillets are $29.99 a pound this week at Pike Place Fish Market. In Anchorage, fishmongers at New Sagaya were offering five pounds of fresh halibut fillets for $185.95, about $37 a pound. Online seafood purveyor FishEx had those fresh halibut fillets for $46.95 a pound.

Meanwhile Alaska seafood restaurants added creative fresh halibut fillet entrees to their menus at prices ranging from $32 to $38 a plate.

Offerings ranged from fresh Alaska halibut with bok choy, bacon, grape tomatoes and pineapple soy sherry for $36.95 at Orso in Anchorage to grilled halibut on pan fried potatoes, spinach, Portobello mushrooms, onions, apples, grape tomatoes and asparagus with balsamic glaze for $32.95 at the historic Pumphouse in Fairbanks. At Hangar on the Wharf in Juneau, cups of halibut chowder go for $7.99, and bowls sell for $9.99, while wild Alaska halibut grilled with a macadamia nut crust, served with pineapple curry and vegetables is $32.99.

“The opener got off to a rough start for harvesters on March 15, with 22-foot seas and 50 knot winds, but then the weather improved for several days, allowing some fishermen to get out and back with their catch in one day,” said Linda Behnken, a veteran halibut harvester and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in Sitka. Processors were reportedly offering $6 a pound for the commercial harvest catch.

ComFish Alaska 2019 Back for 40th Year in Kodiak

ComFish Alaska, the seafood industry’s annual forum and trade show, opens in Kodiak, Alaska, on Thursday, March 28. The event features three days of networking and forums on issues ranging from legal challenges and safety to energy audits, vessel upgrades and fish politics.

Thursday’s agenda includes presentations by the US Coast Guard and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in addition to forums on legal challenges and business investment, and a legislative update on fisheries issues from Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak.

On Friday, forums will focus on global markets for Alaska’s wild seafood and the value of that seafood on domestic and foreign markets, as well as creative solutions to recycling tons of retired fishnet, and an update on the proposed Pebble Mine near the Bristol Bay watershed in Southwest Alaska.

The event also includes activities showcasing the abundant varieties of fish harvested in the Kodiak area and the skills of both processors and harvesters. A fish toss competition will determine which team of processor workers can throw and catch different species the farthest. Fishermen will compete in coiling, knot tying, hook throwing, rail tie/hitch and donning survival suits.

Several dozen vendors will be on hand at the ComFish Trade show, offering services and new products, including Trident Seafoods, which hosts an annual tasting of its latest seafood products.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Marks 30th Anniversary

Thirty years after the big oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound the memory of the environmental disaster is still fresh in the minds of those who were there and those seeking to deal more effectively with such spills.

At a recent Exxon Valdez conference in Anchorage, Alaska, hosted by Alaska Sea Grant, participants talked about the need for detailed preparation for future spills, pointing out the importance of knowing where all equipment is located and how to get it to the scene.

That was a major issue back on March 24, 1987, when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef, and began hemorrhaging crude oil into Prince William Sound, noted Steve Cowper, who as Alaska’s sixth governor had to deal with the spill.

In retrospect, Cowper said in an interview this week, “everybody probably could have thought of something they could have done, but you don’t get that luxury in real life.”

Cowper, a former maritime lawyer, remarked that on the day of the spill the weather was good, calm, and continued to be so for several days, and that had anyone had a skimmer they could have gotten a lot of that crude oil, but nobody did.

“The sun was out and there wasn’t a lot of wind, and the oil just pooled alongside of the tanker, but by the time we got the skimmers from the pipeline people, the weather had moved in and scattered the oil all over the place, and the oil headed for the hatcheries,” he said.

According to Cowper, fishermen, seeing nobody else responding, took it upon themselves to save the hatcheries.

“The people whose job it was to respond had the equipment,” said Cowper, “but they had it hidden in warehouses and it took them about 10 days to find it, by which time it was too late.”

Cowper did get the US Navy of the Pacific in Hawaii to fly in some boom and skimmers on C130s, and that helped. Russia agreed to send its huge skimmer, the Vaydaghubsky, but it was in Vietnam and by the time it arrived, “all the oil in the water was gummed up with logs and seaweed and fish nets and driftwood and they couldn’t get through it,” Cowper explained.

One of the ironies was that the tanker hit Bligh Reef. “There were icebergs in the shipping lane,” said Cowper, “so Captain Joe Hazelwood had asked Coast Guard permission for the vessel to parallel the shipping lanes in a certain direction, a direction that took the ship directly into Bligh Reef.”

Commercial Pacific Halibut Season Open

The harvest of Pacific halibut got under way this past week, with the US allocated an 82.3 percent share of the 2019 total catch of 29.4 million pounds. That represents 23.5 million pounds for American fishermen, an increase of 8.2 percent over last year.

That quota share was approved during the annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) on February 1.

NOAA Fisheries Administrator Chris Oliver, a US commissioner to the IPHC, said that while the overall quota for 2019 is a slight increase over 2018 that catch limited agreed to by the IPHC “reflect a sensible, conservative approach that will secure the future of this iconic and economically important species.”

Alaska’s total halibut catch is set at 22 million pounds, up nearly 1.5 million pounds from 2018. That includes an increase in allocations to all areas except 3B, the western Gulf of Alaska.

The new IPHC regulations in effect for charter halibut operators in Alaska allow for a one fish daily bag limit per angler in Area 2C, Southeast Alaska, with a reverse slot limit that prohibits retention of any halibut greater than 38 inches and less than 80 inches.

In Southcentral Alaska, Area 3A, there is a two fish per angler bag limit, with a maximum size of 28 inches for one of those halibut, a one trip per day limit, and an annual limit of four halibut.

Unguided halibut sport anglers in Alaska meanwhile will continue to have a daily bag limit of two fish of any size per person each day.

USDA Purchases $28 Million of Alaska Pollock

The US Department of Agriculture has announced the purchase of more than 11 million pounds of wild Alaska Pollock fillets and fish sticks valued at $28.1 million from processors in Washington state, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

The largest purchase, for nearly eight million pounds priced at approximatively $21 million, went to Trident Seafoods Corporation in Seattle, Wash.

USDA also awarded contracts for 1.7 million pounds worth $3.8 million to High Liner Foods of Portsmouth, N.H., and 1.4 million pounds worth $3.3 million to Channel Fish Processing Co., in Braintree, Mass.

The contract calls for the fish to be delivered between April 16 and December 31, 2019.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing service purchases a variety of 100 percent domestically produced and processed commodity foods, to be delivered to schools, food banks and households in communities nationwide.

Approval Pending for Pink Salmon Disaster Relief

After months of waiting, federal contacts have advised the office of Alaska legislator Louise Stutes, chairman of the Alaska House Fisheries Committee, that approval is coming for relief funding from the 2016 pink salmon disaster in Prince William Sound.

Matt Gruening, chief of staff for Stutes, a Kodiak Republican, said their office has been told for the past few months that NOAA’s approval of the disaster relief funding would happen any week, and that an application process would be in place shortly thereafter. But it wasn’t until March 19 that federal contacts advised that approval is now an estimated three weeks out, and that the funds are at the Federal Office of Management and Budget, which is making this a priority.

“We obviously are not pleased that an approval that should have occurred by the first of this year is still three weeks away in the middle of March. That being said, the federal process is notoriously slow and unresponsive and there is little we can do but stay informed, and in turn, keep you informed,” Gruening said in a message to fishermen.

Once the application process is in place, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission will contact fishermen directly with applications, and have a dedicated, toll-free hotline to answer questions. The timeline between approval of the grant and checks being mailed out is typically one month.