Alaska/Pacific Coast
Federal cash should soon be in hand for Alaska fishermen, processors and towns hurt by the 2016 pink salmon failure Anchorage Daily News by Laine Welch - January 21, 2020 It’s been a long time coming, but payments should soon be in hand for Alaska fishermen, processors and coastal communities hurt by the 2016 pink salmon run failure, the worst in 40 years. https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2020/01/21/federal-cash-should-soon-be-in-hand-for-alaska-fishermen-processors-and-towns-hurt-by-the-2016-pink-salmon-failure/ Kodiak’s trawl fleet heads out for pollock, about 30 vessels expected to be fishing KMXT by Maggie Wall - January 21, 2020 Kodiak’s trawl fleet is heading out to the fishing grounds to catch pollock in a fishery that opened Jan. 20. http://kmxt.org/2020/01/kodiaks-trawl-fleet-heads-out-for-pollock-about-30-vessels-expected-to-be-fishing/ Politics Alaskan Legislature Convenes, Updates on Fish Bills SeafoodNews.com by Laine Welch - January 21, 2020 This is Alaska Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Alaska lawmakers convene today in Juneau. More on resurfacing fish bills after this – Going to the Young Fishermen’s Summit in Juneau? The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association is offering free emergency drill conductor training on January 24th. Sign up online at amsea.org. Integrated Marine Systems is the leader in marine refrigeration in Alaska. Simple, reliable, built to last. Visit www.imspacific.com/ Today begins the 31st Alaska legislative session in Juneau and at least two fish bills will resurface. A priority is resolving the conflict of interest issue for the state Board of Fisheries – House Bill 35. “You can see it at every BOF meeting you go to. When you have a board member who has an expertise in a certain area and is conflicted out and can’t even express his knowledge to other board members, what’s the point of having him on the board. So this bill will allow them to participate in the conversation but will not allow them to vote on the issue.” Louise Stutes is head of the House fisheries committee and represents Kodiak, Cordova, Yakutat and several small communities. She says the board conflict issue has been at the forefront for 14 years and this is the closest lawmakers have come to resolving it. Another Stutes sponsored measure coming up – House bill 185 - is the Derelict Vessel Act which requires all boats over 24 feet to be registered in person with the Department of Motor Vehicles, including those already documented with the Coast Guard. The 2018 law was sponsored by Senator Peter Micciche of Soldotna at the behest of the Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators as a way to track ownership of abandoned boats. The bill had a rough roll out because almost no one knew about it. And Stutes claims it’s an unnecessary duplication of services. “That’s kind of a double whammy for individuals who already have registered through the CFEC. It’s a duplication of information that you’d be getting a sticker from the DMV. So I have a bill that would exempt any boat that is registered with the CFEC and it’s going to have an effective date of January 1, 2020. You know, it’s not cheap to get your CFEC permit and to essentially double dip. The idea is not to create additional revenue for the state, the idea is to create a data base so they have access to ownership to vessels that are in Alaska waters.” Stutes says the top priority is to maintain a robust Fish and Game budget. When you cut the fish and game budget, you’re cutting revenue to the state.16 Overall, Stutes says she’s optimistic about the 2020 legislative session. “I’m optimistic. I feel like the people of AK have sent a message to the administration and I’m hoping the administration will be a little more willing to interact with the legislature. That was a big stumbling block last year – we did not have much communication between the administration and the legislature. And you just don’t get anything done when you have such a divided body. So I’m optimistic that we can come together and protect Alaskans as a unit.” Fish Radio is also brought to you by Ocean Beauty Seafoods, an Alaska corporation proudly supporting Alaska’s coastal communities and the Alaskans who depend on fishing for their livelihoods and culture. www.oceanbeauty.com In Kodiak, I’m Laine Welch. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1162049/Alaskan-Legislature-Convenes-Updates-on-Fish-Bills International Russia Plans to Increase Pollock Catch in 2020 SeafoodNews.com by Eugene Gerden - January 22, 2020 Russia plans to increase the volume of its pollock harvest up to 1.8 million tonnes this year. That will be significantly higher than the figures for 2019, according to recent statements by some leading local fishermen and state officials. So far, implementation of these plans has already been confirmed by Alexey Buglak, president of the Russian Association of Pollock Producers. Buglak said the current situation with pollock stocks in Russia remains favorable and creates conditions for a further increase of catch in years to come. As planned, the main fishing areas for pollock harvests in Russia this year will remain the same as during the previous years: the Sea of Okhotsk, the western part of the Bering Sea, Eastern Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. According to leading local fishermen and analysts in the field of fisheries, most of the planned catch for the current year will consist of large-sized pollock. A significant part of it will be exported. In 2019, the volume of pollock production in the Russian Far East reached 1.7 million tonnes, which became a good figure for Russia, despite the large number of storms and the abundance of ice in the main fishing areas of the Sea of Okhotsk during the fishing season. https://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1162145/Russia-Plans-to-Increase-Pollock-Catch-in-2020 Federal Register Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska; Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program A Notice by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 01/22/2020 NMFS publishes the standard ex-vessel prices and fee percentage for cost recovery under the Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program. This action is intended to provide participants in a rockfish cooperative with the standard prices and fee percentage for the 2019 fishing year, which was authorized from May 1 through November 15. The fee percentage is 3.0 percent. The fee payments are due from each rockfish cooperative on or before February 15, 2020. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/22/2020-00949/fisheries-of-the-exclusive-economic-zone-off-alaska-groundfish-of-the-gulf-of-alaska-central-gulf-of FYI’s New Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program Director for Alaska Fisheries Science Center NOAA Fisheries - January 21, 2020 The Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program conducts research aimed at understanding the influence of physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the environment on the distribution, growth, and survival of economically important fish species in Alaska. The program is based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/media-release/new-fisheries-behavioral-ecology-program-director-alaska-fisheries-science-center
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