Payoff for Alaska commercial fishermen all depends on the species

For Alaska commercial fishermen, everything depends on the species targeted. For instance, Southeast trollers targeting king salmon can clear much more than $100 on a single big chinook, while Togiak fishermen earn just $50 for netting 1 ton of tiny herring.

But by and large, fishermen pursuing king salmon, halibut and sablefish are fetching fabulous early-season prices.

The 300 Southeast trollers who target kings are enjoying a 40 percent price increase for the big salmon, averaging $7.54 a pound, up $1.88 from last year.

They're not alone. Alaska halibut fishermen are fetching well over $6 a pound at major ports. The longline fleet is nearing the halfway mark of its season, with 10 million pounds left remaining in this year's 17.4 million pound catch limit. Kodiak is the top port for halibut landings, followed closely by Seward and Homer, which has yet to top the 1 million-pound mark.

Likewise, sablefish (or black cod) is nearing the halfway point of that fishery's 23.5 million pound quota. Fishermen are getting more than $7 a pound for larger sizes and more than $6 for medium weights.

But salmon fisheries are just gearing up, with total Alaska catches of less than 1 million fish so far from a total haul expected to hit 221 million by the end of the season.

Southeast's summer Dungeness crab fishery opens at 8 a.m. June 15, a new starting time. Crabbers hope the price will match last year's $2.95 a pound for the 2-pound dungies, bringing the dockside value to $15 million for the 192 fishermen permitted to fish.

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Just 16 vessels showed up for Alaska's largest herring fishery at Togiak, taking an estimated 20,374 tons by June 2. All together, the fishery will be valued at more than $1 million.

Herring fishing continues around Kodiak, too, with runs all the way up the coast to Port Clarence.

Nearly 27,000 tons of roe herring can be taken in fisheries in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region, with half of that coming from Norton Sound.

Fishing continues for cod, flounders and other groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, where the pollock fishery will reopen in late August.

Bering Sea crabbers wrapped up their 61 million-pound snow crab fishery, and are still working on the 15 million-pound Tanner crab quota, with about 1 million pounds left to go.

A Norton Sound red king crab fishery will open June 15 with a quota of 394,000 pounds.

Shutdown’s impact on fisheries

It's going on seven weeks since the regular session of the Alaska Legislature ended and there's still no budget. Layoff notices went out last week to thousands of state employees who could be off the job at the start of the July 1 fiscal year. Here's an overview of potential fishery-related impacts:

Alaska's Commercial Fisheries Division may absorb the hardest hit because it receives nearly all of its management money from the state's general fund. A core staff will remain to manage salmon fisheries, but field staff at remote weirs and other counting projects would be laid off during July and August in a phased approach. The division's five research vessels will be tied up and office staff, labs, data support, subsistence surveys and other services will be cut back or halted. Commercial Fisheries Director Jeff Regnart said other fisheries besides salmon are likely to be put on hold.

"There will be an impact across the board," Regnart said.

Also significantly curtailed or halted on July 2: Title 16 permits issued by the Division of Habitat, subsistence harvest surveys done by the Division of Subsistence, support to the Board of Fisheries and Board of Game, and advisory committees.

Functions of the Division of Sport Fish, the Division of Wildlife Conservation, and the Commercial Fisheries Limited Entry Commission will remain operational without the use of general funds.

The budget impasse may delay or prevent fish shipments, too. The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will tie up all 11 state ferries meaning no passenger service, and no fish transports by ferry to mainland customers. Likewise, many state airports will operate with reduced hours. Public Facilities would provide emergency monitoring and response only, and Transportation staff would be reduced to paying bills and doing payroll.

Core services by the Department of Environmental Conservation, including shellfish PSP testing, water monitoring, and permitting, will be suspended.

Meanwhile, the Department of Administration will delay or cancel vendor purchases and payment on supplies statewide, meaning a loss of nearly $2 million in state contracts paid each day to Alaska small businesses.

Finally, the Department of Natural Resources will delay issuing various permits and authorizations. Find a list of threatened services by state agencies and departments at www.alaska.gov.

Get licenses, permits online

More options have been added to the popular online store operated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, where license sales are up more than 30 percent since a new "print and go" feature was launched in mid-March. Nearly every license and permit is included -- for commercial fishing, sportfishing, bear viewing, hunting and more.

"Fishermen, families, fishing and hunting lodges that purchase licenses for their customers, as well as commercial processors who purchase all the licenses for their crew members. They can get all those licenses and then print them in one fell swoop," said Michelle Kaelke, the department's financing and licensing supervisor.

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A new option added this week is personal-use licenses. An e-vendor project also will be tested this summer in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

"We're going to prototype it there and work all the bugs out. Then, when things slow down after the busy summer season, we will be working with our license vendors to see who wants to go to e-licenses," Kaelke said, adding that there are 1,000 license vendors in the state.

Customers will continue to go to stores to purchase their licenses and it will all be done electronically. Vendors will no longer have to do paper accounting of the information.

"All the reporting, all the calculations, will automatically be done for them, so it will be a really nice benefit," she added.

Seventy percent of the department's licenses are paper, and data entry of all the information can take months.

"Now, it can be instant," Kaelke said.

Just added to the online store – permits to visit the Round Island Walrus Sanctuary. Coming soon: commercial crew buoy tags, shooting range permits and signups for hunting classes.

Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Contact her at msfish(at)alaskan.com.

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