For the past week, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has been meeting in Unalaska. No action there has been more controversial than the announcement that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to put off the implementation of a new halibut catch share plan.
KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez caught up with some of the users who – for better or for worse – will be affected by the delay.
While bycatch of halibut in the Gulf of Alaska and the rebuilding of the Pribilof Islands' king crab stock are the biggest issues at the meeting, the status of Steller sea lion management received some discussion this morning. KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more.
The Port of Dutch Harbor is once again America’s busiest fishing port.
Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its seafood rankings for 2010, and Unalaska tops the list for landings in terms of volume. Approximately 515 million pounds of seafood crossed the docks here last year – that’s almost 100 million more pounds than Reedville, Virginia, the next busiest port. The community has now been first on that list for 22 years in a row.
The quota for Bristol Bay red king crab could be smaller this year.
According to a draft memo obtained by Deckboss blogger Wesley Loy, results from this year’s National Marine Fisheries Service trawl survey have the biomass of legal-sized male crab at just under 34 million pounds -- a 28% decline from last year’s figure. This would be fourth year in a row that biomass has shrunk.
On Wednesday night, a large red drill ship left the Port of Dutch Harbor for the Chukchi Sea. The Fugro Synergy won’t be doing any sort of Arctic drilling, of course, but the vessel will be laying the groundwork for future energy extraction.
Marshall Pounds is the general manager of the Texas-based Fugro Drilling and Well Services. He says that the Synergy will be collecting very shallow geologic core samples up north on behalf of an unnamed operator that hopes to pursue a drilling program eventually. He says that these cores will be collected at depth of about 30 to 50 meters, and that the Synergy will be focusing on an area about 150 miles away from Wainwright. The project should take about three weeks, depending on ice and weather conditions, and Pounds says that the Synergy should be back in Unalaska in about 35 days from now.
Unalaska is home to the busiest fishing port in the world. And the fish that fuels that distinction is pollock. But this pollock season has been a bust so far. And many boat owners have started sending crews home.
A cargo ship with mechanical problems is currently undergoing repairs in Unalaska.
The 975-foot NYK Lodestar first made a distress call last Tuesday. It was traveling from Oakland, California to Busan, South Korea, and it was carrying dry cargo. The vessel took approximately three days to make it to the Port of Dutch Harbor, and it had to circle miles away from the island before the weather cleared up yesterday.
The total allowable catch for golden king crab in the eastern district is set at 3.15 million pounds, with 10 percent of that apportioned to the community development quota groups. In the western district, the TAC is 2.8 million pounds, with 10 percent of that going to the Adak Community Allocation.
The TAC for these two fisheries is set by regulation, and it hovers around 6 million total every year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been working on a population model that could be used to set future quotas, but until that happens, the TAC for golden king crab will remain at this level unless conservation concerns arise.
