Laine Welch

Laine Welch: Fuel cell technology boosts long-distance fish shipping

A maritime milestone will be set this week as a container of 18 tons of fresh salmon from Chile is offloaded from a cargo ship in California after a month at sea -- without being frozen.

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Archive by category ''Laine Welch

LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Buyers of Alaska seafood face ups and downs

Between 60 percent and 70 percent of Alaska's seafood is exported to customers around the globe, and the strength of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar plays a big role in annual sales. Tracking by the Juneau-based McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute shows mid-year ...
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Copper River's ballyhooed salmon season starts May 16

It might feel like winter, but Alaska's 2013 salmon season officially gets under way on May 16, when the first runs of reds and kings are scheduled to arrive at Copper River.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Industry and feds mull methods for cutting Gulf bycatch

Fishing industry stakeholders and federal managers in June will begin crafting a plan to reduce accidental bycatch in trawl groundfish fisheries in the Gulf. It will include some form of catch-share plan. As the main delivery port for more than $100 million worth of pollock, cod, flats and other...
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Legislature passes reduced Chinook research spending

Chinook salmon research money made it through the Alaska Legislature this session but most other fish bills flopped.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Seeking clues to shrinking stocks, scientists eye crab diets

Did you know that red king crabs are cannibals and eat their babies but blue king crabs do not? Or that deep-water golden king crabs along the Aleutian Islands are almost indestructible and appear to resist the effects of ocean acidification?
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Enthusiasm down among buyers for first halibut of this year's season

Absent from supermarket flyers this spring have been ads featuring the year's first fresh halibut, reflecting the anticipated pushback by buyers to the high-priced fish. "No excitement this year," said more than one major buyer.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Federal plan in the works to reduce bycatch

Federal managers for Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries are crafting a plan that will reduce bycatch by trawlers, and will very likely result in catch shares. Now is the time for fishing residents to make sure the program protects their access to local resources and sustains their coastal communities...
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Limits, observers among reasons for quiet halibut start

It was unusually quiet along the waterfront as the 2013 halibut fishery got under way last Saturday. Most of the first fish landed go to Homer, Kodiak and Petersburg, and processors there said there wasn't the usual chatter.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Boats are needed to help with expanded halibut surveys

Halibut scientists plan to expand the yearly Pacific stock assessments by 30 percent next summer, adding 390 survey stations to the existing 1,300 already in use from Oregon to the Bering Sea.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Commercial fish harvest was 9.9 billion pounds in 2011, report says

The just-released "Fisheries Economics of the U.S." by NOAA Fisheries covers the commercial and recreational fishing industries from 2002-2011 and is loaded with seafood industry stats by region.