Five crewmen from a burning fishing vessel in the western Aleutian Chain are safe after being rescued by a nearby good Samaritan.

The crew of the 59-foot Kodiak-based longliner Western Venture were safely picked up by the Aleutian Beauty, after their vessel caught fire Sunday morning. 

Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

Alaska's king crab fishing furlough is over.

Most of the fleet received their quota permits from the National Marine Fisheries Service by the end of the day Thursday.

F/V Handler's Chris Simpson scrubs bait jars. / Credit: Lauren Rosenthal

Tuesday was the official opening of Alaska’s king crab season. About a half a dozen boats catching community development quota, issued by the state, got to head out and start fishing.

But as KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, hundreds of other fishermen were stuck in port, waiting for the federal government to reopen and issue their crab permits.

Instead of plying the Bering Sea, Chris Simpson of the F/V Handler spent the day up to his elbows in hot soapy water.

Although the federal government shutdown is threatening to delay the opening of the crab season next week, fishermen -- and state biologists -- are getting prepared anyways.

This week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game finished writing up catch limits for all of the state’s crab fisheries. And on Friday morning, Fish and Game biologist Doug Pengilly spent a few hours explaining the science behind those limits to fishermen in Seattle, with crabbers joining in from Kodiak and Unalaska by phone.

As it stands, the Bering Sea crab harvest is on hold until fishermen receive their permits from federal government. But three Pacific Northwest congressional leaders have an idea to get the season back on schedule.

Credit: Ben Matheson

The thousands of cargo ships that sail through Unimak Pass will soon meet nasty fall storms. As a port of refuge, Unalaska is where they will go in emergencies -- and the city's new emergency mooring buoy is where they'll tie up.

But as KUCB’s Ben Matheson reports, the buoy is going to need some support of its own.

Fishermen are gearing up for the opening of the Bering Sea's lucrative crab season. But they may be off to a late start this year, because of the federal government shutdown.

State managers set catch limits. But the National Marine Fisheries Service is supposed to divide up the crab and assign individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, to boats.

"There's nobody on staff with National Marine Fisheries Service [who is] available to issue IFQs as they are furloughed," says Heather Fitch.

Courtesy of ADFG

There will be one fewer fishery to go after when the Bering Sea crab harvest kicks off this month.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is shutting down the St. Matthew blue king crab fishery. This isn't the first time that St. Matt's crab has been declared off limits: It was previously shut down for a decade due to overfishing. 

The stock recovered enough to support a commercial harvest starting in 2009. And last year, fishermen took the entire quota of 1.6 million pounds. But recent surveys have shown that the crab are on the decline again, prompting the new closure.

Last weekend, a large wind storm drove the fishing vessel Chaos aground just outside Unalaska. Rough weather delayed a Coast Guard air rescue of the boat’s crew. As KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal reports, it might keep salvagers away, too.