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.
A fisherman vice president? - 8/29/2008 1:20 pm
Madsen loses bid for state House - 8/27/2008 3:12 pm
EPA fines another processor - 8/27/2008 10:24 am
Breaking news: Partial settlement in Exxon case - 8/26/2008 6:44 pm
Homer man charged with sablefish violation - 8/25/2008 10:00 am
Kodiak cutter crew boards Japanese vessel - 8/23/2008 5:17 pm
Salmon eaters, beware tapeworms - 8/22/2008 7:51 pm
American Seafoods lets catfish go - 8/22/2008 6:04 pm
Pebble and Bristol Bay’s salmon defenders - 8/22/2008 10:24 am
American Seafoods gets bigger - 8/18/2008 7:38 pm
MSC replies to state on 'client' status - 8/13/2008 1:16 am
Scale scandal - 8/13/2008 12:22 am
Court commands more delay in Exxon case - 8/12/2008 11:49 pm
Skipper accepts plea in vessel grounding - 8/7/2008 5:01 pm
Southeast seiners reduce their ranks - 8/6/2008 2:58 pm
Young defenders - 8/6/2008 2:16 pm
UFA: Stevens ‘innocent until proven guilty’ - 8/1/2008 3:45 pm
‘The tragedy of Sen. Stevens’ - 7/30/2008 1:49 pm
What’s fishy about Stevens indictment - 7/29/2008 11:58 am
A bit more on Aleutians king crab - 7/27/2008 12:29 am
Aleutians king crab deal announced - 7/27/2008 12:00 am
Brothers lose liberty, boat for halibut scheme - 7/25/2008 10:56 am
AUGUST 29, 2008 - 1:20 PM
The Highliner reckons every fisherman on every trawler, seiner, longliner and skiff has heard the news by now that John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Palin, of course, setnets commercially at Dillingham for Bristol Bay sockeye with husband Todd and their kids.
Could America soon see its first rubber-booted vice president?
United Fishermen of Alaska, the state’s top commercial fishing trade group, marvels at the prospect in this press release we just received:
UNITED FISHERMEN OF ALASKA
For Immediate Release
Aug. 29, 2008
AUGUST 27, 2008 - 3:12 PM
For the record ...
Juneau resident Stephanie Madsen, executive director of the At-sea Processors Association, lost her bid for the state House of Representatives.
Madsen managed 971 votes in yesterday’s District 4 Republican primary versus 1,387 for Cathy Munoz.
Munoz now will challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Andrea Doll in the general election.
The At-sea Processors Association represents a fleet of large Seattle commercial fishing ships.
AUGUST 27, 2008 - 10:24 AM
Seems like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has busted just about every fish processor in Alaska on some pollution violation in recent years.
Here's a press release that came in this morning on the latest victim:
Alaskan Seafood Processor fined $38,000 for Polluting the Kenai River
(Kenai, Alaska – August 27, 2008) Salamatof Seafoods Inc. (Salamatof), an Alaskan seafood processor plant located in Kenai, Alaska has agreed to pay a $38,000 penalty to settle alleged federal Clean Water Act violations.
The Salamatof plant was inspected by EPA and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation in 2002, 2005 and 2006 and cited for violations of the company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The plant discharges seafood processing wastewater into the Kenai River which flows into Cook Inlet.
AUGUST 26, 2008 - 6:44 PM
We're publishing this story in our newspaper tomorrow:
By WESLEY LOY and TOM KIZZIA
Anchorage Daily News
Lawyers in the epic Exxon Valdez court case have negotiated a settlement to pay out most of the $507.5 million the U.S. Supreme Court awarded in June, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs confirmed Tuesday.
Under the deal, Exxon will release about $383 million for distribution to the nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen and others who sued Exxon after the disastrous 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon will continue to battle over another $70 million, as well as potential interest of $488 million on the Supreme Court judgment. Exxon has argued the interest isn’t owed.
AUGUST 25, 2008 - 10:00 AM
I was trawling the state trooper reports this morning and turned up this item:
On 8/6/08, Dutch Harbor, Alaska Wildlife Troopers contacted and issued a USC to Onicifor N. Basargin, age 22 of Homer Alaska, for failure to register for a state commercial fishery after investigation revealed that Basargin, skipper and permit holder of the F/V Foreigner, ADF&G 66431, possessed and landed 688 pounds of sablefish. Arraignment is scheduled for 9/10/08 for the Unalaska District Court.
AUGUST 23, 2008 - 5:17 PM
The crew of the cutter Munro boarded the Japanese fishing vessel Tokuei Maru 17 on Tuesday. U.S. Coast Guard photo
The crew of the Kodiak-based Coast Guard cutter Munro this week conducted the first ever high-seas boarding of a foreign fishing vessel under an international agreement governing a vast Pacific tuna fishing zone.
Here’s a Coast Guard press release that describes the boarding, which turned up no violations. It doesn't say exactly where the boarding happened.
AUGUST 22, 2008 - 7:51 PM
Want to avoid getting a 9-foot tapeworm stuck in your gut?
Read this Jon Rowley article on the Gourmet magazine Web site about the hazards of eating raw salmon – that is, salmon that’s not been frozen solid before being served as sushi or some other raw dish.
Rowley is known for marketing Copper River salmon to culinary fame.
AUGUST 22, 2008 - 6:04 PM
You can try Southern Pride catfish in Anchorage at the Catfish Haven restaurant on Boniface Parkway. Here's a four-piece catfish dinner with rice, collard greens, cornbread and sweet tea. Wesley Loy photo
Seattle-based American Seafoods has sold off Southern Pride Catfish, its Alabama-based catfish processing subsidiary, company spokesman Jan Jacobs told me today.
The buyer is Heartland Catfish of Itta Bena, Miss.
No sale price was disclosed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it fell short of the $41.8 million in cash American Seafoods paid in 2002 for Southern Pride, described as the largest U.S. catfish processor.
AUGUST 22, 2008 - 10:24 AM
What? A seiner in Bristol Bay?
Alaskans no doubt are sick of the advertising barrage surrounding Tuesday’s vote on Ballot Measure 4, whose sponsors say would protect Bristol Bay’s abundant salmon from water pollution from the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine.
My mailbox has been stuffed in recent days with bombastic ads urging me to vote yes or no on Ballot Measure 4.
The Highliner has no doubt of the sincerity of the folks mailing these ads. And Bristol Bay’s commercial salmon industry surely has many fervent and well-informed defenders.
AUGUST 18, 2008 - 7:38 PM
American Seafoods Group, the Seattle-based factory trawl giant, says it has bought a competing vessel, the Highland Light, part of longtime Alaska industry player Al Chaffee’s company, Yardarm Knot Inc.
It was no secret that Chaffee had been shopping the Highland Light, so no surprise to see the sale.
Here are a couple of quick thoughts on the transaction.
First, this marks the second round of consolidation we’ve seen this year in the Bering Sea pollock factory trawl sector, which is limited to 19 vessels under federal law.
AUGUST 13, 2008 - 1:16 AM
Here's the Marine Stewardship Council reply to Alaska officials, who want someone other than the state to be the MSC's "client" on salmon certification (The Highliner, July 23).
MSC chief executive Rupert Howes suggests maybe a nonprofit representing "the entire fishery" could succeed the state as client and manage costs.
"The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation is fulfilling a similar role for the current Pacific cod assessment and would be a good model," Howes wrote.
AUGUST 13, 2008 - 12:22 AM
Here’s an intriguing item from my column in this month’s Pacific Fishing magazine:
Federal agents are investigating allegations that hauls of fish were inaccurately weighed aboard the American Dynasty, part of the powerful American Seafoods factory trawl fleet.
National Marine Fisheries Service agents revealed the investigation at a North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Kodiak in June.
Agents said they were looking into tampering with the 272-foot trawler’s flowscale during the 2007 and 2008 Bering Sea pollock seasons.
Recorded weights of fish hauls allegedly were less than they should have been, agents said.
AUGUST 12, 2008 - 11:49 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court today kicked it to a lower court to decide whether Exxon Mobil Corp. owes interest on the $507.5 million spill judgment (The Highliner, July 18).
Here's the high court's ruling.
AUGUST 7, 2008 - 5:01 PM
Nordic Viking aground last summer. U.S. Coast Guard photo
Back in June we published a story in the Daily News about the wreck of the fishing vessel Nordic Viking, which caused a big diesel spill and disrupted salmon fisheries last summer in Prince William Sound.
That story focused on penalties the state imposed on the vessel’s owners.
Now, the boat’s captain is expected to enter guilty pleas tomorrow in a Cordova court to misdemeanor charges of negligent operation of a boat and unlawful discharge of petroleum.
AUGUST 6, 2008 - 2:58 PM
The consolidation trend continues in Alaska’s commercial fishing fleets.
The Highliner has confirmed that 35 permit holders in the Southeast Alaska purse seine salmon fishery have been selected for a buyout using nearly $2.9 million in federal grant funding.
The 35 permits represent 8.4 percent of the 415 permits eligible for the consolidation program. The average amount going to those selling out is $82,020.
Here’s a summary of the seiner buyout including the list of people surrendering their permits.
AUGUST 6, 2008 - 2:16 PM
U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has filed a report disclosing contributions to The Congressman Don Young Legal Expense Trust.
The total is $54,000, with some prominent commercial fishing players accounting for a big chunk of the contributions.
Young, who is seeking re-election, reputedly is under federal investigation, though we’re not exactly sure for what and Young isn’t saying. He has reported spending big money on lawyers in recent months.
Here’s a rundown of the fishing contributors to the legal expense trust:
• Aleutian Spray Fisheries Inc. of Seattle, $5,000. Aleutian Spray has a fleet of freezer longliners plus the factory trawler Starbound. Cary Swasand heads the company.
AUGUST 1, 2008 - 3:45 PM
The state’s largest commercial fishing organization, United Fishermen of Alaska, today issued this statement on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who is facing felony charges of making false statements on Senate financial disclosure forms:
For Immediate Release
August 1, 2008
United Fishermen of Alaska Recognizes Senator Stevens’ Leadership in Sustaining Fisheries and Oceans
United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) recognizes and appreciates the leadership and vision of Alaska’s senior senator Ted Stevens in leading Alaska, the nation, and the world in adopting sustainable fisheries management measures for the future. While saddened by the indictment handed down against him, UFA acknowledges the overwhelming merit of Senator Stevens’ lifetime of achievements in the protection of U.S. oceans and fisheries.
JULY 30, 2008 - 1:49 PM
Here’s a commentary on the Stevens indictment from John Sackton, editor and publisher of Seafood.com, a Massachusetts-based seafood industry news site.
Stevens indictment dark day for Alaska, U.S. fishing industry (Editorial Comment)
SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton, July 30, 2008 – The indictment of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens yesterday by a federal grand jury was not a surprise. A year ago, federal investigators raided his home in Girdwood, near the Alyeska Ski resort outside of Anchorage, and took documents and pictures relating to remodeling done by Veco employees.
JULY 29, 2008 - 11:58 AM
Today’s indictment of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is obviously a thunderclap for the commercial fishing world.
After all, the man’s name is on the nation’s foremost ocean fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
I’ve spent a few minutes studying the seven-count, 28-page indictment and have found only one apparent reference to fish or fishing.
It’s part of the subject of Count 4. Here are the relevant parts:
JULY 27, 2008 - 12:29 AM
Brown king crab. Bill Roth photo
The commercial fishery for Aleutian Islands brown, or golden, king crab has been remarkably stable through the years. None of the dramatic ups and downs we’ve seen in other fisheries such as Bering Sea snow crab.
We launch a new Aleutians king crab fishery on Aug. 15, and the harvest limit is up a hair this season.
The total allowable catch is right at 6 million pounds, divided almost equally between the eastern and western regions of the Aleutians.
Last season’s total allowable catch was 5.7 million pounds.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.
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