The chief operator of Prince William Sound salmon hatcheries is again asking for permission to expand production of pink salmon, having been denied last year.
The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., based in Cordova, wants a combined 22 percent increase in pink salmon production capacity for its Armin F. Koernig, Cannery Creek and Wally Noerenberg hatcheries.
Such an expansion is controversial.
In denying the production increase last year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game raised a number of concerns including hatchery salmon straying into streams, potentially harming the genetic integrity of wild salmon.
PWSAC, however, says in its application letter that this genetic threat is "theoretical speculation."
Besides, the market is hungry for more pink salmon, PWSAC says.
Well, Deckboss is sure he has given a most inadequate summary of the above-referenced correspondence, and so he urges you to read it for yourself.
Alaska commercial fishing news and notes
About me
- Deckboss
- I'm a journalist covering Alaska's commercial fishing industry. My real name is Wesley Loy. Reach me at wloy61@gmail.com.
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20 comments:
We all know by now that an ocean has a finite carrying capacity. These pinks feed on the same ocean pasture as Southeast, Kodiak, and Penninsula Pinks; these fish may in essence be stealing food resources destined for other stocks. The only way for these other regions to combat this will , of course, be to build more hatcheries of their own, pumping more and more fish into an ever dwindling food supply, anyone else see a problem here?
Agree with anonymous about the carrying capacity of the ocean. Please do not send more fish out to compete with the wild stocks!
Haven't we all heard about the abundance of dead pinks on the beaches of PWS? Haven't we heard about Valdez grinding up the pinks that there isn't a market for by the time the season is ending? From what I know about supply and demand, the more there is of a product, the less we get per pound of that product. I do not see this as a way of increasing the value of any of our fish. But processors have more lobbyists than fishermen do and they are mobilized to get the ear of lawmakers. More hatcheries is NOT a good idea and will not result in a more sustainable fishery. MSC will watch this move and Alaska's MSC labeling will be at stake.
some other countries are doing away with TRAWLERS because they realize almost too late that it is a very distructive way of FISHING, WHEN will it be realized?
Yo, Mr. Anonymous #3 (@10:33 am):
What the fuck does that have to do with hatchery humpies?
And PWSAC's "theoretical speculation" on the pink market???
The genetic study... besides the market is hungry...let flood it in the future...$.05 is a fovorite magic number.
I'm curious, does Dr. Smoker support PWSAC's "More is better", and "a pink is a pink" approach" to aquaculture? There have been too many MILLIONS of PWS hatchery pinks left to die, stray, rot or inundate wild streams late into the fall to even contemplate approving an increase. The only way PWS can handle current production is if Kodiak and S.E. are average or below average. If those returns are big, the PWS processors tend to "run out of tin" by mid-August, or whenever they have their desired case pack. Last year was a fluke that worked in PWS's favor. The next time, the waste could foul the air from Valdez to Anchorage.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
my fish is cheaper than your fish, aquaculture rules. the end buying fish..that is what they want.
Unless we are loosing market share due to not being able to fulfill orders, let market demand increase the value of the catch. Otherwise, it would be unwise to stress the system unnecessarily. Kodiak and the Peninsula should establish hatcheries quickly if this trend is to continue.
Man, Anonymous gets smarter and smarter everyday. I am seeing a trend here! Keep the info rollin.
Mr. Anonymous
What Deckboss FAILED to mention was that ADF&G staff also recommended against increasing sockeye and chum production, but they were overruled by the commissioner:
1) Main Bay sockeye from 10.2 to 12.4 million eggs, and 2) AFK chum salmon program with an increase from 17 million to 34 million eggs.
What a bunch of whining and crying fishers. Get a life!!!
SO CATCHING FISH SPAWNED IN BUCKETS IS A LIFE??
You know the whiners and cryers...
Those spawned in a bucket...
"...Generic intregrity and the wild stock...
Get a Life???
For the fisher who believes salmon come from a hatchery, and abortions belong to nature!!!
Tha Abortion Report at PWSAC.
http://deckboss.blogspot.com/2009/08/hatchery-operator-gone-astray.html
The hatchery efforts in Price William Sound have basically ruined the pink fishery in Lower Cook Inlet outer district, maybe even in Kachemak Bay. I say stop them. If the State really was interested in preserving genetic diversity, PSWAC would have never happened.
West coast rivers south of Alaska have been dammed, the watersheds farmed, and the water reallocated. The North Pacific currently supports only a fractions of the millions of beautiful wild salmon that once returned to those rivers and there exists underutilized biological productivity. PWSAC and other hatcheries in Alaska turn a portion of that available productivity into human food and jobs, thereby bettering the lives of many thousands of people.
Im not sure more pink salmon in pws will raise the flesh designation from "the other white meat" to the more desirable and valuable pink flesh, color grade. If only we weren't so greedy.
Or so hypocritical with our hatcheries and our dams (unanimous vote for Susitna studies). But, what the hell, build another dam, justify another hatchery . . .
Greenies in F&G managment worrying about "hatchery salmon straying into streams potentially harming the genetic integrity of wild salmon." Up here in the Norton Sound area the management got miles and miles with that "genetic integrity of wild salmon." so that now the small rivers and streams are hitting the Endangered Levels and have been for going on 20+ years!
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