Ron Mitchell drops nets onto the deck of the F/V Seadawn. (Lauren Rosenthal/KUCB)

The Bering Sea’s largest fishery opened up on Tuesday afternoon. Pollock crews are gearing up for a potential increase in their harvest -- while still keeping an open mind about what the winter has in store. 

Within hours of arriving in Unalaska on Tuesday morning, the crew of the Seadawn was back to work. 

"We’ll just get everything on the boat and then we can start organizing it," Ron Mitchell yelled as he stacked extra nets on deck using a crane.

Shell Oil hasn’t given any indication how falling oil prices would affect its Arctic drilling program.

But the company is pulling the plug on another project that’s just as costly.

Bloomberg reports that the company will not build a $6.5 billion petrochemical plant in the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar.

As oil prices continue to plummet, some corporations are scaling back on expensive exploration projects -- like drilling in Arctic waters.

But as KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, one company with a major stake in the region has yet to tip its hand.

Royal Dutch Shell has been quiet about whether it’s still planning to go back to Alaska this summer for the first time in three years.

Adak's processing plant opened in 1999 -- two years after the Navy closed down operations on the island.

The community of Adak depends on its fish processing plant for jobs and tax revenue. But they’ve struggled to keep the lights on over the years.

Now, the plant’s latest operator is looking for new partners to help shoulder the financial burden. KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal has more.

The Adak Cod Cooperative formed in 2013, when two businessmen with experience in salmon fisheries decided to branch out.

(Pipa Escalante/KUCB)

It’s official: Tom Enlow is the new president of UniSea, Unalaska’s biggest seafood processor. The company made the announcement on Friday.

Enlow’s been in line for the top job for two years as vice president of operations, but his promotion comes a little sooner than expected. Former UniSea president Terry Shaff died last November after 16 years in the role.

A big snow crab harvest kept Bering Sea fishermen hard at work through the holidays. Now, it’s overshadowing the start of a major groundfish season, too. 

The Pacific cod fishery kicked off in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands this month. There’s about 250,000 metric tons of Pacific cod up for harvest in state and federal waters.

Federal biologist Krista Milani says normally, pot-gear vessels over 60 feet finish cod before the end of January. But many started this year focused on snow crab -- meaning, she says, that cod season will probably run long.

It’s been two weeks since a proposal to curb halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea trawl fleet went down to defeat. The measure failed by a tie vote before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

But now, several council members are taking steps to pursue a new bycatch limit outside the meeting process.

Acting Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten was among the members who signed a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They requested an emergency bycatch reduction next month, when the new halibut quota comes out from the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Although there's plenty of fish in the water, the Bering Sea's biggest fishery won't get too much bigger in 2015. 

The federal board charged with setting catch limits agreed to put 3 percent more pollock -- or 1.31 million metric tons -- up for harvest next year.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council set the limit this weekend during a meeting in Anchorage. The industry stakeholders and regulators on the board were presented with new data, which shows a substantial increase in the biomass of pollock. 

A third former Westward Seafoods employee has received a suspended sentence for falsifying emissions data at the company’s Unalaska plant.

A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Bryan Beigh to three years probation and a $750 fine on Tuesday. Beigh was an operator at Westward’s powerhouse during the alleged cover-up from 2009 to 2011.