Gulf of Alaska trawlers plan to suspend fishing so they can attend the upcoming North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Portland.
The trawlers are worried about the current direction of long-running efforts to "rationalize" the Gulf groundfish fisheries.
I wonder what the GOA's quarterly trawl halibut by catch numbers look like? I would guess there is another reason they are standing down.....so they don't get shut down for catching too much halibut at the 20% observer rate.....imagine how much the other 80% not being observed has already caught in the first month of the quarter!
ReplyDeleteTime for a bit of actual investigative reporting Deckboss!
IFQ ME!!! I really want to sell out. I'm old and owning a boat is an expensive headache...and uh yeah save the salmons and cannery workers.
ReplyDelete^^^Tom Evich???^^^
ReplyDelete4:05 Your exactly right, we weren't catching any cod but burning through there halibut PSC limit looking for them. The boats were going to shut themselves down anyways to wait for better fishing. It happens pretty much every year, just this year it happened to line up with the meeting. Crappy weather this year too. Nice spin in the announcement though.
ReplyDeleteYes; totally agree with you 4:05...
DeleteThis blog caters to a target audience; people like the first poster exemplify the epitome of ignorance and combativeness that runs rampant around here...
8:48 are you just trying to start an argument or do you actually something interesting to say?
ReplyDeleteI somewhat misread 5:42's post; and responded based on what I interpreted.
ReplyDeleteNo, not trying to start an argument.
Regarding the "spin" on the announcement, don't really know how to interpret that one. There's a couple of things going on right now...Both Kodiak and WG trawl fleets have agreed to refrain from fishing from the 3rd to the 6th - in an effort to encourage maximum attendance at that NPFMC meeting in Portland. Sure, there have been stand downs in the past - but it's my understanding that an entire Gulf Wide refrain from trawl fishing is relatively unheard of.
The Kodiak fleet has also been on a voluntary stand down since the 25th - due to the high rate of Halibut PSC, and the fact that under NMFS's precautionary approach, the directed fishery was forecasted to have shut down after about a week of fishing time.
Just like the post contrasting the price of Wild Salmon vs. Farmed; the entries on here contain little more than a figment of information or opinion, and the commenters fill in the rest. Whether it's personal interjection and convolution, rather than fact doesn't seem to matter much.
I understand that Wesley is certainly busy with Pacific Fishing... But, I think Deckboss could really go somewhere if there was a little more substance and regularity to the news that gets posted here. Seems like it's mostly progressed into links to Op-Eds and press releases...
"IFQ ME!!! I really want to sell out. I'm old and owning a boat is an expensive headache...and uh yeah save the salmons and cannery workers."
ReplyDeleteOne of the most honest posts I've ever read on DB...
These GOA trawlers are really finding themselves in a tough spot, they are few in number but have almost everyone against them. To put some context around the big uproar just look at their numbers.
ReplyDeleteTheir have been nine non pelagic deliveries this year with an average PSC rate of 102kg/Metric tons of halibut, in other words over 10% of the catch is halibut. Actually, its "dead" halibut since the rate is based on mortality. Through 2015 the got it down to about 2.9%. Good on them for making the decision to shut down, but what does it say about a fishery if the only option to keep operating is to not fish?
ND
Something's fishy here.
ReplyDeleteGulf trawlers have a tough situation on price as well. Its hard to make a living at 8 cents a pound. Problem is that the Kodiak plants, other than Trident are undercapitslized in terms of their process capabilities. They can't attain recoveries that the big guys out west get, and they don't have the equipment to move into the right finished product form. Some of these guys are still deending on H&G. That's a loser. If course, Trident will ride along at the low price, no doubt shedding crocodile tears all the way.
ReplyDeleteI don't think price is what is putting trawlers in a tough spot. Sure the base price on lots of their fisheries is low, but they work in huge volumes. Don't forget they always get the little bit of cod and black cod bycatch, which bumps up the average. If you think they are doing bad. Go down to the any cannery and you will see most of the trawlers have had major upgrades in the last 10 years (wheelhouse, sponson). There real problem is that they are going to see increased regulation burden.
ReplyDeleteOn Trident, they pump out lots of finished product. They just don't process finished product in AK, its all done down south.
http://www.tridentseafoods.com/company/plants_nw.php
ND
The other factor affecting price is probably the lessened competition in combination with higher quotas. Remember there is one less big processor in Kodiak since Western Alaska was sold to Trident. In the Bering Sea fishery, the competition was minimal to begin with, due to the coop structure and processor ownership of trawlers. But, given the weakness of Icicle (something is fundamentaly not right there.......why is taking a year and a half to sell this company)competition is almost non existent.
ReplyDelete