Chatham Annual Sablefish Harvest Objective Announced
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced on May 31 that the 2017 Chatham commercial sablefish fishery annual harvest objective (AHO) is 720,250 round pounds.
There are 78 valid Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) permits for 2017, so the individual equal quota share (EQS) is 9,234 round pounds – a 10.7% increase from the 2016 EQS of 8,343 round pounds.
Read the full press release here.
Photo courtesy of Steve Fish.
The People Behind the Fish: Linda Behnken
Our executive director Linda Behnken was recently interviewed as part of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute's "People Behind the Fish" series. Check out the full interview here.
Raffle Tickets Are Here!
ALFA's annual fish raffle fundraiser is underway! You can purchase your tickets from an ALFA Board Member, at the ALFA Office, or at Old Harbor Books. And if you run into Gary Egerton, Steve Fish, Eric Jordan, or Jeff Farvour, please thank them for donating fish to ALFA's only fundraiser!
Fish 101
Marine safety information bulletin released: official Coast Guard document renewal process
A message from Steve Ramp:
Your Southeast Alaska Fishing Vessel Examiners have been getting
numerous complaints from owners of commercial fishing vessels regarding a
new company that is sending out unsolicited letters and offering to perform
Documentation services for them. We (led by Mr. Jim Paul at MSD Ketchikan)
have worked with the Coast Guard's Vessel Documentation Office and the
Seventeenth District legal office in Juneau and have been able to get the
attached Marine Safety Information Bulletin developed which provides
information to vessel owners concerning the Coast Guard's official document
renewal process.
Please give this document the widest dissemination possible to your
Association's membership. As always, anyone is welcome to contact me if
they have any questions concerning this issue.
NEW RESEARCH ABOUT JUVENILE SABLEFISH
First observations of fine-scale juvenile sablefish movements in the wild reveal behavioral patterns that may influence survival
By: Christine Baier
Sablefish, butterfish, black cod – by any name, people call this fish delicious. Its delicate texture, buttery flavor and rich omega-3 content add up to a high value fishery: while sablefish make up a small portion of commercial catch by volume, their high price generates a lot of income for Alaska’s seafood industry—a big economic bang per fish.
To keep a fishery productive over time, managers need to know how fish populations respond to environmental changes and human activity. Understanding how these factors influence survival of vulnerable juvenile fish is crucial to predicting and ensuring recruitment (the number of fish that grow to a size commercially profitable to catch) to the fishery.
Despite their value in the seafood industry, there is a lot we don’t know about sablefish.
Photo: A juvenile sablefish, tagged and ready to be released back into the wild. Photo: Kari Fenske, NOAA Fisheries
There's nothing modern about overfishing
BY MONICA GOLDBERG
A recently-filed bill with the upbeat title “The Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act,” H.R. 2023, would unfortunately do just the opposite. By gutting one of the most important improvements of modern fisheries law, we believe that this bill would move us backwards to a time of widespread overfishing.
Hybrid Propulsion Vessels in Alaska's Longline and Troll Fisheries
This summary for fishermen was written by researchers that audited fishing vessels as part of ALFA's fuel efficiency program to determine which energy inefficiencies exist in typical fishing vessel use.
Through their study, the authors found that retrofitting a vessel with an advanced power system will likely save one to three thousand gallons of fuel per year, depending on the type of power system installed and the design of the original system. The cost, risk, and time required to implement each proposed propulsion system will need to be assessed separately to determine whether the fuel savings warrant investing in one of these new systems.
Report Introduction:
Fuel savings can be achieved in troll and long line vessels by installing a hybrid drive system. A hybrid drive has two independent power sources that can turn the propeller shaft, allowing the main engine to be powered off under light load conditions. Further savings can be achieved on freezer vessels that often run two engines simultaneously. Additional maintenance cost savings may be achieved by reducing engine hours, particularly on the main.
Read the full report here.
Fish Tales Happy Hour in DC
Will you be in Washington, DC on April 25th? Please join the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association at the Fish Tales happy hour event to meet young fishermen from around the country!
ALFA is bringing several local fishermen to DC next week to educate lawmakers about the importance of the Magnuson Stevens Act, the Young Fishermen's Development Fund bill, and other issues that are important to small boat communities along with the Fishing Communities Coalition, a national advocacy group.
Below you can see more details and the flyer for the event:
