Elizabeth Earl for Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced an opening for the Upper Cook Inlet drift fishery on Thursday, including in federal waters.

“This is unprecedented in the United States for a mature, rationalized fishery to suffer a stock collapse, in part due to climate change,” the executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers said.

Renewable IPP already owns three projects—one in Willow, one in Houston and one in Anchorage. Renewable IPP’s CEO said the Willow project is the largest so far, but the Kenai Peninsula project will be significantly larger.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is debating changes in its meeting this month.

For the past three years, the late run of Kenai River king salmon has been too small to meet the escapement goal, leading Alaska state biologists to place restrictions on close-to-shore sockeye fisheries.

By Saturday, 289,784 sockeye had been counted, significantly ahead of last year’s count and on track to reach the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-river escapement goal.

The state’s two remaining individual health insurance plan providers on the marketplace, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield and Moda Health, declined to significantly raise rates for 2021.

The Copper River sockeye run was a flop, as was the chum run statewide, and the silver salmon harvest was down everywhere except Kodiak and Bristol Bay.

The coronavirus pandemic closed restaurants across the U.S., leaving mariculture farms in Alaska with a much more limited market but still a lot of product to move.

Much of the decline is due to poor sockeye returns, particularly in the Copper River area, though other places are also seeing a slowdown.

With about two weeks until the Copper River salmon season, the industry is pulling together the details of how to execute a safe fishery amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The School of Nursing and College of Health offered a chance for up to 72 students in good academic standing the chance to finish their last few credits on a faster timeline.

Alaska is highly reliant on out-of-state and international visitors, making it vulnerable to disruptions in national and international affairs.

Fishermen are still fishing, but the normal seasonal progression of the industry is likely to hit rough waters.

Fishermen affected by the 2018 Pacific cod and Chignik sockeye disasters will soon have access to relief funding.