Waste of rockfish, cod charged

Details in this press release from the Alaska State Troopers.

Visit our companion blog The Brig for lots more fisheries enforcement news.

Canadian competition

The Wheel Watch, a newsletter of the Seattle-based Fishing Vessel Owners' Association, offers this interesting note:

Something of concern for halibut is that the Canadian Maritime communities will produce 12 to 15 million pounds next year. This begins to rival Alaska landings which are now about 17 million lbs. Harvest limits in Alaska will all likely be reduced in 2025.

A big announcement from Maersk

The shipping giant Maersk today posted this advisory saying in part: "We will no longer be calling terminals in Dutch Harbor and Kodiak on the Transpacific Network in the coming year."

How will this affect Alaska's fishing industry?

Bering Sea pollock stays strong

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recently set the 2025 total allowable catch (TAC) for Alaska groundfish.

Here are the TACs for key fisheries and the percent change from 2024.

BERING SEA AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

Bering Sea pollock, 1,375,000 tons, up 5.8 percent

Bering Sea Pacific cod, 133,602 tons, down 9.6 percent

Bering Sea and Aleutians sablefish, 16,436 tons, no change

GULF OF ALASKA

Pollock, 186,245 tons, down 4.8 percent

Pacific cod, 23,670 tons, down 0.4 percent

Sablefish, 22,836 tons, up 10.6 percent

Here are the council-recommended harvest specifications across all groundfish species for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska.

TACs are subject to U.S. commerce secretary approval.

More marketing money

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute says it has secured $8.5 million in new federal funding to increase international marketing.

"While these funds will help ASMI grow our international efforts, they will also allow ASMI to direct additional state funds toward the U.S. market, where consumer demand for seafood has fallen dramatically," ASMI Executive Director Jeremy Woodrow says in this press release.

Bart Eaton crosses the bar

Bart Eaton, who died Dec. 14, was "an icon in the Alaska fishing industry," says this remembrance from Trident Seafoods.

Juneau watch

Gov. Mike Dunleavy is proposing $10 million for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to spend over a three-year period.

The funding would allow ASMI to implement "a comprehensive marketing plan in the U.S. domestic market to recover lost sales and historically low ex-vessel values across all commercially harvested Alaska seafood species," a budget description says.

One goal of the marketing plan is to "counter the Marine Stewardship Council ecolabel that continues to certify Russian seafood in the global marketplace," the description says.