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LAST ISSUE: Last issue's collaborators? Mary Smith and Tim Lathrop of the Plitt Company (Chicago, Seattle, BC, Alaska, Chesapeake and Boston) who were out fishing so late one Alaska summer's night - that it was actually dark. That is a long day of meetings to be topped off on the river courtesy John Hodel and Mark Ingrim.
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Fish Notes
Alaska Fish Notes
by Tom Gemmell
Disclaimer: Inclusion of a news article, report, or other document in this email does not imply MCA support or endorsement of the information or opinion expressed in the document.
FEDERAL
1. USCG. Border Strife Heating Up Arctic (11/21). It's probably one of the coldest places on Earth, but over the past year, international tensions there are heating up. And if you think Iraq and Afghanistan are where all the action is these days, think again. With the cracking ice and warming atmosphere, strategic efforts are intensifying over land and sea rights in the northern Arctic, with Canada and Russia elbowing in on waters that had previously been locked in an icy grip.
That's led the Coast Guard to rethink its strategy in northern Alaska, pushing them to the outer edges of civilization to keep a watchful eye on the growing traffic of commercial and military ships plying the Arctic Circle.
"We see mounting evidence of much more commercial marine traffic in the Arctic because of the ice cap coming down later and leaving sooner with more of the Arctic open to normal navigation," said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Arthur Brooks, commander of the 17th Coast Guard district and the Joint Forces Component Commander for maritime forces in Alaska. More Podcast of RADM Brooks Interview
2. NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator to leave Agency (11/20). "Today the University of South Florida is announcing that Dr. William Hogarth, NOAA’s Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, will become Interim Dean for the College of Marine Science, effective January 15, 2008. Bill had earlier informed me about his intention to accept the position and his plans to leave NOAA at the end of the year." More
3. Rat infestation has wiped out birds and plants (11/23). More than 200 years ago, rats jumped ship for Rat Island. The stocky, muscular Norway rat got onto the rugged, uninhabited island in far Southwest Alaska in 1780 when a rat-infested Japanese sailing ship went aground. It was the first time rats made it to Alaska.
Since then, Rat Island has gone silent. Gone are the sounds of birds.
"There is a silence to an island with rats," said Steve Ebbert, a wildlife biologist at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, where the aptly-named island is one of 2,500 islands stretching along Alaska's long southern edge. "As far as bird life, it is a dead zone." State and federal wildlife biologists are gearing up for an assault on the rats of Rat Island. The goal is to wipe out the rats. If successful, Rat Island would be the third-largest island in the world to go rat-free.
A visitor stepping onto the island in the Aleutians won't have to look far to find evidence of rats, said Jeff Williams, another refuge biologist. One of the first things one notices is the rat burrows and the rat trails through the vegetation. Then there's the rat droppings, the chewed vegetation, the lack of certain plants. More
4. Jamin Talks Possible EVOS Litigation Outcomes (KMXT Audio) (11/21). Last Friday, Matt Jamin, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez oil spill punitive damages case, appeared on KMXT’s Talk of the Rock to discuss what it means that the case will now be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
5. Heimbuch nominated for fisheries seat (11/21). Gov. Sarah Palin nominated Alaska fisheries veterans Ed Dersham, Mike Heimbuch and Roland Maw as candidates to fill the North Pacific Fishery Management Council seat vacated by Ed Rasmuson.
Dersham, a longtime charter boat operator in Lower Cook Inlet, served on the Alaska Board of Fisheries for more than eight years, including three years as chair and two years as vice chair. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Oregon and is a retired from a career as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency. Dersham is Palin's recommendation for appointment.
Heimbuch, a commercial fisherman from Homer, has fished for halibut, herring, cod, shrimp and salmon around the state since 1963. He has served on a variety of civic and local government commissions, including the fish and game advisory committee and the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Association. He is an active political writer in Alaska newspapers and is currently a member of the Homer City Council. He majored in music and education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Maw, a Kasilof resident, is executive director of United Cook Inlet Drift Association and is co-owner of a charter and salmon research business based in Homer. He has served on the United Fishermen of Alaska's board of directors, on the Kenai Peninsula Fish and Game Advisory Committee and on the Joint Legislative Salmon Task Force Governance Committee. Maw has a doctoral degree in forestry and wildlife management from the University of Alberta. More
6. Digital phones no blessing to fleet (11/22). The final switch from analog to digital cell phone technology this spring may provide some users with sleeker phones and features such as e-mail and photo sharing, but the newer technology limits the service area local fishermen have relied on for years.
Fishermen have found that digital cell service has an inferior range out on the water.
As a result of the discontinuation of analog service, fishermen are looking to more expensive options such as satellite phones, bag phones, and signal boosters.
The primary cell service providers in Southeast Alaska, Cellular One and Alaska Communications Systems, will end analog service March 1 and Feb. 18, 2008, respectively. More
7. Outlying Citizens Told They Can’t Fish for Subsistence (11/22). Many citizens living outside the city’s boundaries were served with letters recently that asked them to surrender their Subsistence Halibut Registration Certificates (SHARC). The certificates allow Alaskan residents in rural communities to harvest halibut for subsistence purposes. According to the governing regulations, a person is only considered rural if they belong to specific native tribes, or to municipalities with a history of subsistence fishing. Enacted in 2003, the regulation does not provide for members of a community living outside of the city limits, which in Petersburg’s case, is anyone living beyond mile 8.76 of Mitkof Highway.
Although the limitations were realized, people living outside the Municipality of Petersburg were still granted SHARC permits despite the physical location of their domicile. “Our view initially was that they were close enough. If they were shopping in town, picking up their mail in town…we figured they were a member of the community,” said Jay Ginter, the Branch Chief of Regulation Operations for National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS). “When the regulations were made, we didn’t realize the boundaries of Petersburg were defined as narrowly as they are.”
According to Ginter, the decision to suddenly enforce the strict boundaries for issuing SHARC permits occurred recently, and that other communities were not as affected as Petersburg.
The letters themselves came from Jerod Cook, an enforcement officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “I was directed to address the issue,” said the officer. “Our stand on it is that we’re trying to get those people to surrender their permits.” Although Officer Cook couldn’t comment on the amount of now illegal permits on Mitkof Island, he did state that possession of one was a punishable violation if the permit was not held in a qualified area. “We’re trying to get everyone back in compliance without having to resort to anything like that,” he said. MoreSTATE
9. Fish and Game lauds biologist (11/20). When it comes to how the Kenai River fishery should be managed, often the only thing two different user groups can agree on is that a third user group is entirely wrong. As such the Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel responsible for the fishery's management have to have some pretty thick skin.
"I haven't worked in other areas, so I can't speak to how contentious the issues are anywhere else, but allocation battles here are notoriously intense, so you have to be able to absorb comments or you won't last long," said Pat Shields, area management biologist for the upper Cook Inlet commercial fisheries, who has been with Fish and Game for more than 25 years.
Shields annually has to stomp out fires related to fisheries management, and was recently chosen by Director of Commercial Fisheries John Hilsinger as a recipient for the 2006 Director's Achievement Award for Outstanding Service. More
11. Gillnet summit scheduled for Haines (KHNS Audio) (11/21). Southeast commercial gillnetters will hold a summit in Haines in early December.
12. Ninilchik processor still open. Deep Creek Custom Packing's owner sets the record straight (11/14). When Jeff Berger said last February he was closing his business, he was. But not permanently.
What Berger, owner of Deep Creek Custom Packing Inc. in Ninilchik, meant was that he was closing his business for the winter.
"I'm trying to do a little rumor control," Berger said of his effort to let the public know the business is still a going concern.
Originally opened in 1960 by the late Tony Garroutte, Berger took over the business in 1986. Since then, he developed the business into a year round enterprise that processes several million pounds of commercial- and sport-caught seafood products a year. In that small Kenai Peninsula community of less than 1,000 residents, Berger has been able to provide employment for as many as 130 people. More
13. AC weighs in on issues. Committe discusses snagging, habitat division move (11/22). When it comes to red salmon, commercial fisherman Paul Shadura thinks allowing anglers to keep a fish accidentally snagged elsewhere than the mouth is a bad idea. Because of the difficulty in differentiating between intentional and non-intentional snagging, Shadura says allowing this to happen sets a dangerous precedent on the Kenai River and invites abuse.
Shadura and the other members of the Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee voted to oppose proposal 278, which would address chronic overescapement issues of the Kenai, Kasilof and Russian Rivers by allowing sport fishermen to keep a red salmon unintentionally hooked elsewhere than the mouth. According to the 2007-08 proposal book, changing the current regulation, which requires anglers to release a fish that wasn't hooked in the mouth, would reduce injury and damage to the fishermen and fish itself as well as relieve crowding in the fishery. More
17. Alaska SeaGrant. The Business of Fishing - Essential Information for Alaska's Biggest Small Business. A three-hour course covering essential information for Alaska's seafood harvesters. Brought to you by the Marine Advisory Program, Alaska Division of Investments, and Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. More
MARKETING
18. Flat fish hold high price in deep market, official says (11/20). The 2007 halibut season started March 10, about a week later than the previous three years, and ended Thursday. Final landings took place within the last few days.
Pre-season predictions suggested halibut prices would remain high and the retail market strong. They proved correct, International Pacific Halibut Commission executive director Bruce Leaman said.
“We did see some market resistance toward the end of the season for the very high prices, but it tends to be a pretty deep market,” he said. “There seems to always be some people willing to buy the fish, even at a high price.”
But as the price for halibut rises, the market becomes more tenuous for processors. If they get deductions for chalky halibut or shipment problems from the buyer, it can hurt their profit margins, Leaman said.
“Some of the processors said they had a pretty short list of clients, in the sense (that) they went to the people they really trusted a lot to sell their fish to,” he said. More
19. MSC Fisheries Assessment Update: BSAI and GoA Pacific Cod Fisheries. The certification body, Moody Marine Ltd, has announced that the Bering Sea/Aleutian Island (BSAI) and the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) Pacific cod fisheries have entered full assessment. Initially Moody Marine seeks to open a dialogue with all organisations or individuals with a direct interest in the fisheries.
Please note that the BSAI and GoA Pacific cod fisheries will be assessed as 8 fisheries as there are four different gear types in two different management areas.
Please refer to the fisheries’ web pages for further information, including an announcement and estimated timeline for the assessments:
· GoA Pacific cod fishery - http://www.msc.org/html/content_1424.htm
Anyone wishing to provide comments or information to the assessment processes (relevant to the status of the stock, ecosystem interactions or fishery management practices) is invited to contact Mr Paul Knapman or Dr Andrew Hough.
Moody Marine Ltd
Moody International Certification
28 Fleming Drive
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3P1A9
Paul Knapman
Telephone: +1 902 477 4208
Mobile: +1 902 489 5581
Email: p.knapman@moodyint.com
Or:
Dr Andrew Hough
Tel (UK): +44 1633 401 092
Mobile (UK): +44 7958 532 129
E-mail: a.hough@moodyint.com
22. Russian Salmon fleet under scrutiny (KDLG Audio) (11/20). TRAFFIC, a UK based wildlife trade monitoring network, and the World Wildlife Fund say the Russian Salmon Fleet is over fishing and under reporting and that not only are the fishermen endangering the sustainability of their own fishery, they might also be hurting western Alaska.
23. 2008 Public Policy Internship Program. First Alaskans Institute is pleased to announce our new public policy internship program for the 2008 legislative session. The goal of the legislative internship is that emerging Native leaders will be familiar with the legislative process; will understand their own histories; will learn and use the skill of past, present and future leadership; and will know the emerging issues that confront Alaska Natives and the State of Alaska. We want the interns to have a realwork experience that will give them hands-on experience working with the legislative and political process.
The 2008 recruitment materials are now available on line.
Download the 2008 Public Policy Internship Application Now!
If you would like more information about the program contact Rick Mueller at rickmueller@firstalaskans.org or call 907.677.1700.
24. Will B.C. port be boon to Southeast? Some believe $170 million upgrade at Prince Rupert could help AK businesses (11/23). A two-year, $170 million expansion of Prince Rupert's port, and agreements with top names in shipping, has this small Canada town's officials talking about it becoming a rival for major ports on the West Coast. That's got a lot of people in Southeast Alaska's economic development circles buzzing too. While there are naysayers, some see the port as potentially a huge boon for getting Southeast's products, particularly fish, to Asia and the American Midwest.
Prince Rupert, British Columbia, has always shipped coal, timber and grain in bulk. Until this fall, it was never equipped to accept containers, which carry products from toys to clothes to motorcycles.
The biggest challenge would be getting those products from towns in Southeast to Prince Rupert, a move that would involve reconfiguring existing freight traffic or creating a new system.
Still, many see big benefits on the horizon.
"It creates a phenomenal opportunity not just for Southeast, but all of Alaska," said JC Conley, a Ketchikan businessman who is on the board of Southeast Conference, an organization that promotes economic development in Southeast Alaska. More
25. Plenty of ANC-DUT seats, but so far not many takers (11/21). UNALASKA, AK (2007-11-21) Local seats are still available for flights back to Unalaska after this winter's holiday season.
Alaska Airlines staff in Anchorage say that many seats on Anchorage to Dutch Harbor flights set aside for local residents on December 29, 30, and 31 and January 2 have so far gone unclaimed this year. The airline started reserving the local seats during last year's holiday season. That was in response to complaints that the large number of seasonal workers flying out to Unalaska before the January start of pollock A season and the opilio crab season was making it impossible for residents not employed by the seafood industry to get to and from the island for the holidays.
But this year, a lot of the seats set aside are still open. The airline expects to start releasing the tickets to the seafood companies and other customers a couple weeks before Christmas if they still aren't booked by then. Unalaska residents can book the tickets by calling the Alaska Airlines seafood commercial wholesale desk at 1(800)747-0101. Link
Tom is a seasoned professional who has 30 years of leadership experience in broad areas of maritime to include marine safety, aids to navigation, law enforcement and contingency preparedness. Following his career as a U.S. Coast Guard Officer, Tom served as Executive Director of the United Fisherman of Alaska for 4 years, a statewide commercial fishing organization representing 34 fishing groups whose membership includes over 10,000 fishermen. Tom currently compliles and disseminates Fishnotes, serves as an advocate for new and growing seafood and related businesses and operates his own Emergency Management, Maritime and Fisheries Consulting Business. Tom resides in Juneau, Alaska and can be reached at tomgemmellmca@ak.net.
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Buyers Guide - Wild Alaska Salmon Wrap
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Available At Taco-Loco
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In 2008 At Your Local Grocer
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Alaska School Nutrition Association
Conference and Show
December 4th-6, 2007
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage Air Cargo
Holiday Social, 5-7:30
December 6, 2007
Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum
Fancy Food Show
January 13-15
San Diego, California
Japan International Seafood & Technology
Jan. 23-24, 2008
Osaka, Japan
Cool Chain Europe
January 28-30, 2008
Brussels, Belgium
Pacific Fisheries Technologists Conference
February 3-6, 2008
San Francisco, California
Symphony of Seafood
January 31, 2008
Anchorage, Alaska
Boston Seafood Show
February 24-26
Boston, Massachussets
Alaska Diversified Livestock Association
February 21-22, 2008
Anchorage, Alaska
Natural Products Expo West
March 13-16, 2008
Anaheim, California
Seoul International Seafood Show
Mar. 27-30, 2008
Seoul, South Korea
National Restaurant Show
May 17-20, 2008
Chicago, Illinois
Japan Int'l Seafood & Technology
July 2008
Tokyo, Japan
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