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.


Archive

State, MSC parting ways on salmon? - 7/23/2008 12:34 am

Bad day in Chignik - 7/22/2008 3:39 pm

House also exempts fishing boats from 'silly' pollution permit requirement - 7/22/2008 3:18 pm

Fishing boats might get pollution exemption - 7/22/2008 12:43 pm

Update on the Chignik cannery fire - 7/21/2008 9:44 pm

Trident fish plant burns in Chignik - 7/21/2008 7:22 pm

Congress to examine Exxon Valdez ruling - 7/18/2008 7:37 pm

Battle over Exxon Valdez interest continues - 7/18/2008 7:01 pm

Time to pull the boat, head home - 7/18/2008 2:43 pm

$10 million contract signed to rebuild fire-damaged trawler - 7/18/2008 2:15 pm

Kodiak trawlers go for Stevens - 7/16/2008 12:59 pm

Exxon: 'Kicking our asses' - 7/15/2008 11:44 pm

It ain't over - 7/15/2008 12:48 pm

Bristol Bay bounty - 7/13/2008 11:59 pm

Madsen questioned, defended - 7/10/2008 11:10 pm

Palin wants more processor competition in Bristol Bay - 7/8/2008 12:15 am

Sockeye – and anger – fill Bristol Bay - 7/3/2008 3:44 pm

30,000 Atlantic salmon slip BC farm - 7/3/2008 11:20 am

Palin returns Bundrant, Wallace to ASMI board - 7/2/2008 4:44 pm

Is this a problem? - 7/2/2008 2:13 pm

Here come the scallops! - 7/2/2008 11:21 am

Palin to Exxon: Pay up now - 7/1/2008 10:30 pm

full archive »

Sen. Green wins salmon vote

Posted by The Highliner

Posted: April 7, 2008 - 2:36 pm

After a vigorous floor debate, the Alaska Senate has just voted 11-8 to pass a resolution creating a legislative task force to study Cook Inlet salmon fisheries.

Senate President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, and other Mat-Su lawmakers want the task force because they believe salmon are disappearing from their streams. They suspect commercial fishermen working farther south in the Inlet are to blame.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 would establish a task force made up of five senators and five House members. The task force would hold meetings and report back to the Legislature by the start of the 2009 session.

A similar resolution is pending in the House.

Sen. Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, said he worked his way through college on a commercial fishing boat. He said he worries the task force would set a precedent of legislators getting into the dicey business of allocating fish among users.

“We have scientists and biologists in this state who can do a better job than we can do,” he said.

Wasilla Republican Sen. Charlie Huggins, chairman of the Senate Resources Committee, said members need not fear the task force. He said Mat-Su waters he’s traditionally fished are now a waste of time because of a lack of salmon, and study is needed.

“This is about doing a report,” he said. “This is about a group of people getting together, hearing from experts, from stakeholders.”


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  3     April 11, 2008 - 9:20pm | Kuskdaka

Stedman & Hoffman voting against commercial fishers. What's up?

Oh, well. Would guess it's something they'll need to explain to their constituents. I think Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg and Ketchikan may have something to say about it. Not sure about.

Sounds like it's the price of organization.

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  April 16, 2008 - 8:48am | hot4teacher

I think Stedman voted

I think Stedman voted against it...at least the second time when it came back on reconsideration.

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  April 15, 2008 - 4:24pm | ericsarahjordan

Stedman

Sitka did not vote for Stedman. We have been voting for Democrats for years. But, we are in a Senate District dominated by Ketchikan.

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  2     April 8, 2008 - 11:16am | browburk

Reading the Resolution...

indicates Mr. Huggins and Sen. Green would like to do more than "do a report". The Mat-Su sportfishing folks don't like a couple of the Board of Fish decisions at the Cook Inlet, and want a "do over" through the proposed Cook Inlet Task Force. Conveniently, Lyda Green would get to appoint all five members from the Senate. This will be little more than an inquisition of the Board of Fish, and Dept. of Fish and Game, over decisions made at the last Cook Inlet meeting if it should pass through.

Why doesn't the Legislature just abolish the Board of Fish system, and do it all themselves? That would be a LOT better way to go....

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  April 8, 2008 - 1:28pm | hot4teacher

Well, I agree (including

Well, I agree (including your sarcasm about abolishing the BOF) that they want to second-guess things. If this passes, it will be kind of funny to watch the legislators try to wade into all the detail that the BOF went through this winter.

I just wished that it would have gotten a committee referrral for a hearing before the Senate blasted it through. Hopefully, the House will give it the airing it needs before considering it for a floor vote -- if it even gets that far.

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  April 9, 2008 - 11:00am | twodux

Lyda

It's funny, but the legislature has to approve all appointments to the BOF. So the same people who approved the board don't like the way the board is doing it's job?

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  April 9, 2008 - 5:50pm | browburk

Yes...

there's a bit of irony there. But, hey, this is an election year. The proposed Task Force gets to hold meetings, probably in Wasilla, and key legislators get to posture to their constituents clear through election time next November. You can see how Green and Huggins find the idea attractive.

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  1     April 7, 2008 - 3:34pm | hot4teacher

Don't they have anything better to do in Juneau?

Huggins says fishing in the Valley is a waste of time?

How does he explain the increasing sport harvest coming from the Susitna drainage? Somone's catching some fish. Many of the Valley rivers have just come off some tremendous returns of kings and silvers in the past few years. In fact, the Deshka has had some very liberal king fishing bag/posession limts to try and prevent overescapement (2/day and 4 in posession -- there aren't any other king fisheries in southcentral that have had anything like that). Most of the coho runs have been quite strong in recent years, too. What has been more of a problem for coho success rates in the last few years has been the low water and high temps that have made the silvers hold in the lower reaches of the rivers. In a number of cases the coho returns looked "late/weak" only to have a massive push of fish blow through in a few days after some rain.

I think some folks look at these things with short term memory and fail to recognize that this "crash" in the runs is more of a cyclical thing.

Now, sockeyes may be a different matter. I don't think anyone can argue that they're not producing as well as they should be...but even taking highest estimates of the UCI commercial catch of Su/Yentna stocks, it doesn't explain all the "missing" fish. There's a lot more to it than sound bites.

Now, the concept of a limited buyback in UCI may be worth discussing, but if the Leg is going to get into allocation, that's a dangerous precedent.

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