Governor Sean Parnell has announced his picks for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. 

Two seats will open on the Council in August and Parnell is casting his vote with the Anchorage residents who currently fill them.   Ed Dersham and Dan Hull are both finishing their first full terms as councilors.

Dersham is a charter boat operator and lodge owner in Cook Inlet.  He took his seat on the Council in 2007 after another councilor resigned.  He’s also served on the state’s Board of Fisheries.

With thousands of ships passing through the Aleutian Islands every year along the Great Circle shipping route, it’s inevitable that every once in a while one of them will encounter a problem.

In the past, rough weather and a lack of readily available response resources have resulted in some of those problems turning into disasters.  But since 2009 the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment advisory panel has been working to improve prevention measures and response capabilities in the region.

Despite significant improvements since the early 90s, fishing is still the most deadly profession in Alaska, according to a new report from the state’s Department of Labor.

Sara Verrelli is a research analyst in charge of the state’s occupational fatality census.  She says fishing has made up 30 percent of all workplace deaths in Alaska since 1992, when the census began.  That’s a much higher rate than any other industry.

State Wildlife Troopers have cited two boats for illegal pot cod fishing.  Troopers released the details of the February violations over the weekend. 

Raymond Dushkin of the fishing vessel Desirae Dawn and Melvin Koso Jr of the Melanie Sue were both cited for commercial fishing during a closed season.  The 53-foot Desirae Dawn was fishing near False Pass and the 44-foot Melanie Sue near Cold Bay. 

The Coast Guard is searching for a man overboard near Sand Point, on the Alaska Peninsula.

Petty Officer Jonathan Lally says the Coast Guard received a report around 10:30am Friday from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that a man had gone overboard on the 47-foot fishing vessel Glacier Spirit.  Lally could not say whether the man was wearing survival gear.  

A Dolphin helicopter from the cutter Alex Haley and a C-130 airplane started searching for the man just before noon.  Weather conditions in Sand Point on Friday afternoon are 25 mile per hour winds and 12 foot seas.  

Sea ice is wreaking havoc on the Bering Sea snow crab harvest for the second time this season. 

It happened in a single day.  The ice was way up north, fishing was good, and then overnight the ice was everywhere, covering up pots, blocking harbors and generally causing problems for the crabbers.

National Weather Service ice forecaster Becky Legatt says the Bering Sea ice edge moved south more than 50 miles in a single day last week, effectively shutting down the fishing grounds.

In an incident eerily reminiscent of last week’s fatal accident aboard the Alaska Juris, a flying cable struck a crew member aboard the 327-foot pollock catcher-processor Alaska Ocean on Monday morning. 

The cable hit 47-year-old Franz D’Alquen in the head.  He was lifted from the ship by a passing Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter and taken to Cold Bay for medical transport.  Petty Officer Charly Hengen says D’Alquen’s condition is reported as stable.

A 25-year-old man died aboard a fishing vessel on Thursday after being struck by a snapped cable.

The Coast Guard received a call Thursday morning that the F/V Alaska Juris was in need of a medevac for a crew member who had sustained a head injury. According to Petty Officer Charly Hengen, the Coast Guard launched two Jayhawk helicopters from Unalaska at 10:40am. Once on scene, a rescue swimmer lowered onto the vessel determined that Andrew Fotu of Seattle, Washington, was dead and could not be revived.  The accident is the first fishing vessel fatality of this year.

The Coast Guard is gearing up for a busy Arctic drilling season this summer – and for the protesters that are expected to accompany it. 

The Coast Guard will send its newest national security cutter – the 420 foot Bertholf – to the Arctic for this summer’s open water season.  That’s in addition to a buoy tender and two helicopters. The Guard is preparing for more traffic and anticipated offshore oil drilling through their Arctic Shield effort.    If Shell moves ahead with exploratory drilling this summer, the company expects to have 22 vessels in the region and 6 aircraft. They plan fly more than 300 trips from land to the drilling rigs to ferry 400 employees around.