Austin’s Shakey Graves will headline Salmonfest on Aug. 5
Austin alternative folksinger Shakey Graves will be the headliner on Friday, Aug. 5, at Salmonfest, the annual Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds celebration of Alaska’s wild salmon and salmon habitat.
Fish Factor: Robust return of salmon to hatcheries in 2021 paid out $142 million
Salmon returning home to Alaska hatcheries again accounted for nearly one-third of the 2021 statewide catch for commercial fishermen at 64 million fish. It was the 8th largest hatchery homecoming since 1977 and at a payout of $142 million, the salmon produced 25% of the overall value at the Alaska docks.
Parallel Pacific Cod longliner season closes in PWS; opens in state waters
The Prince William Sound Area parallel Pacific cod season closed on March 15, coinciding with the federal closure of the Pacific cod less than 50 feet in length hook and line gear sector in federal Gulf of Alaska waters, the PWS parallel Pacific cod season remains open to vessels using gig gear.
Two nominated to represent Alaska on North Pacific Fisheries Management Council
One woman has been renominated and another woman nominated by the Dunleavy administration to represent Alaska on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.
More protection sought for right whales
Conservations are seeking expanded critical habitat designation in Alaska for North Pacific right whales, the world’s most endangered whales, the world’s most endangered whale population.
Fish Factor: Bycatch Review Task Force hard at work
Gotta give the Dunleavy Administration credit for being the first to try and get to the bottom of one of Alaska’s most troubling fishing issues: bycatch.
Text delivers good news for Waterbody business owner
The owner of a Wrangell company that makes body care products learned by a text that she had won the grand prize at a state competition for commercial goods made or derived from Alaska seafood.
Trade war, COVID and now Ukraine invasion eat into Alaska seafood sales
First a trade war, then a battle against an infectious virus and now a real war are all affecting Alaska seafood exports. Shipments to China fell from as high as 30% of Alaska’s total seafood export value in the 2010s to 20% in 2020. “The U.S.-China trade war has displaced $500 million of Alaska seafood,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, told legislators last week.
Fish Factor: Halibut, sablefish and Tanner crab fisheries underway
March means more fishing boats are out on the water with the start of the Pacific halibut and sablefish (black cod) fisheries on March 6, followed by Alaska’s first big herring fishery at Sitka Sound. A Tanner crab fishery kicked off on March 1 at Prince William Sound with a 61,800-pound catch limit. It could run through March 31 unless the quota is taken earlier.
Fish Factor: Alaska seafood industry wants Russia’s seafood out of US
“If they don’t buy from us, we shouldn’t buy from them,” Alaska’s seafood industry has grumbled since 2014 when Russia abruptly banned all food imports from the U.S and several other countries. Then, as now, the face-off stemmed from Russia’s invasion and subsequent takeover of chunks of Ukraine which prompted backlash and severe sanctions.
