Taking aim at 'lavish lifestyles'

Congressman Don Young has another idea to get at the Russians: Seize their superyachts.

Firing back at Russia

Amid all the trouble over Ukraine, Alaska members of Congress have introduced bills to ban Russian seafood imports.

Here's a press release from Rep. Don Young, and another from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

Bristol Bay needs help!

The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which represents the commercial driftnet fleet, is sounding multiple alarms.

First, it says processors are in dire need of workers or the upcoming salmon season.

Second, the association is urging all "domestic" processing companies to send whatever floating processing capacity they might have to help handle the epic sockeye run expected this summer in Bristol Bay.

Halibut bust

The U.S. Coast Guard says it boarded a fishing vessel near Kodiak and seized 18 halibut retained out of season.

More details in this news release issued today.

Are processors ready for Bristol Bay's biggest year?

The state is forecasting a potential harvest of nearly 60 million sockeye salmon this summer at Bristol Bay.

But processors intend to purchase only 52 million fish, according to a state survey of companies intending to buy sockeye this year.

If that sounds disappointing, consider that Bristol Bay's best harvest ever was 44.3 million sockeye in 1995.

New skipper for American Seafoods

Bering Sea factory trawl operator American Seafoods has named a new chief executive officer to succeed Mikel Durham, who has "decided to step down."

Millions for processors

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced $50 million in COVID-related grants to seafood processors.

Of this sum, nearly $30.7 million has been allocated to Alaska. Here's the rundown by state.

The Alaska congressional delegation is really happy about the funding.

Continuing COVID relief

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has passed a motion requesting emergency regulations to "allow the temporary transfer of catcher vessel halibut and sablefish IFQ for all individual quota share holders for the 2022 fishing season."

Copper River outlook

The Copper River salmon forecast is out, and it predicts a commercial harvest of 716,000 sockeye. Not great.

Icicle sell-off

Today brings word of a big and complex business deal.

As best we can tell, Icicle Seafoods is selling the Dutch Harbor processing ship Northern Victor, nine fishing vessels, and associated Bering Sea pollock quota.

The buyers include Japanese seafood giant Maruha Nichiro and two Alaska community development quota companies — Coastal Villages Region Fund and Norton Sound Economic Development Corp.

More details in this press release.