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The Highliner

Commercial fishing is a bedrock industry in Alaska, and has been for more than a century. Every year scores of fishermen net millions of migrating salmon, challenge the icy Bering Sea to trap king crabs, lay miles and miles of baited hooks for halibut, and scoop up enough pollock for a zillion fish sticks. And when fishermen aren't out fishing, they're usually talking about fishing. That's what this blog is all about. Cast your net here for commercial fishing news and notes. And if you've got a bone to pick, post a comment.

About me:
I've pounded the commercial fishing beat for the Anchorage Daily News since 1999. I hail originally from Tennessee. I've never fished commercially, but I've spent much time as a journalist aboard boats and inside fish-processing plants. Of course, I'm a big consumer of Alaska seafood. One of my favorites: canned sockeye.

Contact Wesley Loy at wloy@adn.com.

Let go of that rockfish!

Posted by The Highliner

Posted: September 7, 2007 - 8:09 pm

The Highliner is sure everyone knows about the tussle between commercial longliners and charter boat operators over halibut. Heck, that fish fight has been going on since, oh, the Reconstruction.

But the conflict between the two fleets runs deeper than just who can catch how much halibut.

It also involves what they catch by accident, or target after limiting out on halibut.

In most Alaska fisheries we see bycatch – the unintended capture of one kind of fish while pursuing another.

A bycatch species of major concern is rockfish – what East Coasters call red snapper. These fish grow slowly and can live a century or more. They are susceptible to overfishing and usually don’t survive being hauled to the surface and then tossed back into the sea. So they need protection.

In 2006, the state imposed new regulations limiting rockfish catches along the outer coast of Southeast. Of the total rockfish available annually, 84 percent was allocated to commercial fishermen with 16 percent going to sportfishermen such as halibut charter boat anglers.

Now the Sitka Charter Boat Operators Association is asking the state Board of Fisheries to consider giving the sportfish sector a bigger rockfish share.

Unless that happens, sportfisheries for halibut and salmon could be closed next year for exceeding the rockfish limit – a “devastating” blow to the charter fleet and the Southeast economy, the association says.

Probably we should brace for a real battle over this when the board meets Oct. 9-11 in Anchorage. Don’t expect an immediate decision, however. This meeting is just to determine whether the board will consider the matter on a hurry-up basis.

To read the Sitka charter association’s request (ACR 11), click here.

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5 September 17, 2007 - 5:34pm | ericsarahjordan

ACR 11

Years ago I helped facilitate a rockfish conservation plan for longliners in the Sitka area. It was amazing to me as the facilitator how concerned the commercial longliners were in both knowing more about the resource and working to sustain both the resource and the fisheries. In the past few years I have had the unfortunate experience of witnessing dozens of Yellow eye rockfish drifting down current from anchored guided sport fish boats. I regularly hear the guides talk about "shaking" dozens of Yellow eye rockfish in their efforts to catch a few halibut. I hear them telling their partners to "Just follow the 'red kegs' to find me". The Board of Fisheries should use this agenda request to require full retention of rockfish in the guided sport fishery and then close the fishery when their quota is reached. I think I commercially trolled salmon for about 130 days this summer and caught 1 Yellow eye. To say they can't fish salmon and halibut without minimal by-catch of Yellow-eye rockfish is to admit stupidity.

September 20, 2007 - 4:07pm | wespaq

yellow eye bycatch

I am a charter captain..when our fishermen reach the yellow eye limit fishing for that client is ended..that should be the law..

4 September 8, 2007 - 10:05am | AkGov

Not Red Snapper

It is interesting to note that while many sports fishing companies advertise that they have "Red Snapper" as a bonus to the fishing trips, this fish is not "Red Snapper"! It is likely Yelloweye Rockfish or maybe Pacific Ocean Perch they are catching. But not "Red Snapper" as advertised at many sports shows. I have been wondering how long it would take for the fish fight to start over this valuable and tasty fish. As a matter of fact most of this Rockfish is much better tasting than "Red Snapper" found on the east coast. It has a higher oil content and thus incredible texture and flavor. Most of the Alaska Rockfish is commercially harvested and exported to the orient where it is consumed as a delicacy fish.

If you have never eaten Alaska Rockfish, you’re missing something.

3 September 8, 2007 - 9:41am | seafa

Board of Fish Southeast Rockfish Agenda Change Request

This Board of Fish agenda change request has some misinformation. The directed commercial fishery on the Southeast Outside coast has been closed for several years due to concerns of reaching overfishing status of the stocks by increased fishing pressure. We don't expect the directed fishery to be reopened in the near future. The commercial rockfish harvest on the outside coast is a "by-catch only" fishery at this time.The only directed fishery on the coastal waters is the charter fleet. The commercial fisherman are bound by "full retention" of ALL rockfish; the charter fleet is only allowed to keep their bag limit but they can continue to fish after the limit is met by discarding the fish. What is the mortality rate on all the released rockfish floating around? The proposal states that the new information is the weight difference, this can be attributed to the sport fishermen keeping the larger fish and discarding smaller fish.

In my opinion this is an allocative proposal with no significant new or compelling information that should allow this proposal to be considered out of cycle.

They claim devestation to their industry but the conservation of the fish stocks must be number one consideration, not the growth of the charter industry.

2 September 8, 2007 - 9:21am | msfish

Snapper correction

Actually, there are closer to 35 different species in the rockfish complex throughout Alaska so the red snapper comment is incorrect.

1 September 8, 2007 - 9:18am | akman00

sitka charter assn. acr 11

someday the guided sport industry will learn that they are dealing with finite ,fully allocated ,fully utilized resources and the answer to their problems are not taking from the other commercial fishermen ,but in limiting their own numbers, is it too much to ask of the alaska guided sport industry to look at other states and see how limited entry has stabilized their own fleets,
limited entry with sell-able ,transferable permits is evidently too deep of a concept for the squeaky wheels of the industry

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Let go of that rockfish!