After 125 years today, June 7 2009, the Bristol Bay fishery is alive and well. Learning from other salmon fisheries, then developing the Alaska Territorial Board of Fisheries in 1950 and with good fisheries management, this fishery has survived while others have not.
The future of this fishery’s continuing success will depend on Alaska’s decisions regarding industrialization of her resources and her continuing commitment to the care and protection of her living natural resources.
The Copper River Salmon fishery is opening today and it is a big deal!
“…Renowned for its succulent king and sockeye salmon, opens at 7 a.m. on May 14, signaling the unofficial start of the summer salmon season in Alaska.”
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, theking salmon run will be some 77,000 chinooks, about 24,000 more than the 2008 run produced, albeit 3,000 less than the 10-year average, with about 53,000 fish harvested.
Biologists are also predicting a run of about 1.3 million sockeyes, about 840,000 less than the five-year average and the fifth lowest run since 1980…
Read more
Fishermen’s Memorial Events
The Annual Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial Service will be Sunday,
May 3, 2009 at 2:00pm at Fishermen’s Terminal in Ballard.
2009 Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial Auction November 17, 2009
2009 The Fall Fishermen’s Festival (date to be determined) at the Fishermen’s Terminal in Ballard. Bring your families!, great food, fun entertainment and it is free!
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast and canceled a program to find new reserves.
The ruling came on a lawsuit brought by three environmental groups that want to protect the ecosystem and the Native Village of Point Hope, a tribe that lives off the wildlife on the Chukchi Sea coast. The seas are home to wildlife including polar bears, whales, seals, walruses and seabirds.
A three-judge panel in Washington found that the Bush-era Interior Department failed to consider the effect on the environment and marine life before it began the process in August 2005 to expand an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas…
California and Oregon chinook fisheries in limbo
The coveted Copper River salmon fishery, the unofficial start of Alaska’s summer salmon season, is about two months away, but buyers can already expect availability of king salmon to improve this year.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game released its 2009 Copper River forecast last month, and scientists are projecting a king salmon run of 77,000 fish, which would be about 24,000 more fish than the 2008 run but 3,000 less fish than the 10-year average; about 53,000 kings would be harvested.
Copper River king salmon was a difficult buy last year. The unprecedented closure of the California and Oregon fisheries, weaker-than-expected Copper River landings and burgeoning demand for wild salmon resulted in tight supplies and high prices for the fish, which at the onset of the Copper River harvest in mid-May pushed the $40-a-pound mark at retail…
J Sainsbury, the UK’s largest seafood marketer is planning to change the name Pollack to ‘Colin’. Pollack is related to Cod but Colin is a French word for Hake and it just so happens that France is very fond of UK Pollack and is one of the biggest purchasers of the fish.
In the U.S., Pollack sales in the form of fish sticks are now outselling the Cod version of the same product and the trend is expected to continue. The Pollack is very popular. In the U.S. however Pollack remains Pollack.
And in the UK alone, Pollack sales were recently up 144%.
So you may want to keep in mind that should you be in France ordering seafood at a restaurant–if you order the ‘Hake’, you’ll get a plateful of ‘Colin’, which is the fish formerly known as ‘Pollack’ in the UK!
For more details…
Why the kudos? …In the 20th century alone, more then 4,000 fishermen were lost at sea or in Icelandic lakes but this last year–2008–not a single fisherman was reported lost at sea!
As a matter of fact, 2008 was the first year since the 9th century that no crew member has died from drowning!
Bob Greene saved a man’s life with his fishing pole early Thursday morning. Greene, 42, said he was drinking a cup of coffee and waiting for the sun to rise over the Kennebec River around 4:30 a.m. when he heard what he thought was a bird making noise in the distance. He assumed it was a cormorant, and hoped it didn’t mean a day of battling birds while he tried to fish for stripers from the dock at the Hallowell boat landing. “From the first time I heard (the noise) to when I actually got him, I had enough time to drink a large cup of coffee and start reading the paper,” he said… Read more
Freddie, a 14-year-old cairn terrier, became disorientated in the fog while on a walk with his owner Jean Brigstock. It slipped into the water as Mrs Brigstock, 73, searched for it but had no success and assumed he was hiding in a nearby holiday park. However, Freddie was swimming against the tide, almost a mile out to sea. He was only saved when the two fishermen spotted what they thought was an otter, went to investigate and saw the dog… Read more
A class ring lost for decades in an East Texas lake is back with its owner after turning up in a fish caught the day after Thanksgiving. Joe Richardson of Buna told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he wishes he knew “how many fish it’s been in. “Richardson was fishing at Lake Sam Rayburn about two weeks after his 1987 graduation from Universal Technical Institute in Houston when he lost the ring… Read more
According to Fish Radio and Forest Bowers–the Regional Fishing Manager at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Bristol Bay’s Red King crab season was almost wrapped up as of December 9th. Out of 77 participating fishing vessels, 66 were done and checked out with 11 still out at sea pulling crab pots. With 98% of the TAC in, Bowers stated that although the number of crabs per pot was down–22 to 23 average crabs per pot compared to 28 last year–the crabs were larger, shell condition looked good, and meat-fill was high. Prices for the highly desired Bristol Bay crabs also topped $5.00/lb compared to $4.19 last season. Coming up next for Dutch Harbor crabbers is Snow crab season, traditionally fished in January.
Red King Crab (photo A.S.M.I.)
The Alaska Dept of Labor just published their November report ‘Alaska Economic Trends’ which follows 
and tracks as much as it can about its fisheries and workers. It’s come out with a wealth of information on all of the 2007 fisheries. for example, did you know:
- Alaska is indeed still the #1 fishing state in the nation and has been since 1975.
- The value of Alaska’s 2007 total harvest was 3.6 times the value of Massachusett’s harvest–which is the #2 fishing state.
- Salmon related employment is the biggest, and for 2007 it was 3759 workers and the overall salmon harvest for 2007 was 950 million pounds valued at $417 million.
- The total numbers for fishing industry workers for all of Alaska’s fisheries in 2007 was 54,000.
Interested in data on crab fisheries, halibut, salmon, and others? Check out Alaska’s Economic Trends
