Bristol Bay Fisheries Report

Is there room for young captains in the Alaska fishery?

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Is there room for young captains in the Alaska fishery?:

The “Graying of the fleet” was the subject of the last State Legislature’s Fisheries Caucus earlier this spring —demonstrating that the aging demographic of Alaska’s fishing fleet is not just a concern for old fishermen sipping coffee at Petersburg’s coastal cold storage sandwich shop or taking tea in their Naknek living room. It’s a state-wide concern with economic ramifications. Melati Kaye has the details.

Late Season Togiak fishery bigger than in years past

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:38:18 -0400

Late Season Togiak fishery bigger than in years past :

The Togiak fishing district season opened to all Bristol bay drift boats on Wednesday and both biologists and processors say that the effort there is higher this year than in the recent past. However, the cohos—that characterize the end of the season fishery there—haven’t shown up in numbers yet. Melati Kaye has the details.

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report July 29th, 2011

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:33:09 -0400

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report July 29th, 2011:

The last one for the season: On today’s program, we’ll check in with the Bay’s few remaining fisheries in Togiak and the Nushagak. We’ll hear about the concerns of academics and policy makers in the state over the graying of the fishing fleet and the out-migration of Alaskan permits to the lower 48. And vegetables—could that be another use for fish guts?

On the behalf of the Stewardship Council or MSC, independent certification body, Moody Marine...

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:30:17 -0400

On the behalf of the Stewardship Council or MSC, independent certification body, Moody Marine Limited, has awarded MSC certification to three British Columbia pink salmon fisheries.

The three fisheries are located in the Fraser River mainstream and tributaries, the waters north of Vancouver Island, including the Strait of Georgia, Toba Inlet and Jervis Inlet. And the waters east of Queen Charlotte Islands, off the mainland.

Pink Salmon spawn in two-year cycles and BC pink runs return to their natal streams in odd years.

Seine boats catch 90-95 percent of BC’s commercial pink salmon harvest. The remaining 5-10 percent are caught with troll or gillnet gear.

In 2009, the cumulative commercial catch of pinks off the coast BC coast was 13,400 metric tonnes or 29.5 million pounds, according to Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Marine Stewardship council is an international non-profit organisation set up to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. They run the only “wild capture fisheries” certification that meet guidelines with both the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization and ISEAL—a London-based association that creates standards to help consumers make socially and environmentally ethical food choices.

Over 250 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 126 certified and 131 under full assessment. Another 40 to 50 fisheries are in confidential pre-assessment.Certified fisheries currently land over five million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to six percent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 10,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.

Story Begins An Look at the 2011 Sockeye Season

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Story Begins An Look at the 2011 Sockeye Season:

There have been many adjectives used to describe the 2011 sockeye salmon season in Bristol Bay. They include STRANGE… DISAPPOINTING… and AVERAGE. KDLG’s Mike Mason looked over the data… spoke to some stakeholders and experts… and filed this report

Dramatic Rescue in Nushagak Bay

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Dramatic Rescue in Nushagak Bay:

3 people were rescued in dramatic fashion last Sunday in Nushgak Bay. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the details

New report says Bering Sea pollock not overfished

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

New report says Bering Sea pollock not overfished :

A new report confirms that the Pollock biomass in the Bering Sea is not currently overfished nor at risk of being overfished in the near future. KDLG’s Mike Mason has the story.

Story Begins Naknek Celebrates End of Fishing Season with 'Fishtival'

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Story Begins Naknek Celebrates End of Fishing Season with 'Fishtival' :

They were kicking up their heels in Naknek this weekend for ‘Fishtival’ – their end-of-the-fishing-season festival. Daysha Eaton was there and has some highlights

Halibut fishermen harvest a third of CDQ quota

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:27:20 -0400

Halibut fishermen harvest a third of CDQ quota:

Bristol Bay halibut fishermen caught a little more than 35,000 pounds or a third of their quota so far this year. Melati Kaye has the details.

Leader Creek creates new boat storage and repair yard

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:26:01 -0400

For Bristol Bay fishing vessels and tenders looking for more space to store or repair boats in, there’s a new spot in Naknek. In fact, it may be the Northern and western most boatyard in Alaska that can deal with vessels 100 feet and larger.

Leader Creek Seafoods is making available boat storage and repair space in the 8 acres from it’s waterfront to its processing plant.

Norm Van Vactor is the manager of Leader Creek Seafoods’s Naknek plant. He said that while the plant owns the space, they expect to source repairmen locally.

The provisional boat yard was Leader Creek founder John Lowrance’s idea and project of many years. It consists of a long concrete boat ramp with an electric winch at the top. The winch can haul out boats up to 150 by 54 feet in length and breadth and 600 tons worth in weight.

Van Vactor explained that “bunks”—which are essentially heavy duty, narrow trailer beds—can be linked up into trains to haul ever-larger boats.

As per the claim to being the Northern and western most large boat boatyard in Alaska, Van Vactor acknowledges that Kodiak does have a large marine lift that can take boats with deeper keels.

Last winter was the first time the yard was used. Van Vactor said to date, the facility’s cornerstone customer is Crowley Maritime barge services.

To sign up to get hauled out for storage or repair, interested fishermen can visit the Leader Creek Fisheries main office, where there is also a list of available local repairmen.

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 22nd, 2011

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:17:00 -0400

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 22nd, 2011:

On today’s program, we’ll hear from biologists about what goes into a season forecast and what might have missed this year, Bob Waldrop of the BBRSDA reflects on some of the projects the association funded this year. We’ll hear about the season was for halibut and sujiko—and tenders, don’t want to take your boat home? There’s a new Naknek yard to store it in.

Japanese anticipate Bristol Bay Sujiko down by a third

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:16:34 -0400

Japanese anticipate Bristol Bay Sujiko down by a third :

Roe—or fish eggs—make up four percent of sockeye round weight and eight percent of chum round weight, according to the Department of Commerce’s recoveries and yield table for pacific fish and shellfish.

In Bristol Bay, processors process salmon into various products but their highest profits per pound comes from roe products like sujiko and ikura. Sujiko are salted roe skeins sold mostly in Japan. And some of the most highly priced sujiko comes from wild Sockeye salmon. Ikura is essentially caviar, brined fish eggs that have been pulled out of their skeins. Ikura is mostly sold to eastern European or Russian markets and is much higher priced than sujiko.

With the record catches seen in the Bay in recent years, the possibilities of the roe market are huge.

Last year, with a total harvest of 31 million fish, Bristol Bay sold 850 tons of sujiko to Japanese buyers at $4.53 a pound—that’s more than the wholesale price for frozen and fresh H+G sockeye and only slightly less than the $5.06 offered for frozen sockeye fillets.

Earlier this week, Japanese Trade publication Minato Tsukiji reported that Japanese buyers are expecting this year’s harvest to only yield 550 to 600 tons of sujiko. That’s 63-70 percent the amount sold last year.

However, Minato also reported that Japanese buyers still managed to see a silver lining in this year’s harvest.

At 6.1 pounds, the average female Bay sockeye was larger this year, which resulted in higher roe recovery.

Exporters and Japanese buyers are expected to start price negotiations this week but an initial price of $5 a pound has already been batted around. That’s pretty close to the $4.93 Bristol Bay sujiko sold for last year.

In part, that stable price might have a cultural reason.

Joe Jacobson is the director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s International Program. He says that while demand for other fish egg products has dropped in Japan, sujiko is still a main stay.

“Sujiko is a Japanese item so if demand was to drop off in japan,” he said. “There would be a noticeable difference since there are no other markets.”

Andy Wink is an economic analyst with the McDowell group. He added that as Japan goes about rebuilding after the earthquake they experienced in March, the yen is showing up stronger than the American dollar, since Japan is selling more assets and demanding more yen for investment funds. And for the Alaskan seafood industry, that means that even if Japanese seafood prices stay the same as last year, they will appear higher to American seafood sellers.

“Even if the price doesn’t change from our point of view,” he said. “It will appear cheaper to Japanese buyers.”

Minato reported that Japanese buyers and Alaskan seafood exporters would be settling on a price this week

A Bristol Bay fish receipt—In Bristol Bay, fishermen...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:25:04 -0400

A Bristol Bay fish receipt—In Bristol Bay, fishermen don’t know the per pound price they will get for their catch until the end of the season. Here’s an example: 3,266 pounds of sockeye from the Egegik district in late June, price tag: $0.00

$1 is the median take-home price posted by Bristol Bay processers

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:11:00 -0400

Melati Kaye

Many processors around Bristol Bay have posted early settlement prices with their fishermen. However these prices are subject to post-season adjustments.

Snopac Products is buying fish at $1 a pound—which matches the price that fishermen are reporting for Peter Pan, Alaska General Seafoods, Yard Arm Knot and Trident Seafoods.

Icicle Seafoods said their early price was 90 cents a pound. Leader Creek fishermen said they received 92 cents a pound for fish that had been bled, chilled and passed down a salmon slide.

Togiak Seafoods is still offering $1.25 a pound for iced and bled sockeye salmon.

Ekok Fisheries said they have not posted a price yet.

These prices do not include bonuses for chilling fish. And as mentioned before, these prices are subject to post-season adjustments.

Veteran bay fishermen, like BBRSDA boardmember, Chris McDowell who fishes on the F/V Sumo, say it’s been almost a decade since the Bay has seen such high prices.

“The starting base price of a dollar, as far as I know, we haven’t seen that since the mid-1990. It’s been quite some times since we’ve seen a dollar.

The Alaska Independent Fishermen’s Marketing Association has tracked fishermen’s reported price per pound from 2006 to 2010 with the exception of 2007.

According to the prices they’ve received from AIFMA member fishermen, the average price offered in 2006 was 60 cents a pound with Leader Creek leading the pack at 77 cents a pound. This relationship stayed true in 2008, with an average price of 68 to 71 cents a pound and Leader Creek offering 95 cents a pound. In 2009, most processors offered 70 cents a pound and in 2010, the average price stood at 95-97 cents.

In a year of lower catch numbers, a good price helps, says McDowell, who helps put together the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s Statewide Salmon Price Report.

“This wasn’t a great season but it was nice to see a good strong price, it’s nice to see that the elasticity back in play”

2011 Sockeye Run to Bristol Bay Comes in Below Forecast... Why?

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

2011 Sockeye Run to Bristol Bay Comes in Below Forecast... Why?:

With some sockeye still trickling into Bristol Bay it looks like the total run will get to about 30-million fish. That’s significantly below the preseason forecasts. KDLG’s Mike Mason examined how the forecasts are generated and what might be to blame for the smaller than forecast run this year.

Assistant Biologist Matt Jones pitches a salmon carcass into the...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:03:12 -0400

Assistant Biologist Matt Jones pitches a salmon carcass into the Wood River.

Dillingham 8th grader Valerie Esson watches ADFG technicians measure the length of sockeye from their beach seine.

The Salmon camp crew pull the ADFG beach seine net.

In an effort to diversify Alaskan seafood’s marketing base to...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:42:14 -0400

In an effort to diversify Alaskan seafood’s marketing base to include countries other than Japan, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is running a two week tour of the state for …chefs!

A group of Michelin star chefs from some of the most prominent restaurant from regions of France are visiting processors and communities in Kodiak, Anchorage.

Next week, Celebrity chef form the United Kingdom will be filming two episodes of his prime time morning television show.

Joe Jacobson is the director of ASMI’s international marketing program.

He says it is important to let people taste the difference between Alaskan wild caught salmon and salmon from other regions or raisedwith aquaculture. But even more important, especially for Alaskan salmon, is the environmental and cultural story of the product…and that is best understood as an experience.

Economists positive about sockeye markets

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:17:00 -0400

Economists positive about sockeye markets:

As drift boats start filling storage yards around the Bay and setnetters head to the airport, the question weighing on fishermen and processors’ minds is what will the base price for Bristol Bay sockeye be? KDLG’s Melati Kaye looked into some of the cultural and market factors that go into that question and filed this report.

http://kdlg.org/news/archive.php?id=1350

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:15:56 -0400

http://kdlg.org/news/archive.php?id=1350:

And now for a moment in the sunshine—with Salmon Camp—Local middle and high school students spent some time at the Wood River counting towers recently learning what goes into daily run summaries and pre-season forecasts.KDLG Fisheries Reporter Melati Kaye tagged along and filed this report.

First Processor layoffs head out--to where?

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:13:18 -0400

First Processor layoffs head out--to where?:

Facing the season’s ever shrinking number of fish per set late last week, many fishermen and processors began to cut their losses….by pulling their boats out of the water and sending deckhands and cannery workers home. Melati Kaye stopped by the King Salmon airport last week to see the first human effects of a fish run that came in earlier and smaller than expected.