Dungeness crab in a live hold: Image: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The remaining southern portion of Oregon’s coastline commercial Dungeness crab fishery, from Cape Arago, just south of Charleston, to the California border, is expected to open for harvesting on Saturday, Feb. 4th. The earliest a crab season may begin is Dec. 1, […]
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Image: Environmental Protection Agency. A final determination on plans for a proposed mine adjacent to the Bristol Bay watershed in Southwest Alaska released Jan. 31 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) favors protections for the huge run of wild sockeye salmon and a multi-million-dollar fisheries economy. The EPA said its determination would protect waters important […]
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A map of the Tongass National Forest. Image: MDPI. Commercial fisheries harvesters are praising a Biden administration decision reinstating the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska as an important move to protect wild salmon habitat, while Alaska’s governor criticizes the decision as bad for the state’s economy. “Our fisheries depend on […]
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Image: International Pacific Halibut Commission. The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) has adopted reduced catch limits totaling 38.34 million pounds coastwide, a reduction of 10.3% or 4.25 million pounds of the popular white fish. The action came at this past week’s annual meeting of the IPHC in Vancouver, Canada and included new restrictions as well […]
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Image: Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation. Two research scientists with extensive backgrounds in crab fisheries said last week that they’re bent on unlocking new information in the coming months to help better track the future for Alaska king crab and snow crab fisheries currently foundering in a multi-million-dollar collapse. Research plans for 2023 call for […]
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A fisherman-founded software company is looking for harvesters to test its electronic logbook, Deckhand Pro. Image: Real Time Data. Real Time Data, a fisherman-founded software company with offices in Bellingham, Wash. and Australia is looking for harvesters to test its electronic logbook, Deckhand Pro, in Gulf of Alaska fixed gear groundfish fisheries during the 2023 […]
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Schery Umanzor, lead author and assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Photo: UAF. A new study published in the January issue of the online, peer reviewed Aquaculture Journal concludes that the water-filtering abilities of farmed kelp, an emerging industry in Alaska, could help reduce marine pollution in […]
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Image: NOAA Fisheries. NOAA Fisheries has denied a request to institute emergency action closing the red king crab savings area in Alaska to all fishing gears through June 30, 2023. The decision was made on the grounds that the petition did not meet criteria necessary to determine that an emergency exists. According to the federal […]
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A Tanner crab. File photo. A harvester stand-down continues in Kodiak, Alaska over the price offered by processors there for the Tanner crab season that opened Jan. 15. Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative (KCAC) spokesman Kevin Abena, skipper of the f/v Big Blue, said the Cooperative did not meet on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 22, […]
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Inside the February 2023 issue of Fishermen’s News, you’ll find an excellent article on the status of the British Columbia fishing industry. In the article, reporter Norris Comer states that “A myriad of challenges face B.C. fisheries, with the threatened Pacific salmon stocks taking center stage.” But in addition to the article in this issue, […]
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Image: Science Advances/American Association for the Advancement of Science. A new international research study has tracked 35,000 commercial fishing and support vessels, identifying their changing of country registration and also identified hotspots of potential unauthorized fishing and activity of foreign owned vessels. Changing the country of origin is a practice also known as “reflagging.” The […]
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Image: UBC Institute for the Ocean and Fisheries. University of British Columbia researchers say a chemical used to produce toilet paper, as well as so-called ‘forever chemicals’ have been found in the carcasses of stranded endangered orca whales offshore of the Canadian province. Study results, released in December 2022 in an online publication of the […]
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Image: California Sea Grant. California Sea Grant, administered through the University of California San Diego, has released its 2024-2027 strategic plan, with a goal of better preparing the state’s coastal communities for extreme weather and coastal hazards, economic disruptions and other threats to communities’ well-being. The report notes the intimate connection between all California residents […]
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Hawai’i Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research team with a large conglomerate of derelict fishing gear. Photo: Hawai’i Pacific University. Hawai’i Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research has launched a project to remove derelict fishing gear from the ocean. A bounty will be paid to eligible commercial fishers to remove derelict fishing gear […]
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A Tanner crab. File photo. Harvesters standing down from Tanner crab fisheries because of the $2.50 a pound offer from Kodiak processors say the earliest they may go fishing would be noon on Sunday, Jan. 22, if they get a reasonable price offer. Kevin Abena, secretary and treasurer of the Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative, said […]
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Image: Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. The Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. (NSEDC) will not purchase crab from the 2023 red king crab winter commercial fishery, in what the corporation has described as a difficult decision based on concerns for the long-term health of the fishery. While the stock appears to be rebounding, NSEDC believes […]
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Image: University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. A University of Washington fisheries scientist says her research shows that fish parasites in Puget Sound have been in decline over the last century. “We all have this sense that as climate change proceeds that what we get is increased parasite outbreaks; that we are […]
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Image: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The 2023 Ocean Salmon Industry Group meeting is scheduled to take place Feb. 27 in Newport, Ore., both in person and virtually, to review the 2022 seasons and take a look at 2023 salmon forecasts. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) officials said this meeting is also […]
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The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt transits the Gulf of Alaska after participating in exercise Northern Edge 2019. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erick A. Parsons. U.S. Navy officials have decided to proceed with training in May in the Gulf of Alaska as part of a joint training exercise involving other […]
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Doug Dixon receiving the Norwegian Commercial Club’s King Neptune award in December. Photo: Norwegian Commercial Club. John Douglas “Doug” Dixon, the general manager of Pacific Fishermen Shipyard in Seattle, has been honored by the Norwegian Commercial Club for his life-long contributions to the North Pacific fishing industry with the King Neptune award. The King Neptune […]
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