Salmon isn't the only lure for commercial fishermen this time of year.
Halibut season also is open, and in some places crab!
Take Norton Sound, for example, where the summer red king crab fishery opened today with a quota of 400,000 pounds.
The fishery begins with a special harvest for the federal Community Development Quota program, which reserves 7.5 percent or 30,000 pounds for CDQ crabbers.
A general fishery for the remaining 370,000 pounds "will open later at a time to be announced, pending buyer interest," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.
Elsewhere, fishermen in Southeast Alaska have been stalking Dungeness crab since the fishery opened on June 15. The total season's catch is expected to exceed 2.25 million pounds, meaning crabbers will enjoy "a normal season length," Fish and Game announced today.
There is also the Norton Sound commercial herring fishery coming up soon.
ReplyDeleteThe Norton Sound crabbers based out of Nome wanted to fish for their own herring bait but they didn't get any support from the regions CDQ program - NSEDC. NSEDC owns and operates Norton Sound Seafood Products based in Nome. They have a monopoly on buying halibut and crab so the fishermen owe their souls to the company store. They are getting screwed big time because in reality, it's those same fishermen that are the stakeholders of the Public Monies that makes it possible for the operation of Norton Sound Seafood Products. Somehow all this got twisted around and now the stakeholders are no better than peons. Their input in the operations of their very own seafood process business is about as close to NIL as possible. That isn't right by golly. It's time to overhaul this farce.