Fish Factor

Alaska claimed the top three fishing ports for landings again last year, and led all U.S. states in terms of seafood landings and values. 

“The Alaska port of Dutch Harbor continued to lead the nation with the highest amount of seafood landings – 761.8 million pounds, 87 percent of which was walleye pollock,” said Dr. Richard Merrick in announcing the national rankings last week from the annual Fisheries of the U.S. report for 2014.

It’s the 18th year in a row that Dutch Harbor has claimed the top spot for fish landings. Kodiak ranked second and the Aleutian Islands was number three, thanks to Trident’s plant at Akutan, the nation’s largest seafood processing facility. In all, 13 Alaska communities made the top 50 list for landings: Alaska Peninsula (8), Naknek (10), Sitka (14), Ketchikan (15), Cordova (16), Petersburg (20), Bristol Bay (23), Seward (27), Kenai (34) and Juneau (45).

In terms of the value of all that seafood, Dutch Harbor was second at $191 million, coming in behind New Bedford, MA for the 15th consecutive year. The relatively small 140 million pound catch at that New England port was worth nearly $330 million at the docks, due to the pricey Atlantic scallop fishery.

Other highlights:

Alaska led all states in total seafood landings of 5.7 billion pounds, and total value at $1.7 billion.

Alaska accounted for nearly 95 percent of all salmon landings, with West Coast states making up the rest. 

The Pacific halibut fishery accounted for all but 101,000 pounds of the 23.2 million pound landings last year. Average price to fishermen was $4.94 a pound, compared to $3.89 the previous year.

Alaska has 150 processing plants employing nearly 11,000.

The average exvessel price paid to U.S. fishermen was 57 cents per pound last year compared to 55 cents in 2013.

Nearly half of the world’s seafood consumption comes from aquaculture;  the US ranks fourteenth in production.

Americans ate 14.6 pounds of fish and shellfish last year, pretty much unchanged from the past several years.

The NOAA report also includes U.S. recreational marine fishing data and much more.http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/publications.html

Trawlers turn to pot - One of the tools being talked about to help trawlers reduce salmon and halibut bycatch is the opportunity to voluntarily convert to pot gear to catch Pacific cod. It’s an option being discussed by North Pacific Fishery Management Council as they craft a trawl bycatch

reduction plan for the Gulf of Alaska.

“What the Council is trying to do is give the fleet tools to fish in a way that is going to get less bycatch, and thus keep the fisheries open longer, because the amount of bycatch that is taken can constrain a fishery,” said Sam Cunningham, a Council economist.  “If you’re not in a race for fish, one strategy would be to use pot gear instead of trawl gear.”

Currently, if the Gulf trawl fleet takes 7,500 Chinook salmon, or 3.8 million pounds of halibut, fisheries for cod, flounders and other groundfish are shut down. 

Cod is the only groundfish species included because it

currently can be taken

with both trawl and pot gear.  A focus now, Cunningham said, is on crafting protections and catch accounting methods to make sure trawl converts would not infringe on the catches

designated to other gears.

“The trawl, hook and line, pot and jig sectors all have specific P-cod allocations,” he said, “and we want to maintain that.”

There are about 20 trawl catcher/processors and 70 catcher vessels operating in the Gulf of Alaska, homebased mostly at Kodiak, Sand Point and King Cove.

Comments wanted - Mariners have until November 16 to comment on plans to pull the plug on a GPS signal still counted on by many tugs, barges, ferries and

fishing boats. Claiming declining usage, the federal

government intends to shut down 62 Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) sites across the country onJanuary 15, 2016, leaving 22 sites available to users in coastal areas.  Alaska currently has 15 DGPS sites; six are scheduled to close. The DGPS was brought on line in 1999 to supplement satellite-based GPS by providing better accuracy using land-based reference stations to transmit correction messages over radio beacon frequencies. “What we’ve

discovered is that the technology for GPS satellites and receivers has increased so much, the need to have so many signals really isn’t there

anymore,” said Petty Officer John Gallagher who serves aboard the USCG Cutter Spar based in Kodiak. “A Federal Aviation Administration study in 2014 showed that GPS without the Differential antenna signal achieved accuracy of

position of less than one meter, in most cases.”

Lt. Commander Doug Jannusch, captain of the Spar, agreed.

“We’re out there in the Aleutians with our ship

positioning buoys to very

high accuracy and not using

differential antennas.

“If it’s good enough for us,

it’s also sufficient for

people to safely navigate waterways.”

Others argue that’s fine for open seas, but operating in harbors, fjords and other tight spots prevent the line of sight. Nearly all of the 36 comments posted so far on the Dept. of Transportation website expressed concerns about decommissioning the DGPS.

“Our daily operation requires an accurate DGPS signal for position making in the narrow waterways of Southeast Alaska. This is especially important during times of inclement weather when standard piloting methods and RADAR become limited,” wrote Wayne Carnes, captain of the High Speed Craft Fairweather. My ship travels at 36kts while carrying 250 passengers and 40 vehicles - so an accurate position is critical. The redundancy of these stations ensures that we get the needed accuracy at all times.”