More than 220 Southeast fishermen signed a letter to the Trump administration opposing the abrupt push to exempt the Tongass National Forest from a roadless rule in place for over a decade.
They may be cute, but the voracious appetites of sea otters continue to cause significant damage to some of Southeast Alaska’s most lucrative fisheries.
Alaskans are heading to beaches in lower Cook Inlet to commercially harvest bunches that wash ashore.
The real concern is the speed at which changes are occurring, says an official with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
Halibut catches fluctuate based on the ups and downs of the stock. If the numbers decline, so do the catches of commercial and sport fishermen. But similar reductions don’t apply to the boats taking millions of pounds of halibut as bycatch in other fisheries.
For Alaska, the 2018 salmon fishery at Chignik, once the state’s most exclusive sockeye salmon fishery, produced just 128 fish.
Federal stewards of Alaska’s fisheries will continue their pursuit of involving more people in policy making.
The brightest spot of the 2019 season was the strong returns of sockeye salmon that produced a catch of over 55 million fish, the largest since 1995 and the fifth consecutive year of harvests topping 50 million reds.
Fish Factor: A high-powered group of doctors and nutritionists is making sure the health benefits of seafood are front and center in committee meetings.
Fish Factor: Where and how the cuts will play out across the state’s far-flung coastal regions is now being decided by fishery managers.
Underwater and out of sight are the makings of a major Alaska industry with two anchor crops that clean the planet while pumping out lots of cash.
Through Sept. 15, people with good ideas, startups or existing businesses across the Bristol Bay region will compete to attend a three-day boot camp that provides in-depth business education, networking and advice.
