The National Marine Fisheries Service recently released a court-ordered draft environmental impact statement, intended to be the first step in resolving the decades-long debate over Steller sea lion protection measures in the western Aleutians. Last week, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council reviewed the document, and if their reaction is any indication, it’s not going to be a cure-all.
For the past year, pollock and cod fishing off Kodiak has been booming -- but processing plants in town say they aren’t seeing enough of that business. That’s because more than 14 million pounds of pollock and cod caught near Kodiak during the 2012 "B" season was shipped to plants in Akutan, King Cove, and Sand Point.
Matt Moir, the plant manager for Alaska Pacific Seafoods, made an impassioned plea to Kodiak city council at a recent meeting.
The Bering Sea snow crab season is almost over, but the final stretch is shaping up to be icy.
As of Tuesday, 89 percent of the 66 million pound harvest had been landed, and two-thirds of vessels had checked out of the fishery, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The remaining 22 boats could get shut out of the crab grounds this week.
The Environmental Protection Agency has fined Aleutian Leader Fisheries $59,000 for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
The company owns the 94-foot F/V Judi B, which processes groundfish and dumps the waste into federal waters off the coast of Alaska. The EPA requires vessels to self-report their seafood waste discharge, but the Judi B wasn’t doing that, according to compliance officer Chris Gebhardt.
McDonald’s bet on their new Fish McBites to help lift the company out of financial doldrums this winter. The gamble didn’t pay off: The new product didn’t sell very well, and it’s going to be pulled from the menu at the end of March.
But as KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, the McBites experiment wasn’t a total flop -- at least, not for Alaskan fishermen.
The Kulluk and the Xiang Rui Kou heavy lift vessel are no longer in Captains Bay -- but the ships aren’t leaving Unalaska just yet. The vessels have been moved to Broad Bay, says Coast Guard Lt. Jim Fothergill. They’ll stay there until Friday, when they’re scheduled to leave for Singapore.
Shell has pushed back the departure twice now. Fothergill says he doesn’t know the reason for the delays, and a Shell spokesman did not return requests for information.
After three weeks in port, Shell’s Kulluk drill rig is set to leave Unalaska tomorrow.
The rig has been loaded on the Xiang Rui Kou heavy lift ship in Captains Bay. Coast Guard Lt. Jim Fothergill says the vessels are scheduled to leave at 10 p.m. Tuesday night. That was pushed back from today.
Fothergill wouldn’t say why the plan changed, but he says efforts to secure the rig are still going well. Once they leave Unalaska, the vessels are bound for Singapore, where the Kulluk will be repaired.
The executive in charge of Shell's troubled Arctic drilling program is stepping down.
David Lawrence was Shell's vice president for North American exploration. He's been with the company for almost 30 years. Now, a spokesman says he's leaving "by mutual consent."
Shell won't say whether Lawrence's departure has anything to do with the 2012 drilling season. But it's only been a week since the Department of the Interior released its review of Shell's Arctic program. Interior's investigators said Shell wasn't fully prepared for the logistical challenges it faced in the Arctic.
Preparations are officially underway for the Kulluk drill rig’s trip to Asia.
Early Tuesday morning, three tugboats maneuvered the Shell rig out of its berth in Unalaska and onto the deck of the Xiang Rui Kou heavy lift vessel. More than a dozen residents headed down to the beach along Captains Bay Road to watch the operation.
Before crews got started, marine pilot Carter Whalen said they would have a hard time moving the Kulluk because of its domed shape.
