New ASMI board members

The governor recently made two appointments to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors.

• Christine O'Connor fills an open harvester seat on the board. She is executive director of the Alaska Telecom Association, ASMI's latest monthly marketing update says. She holds a Bristol Bay salmon setnet permit, the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission database shows.

• Eric Deakin fills a seat designated for a large processor. He is CEO of Coastal Villages Region Fund, one of Alaska's six community development quota organizations.

With these appointments, all seven seats on the ASMI board are now filled.

The governor's fish vetoes

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy yesterday signed the new state budget, but vetoed some significant spending.

A couple of fish-related items were affected.

First, Dunleavy chopped a $10 million appropriation for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to $5 million.

He also nixed $800,000 for completion of the South Peninsula king salmon genetics study.

Salmon snapshots

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has released the 2025 outlook for all five species of commercially harvested salmon — sockeye, pink, chum, coho and Chinook.

What the Legislature did

The first session of the 34th Alaska State Legislature came to a close on May 20, with legislators managing a modest slate of actions important to the fishing industry.

This could be disappointing in many minds, as the industry has been mired in an economic crisis and a special legislative task force had made numerous recommendations ahead of the session.

The Legislature operates on a two-year cycle, so bills that didn't pass this session will remain alive in the second session next year.

Here's a rundown of what happened during the session that just adjourned.

• Legislators included $10 million in the budget for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to boost domestic marketing. This might have been the session's most significant fishery action. Now, we wait to see if the sum survives the governor's veto pen.

• Legislators passed House Bill 116 to help commercial fishermen form insurance cooperatives to reduce costs.

• House Bill 31 passed to eliminate the need for state Division of Motor Vehicles registration of commercial fishing vessels already tracked by the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.

• Senate Bill 156 provides for a temporary state investment of $3,693,500 in the struggling Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank. United Fishermen of Alaska explained the situation in this letter of support for SB 156.

All the bills now await the governor's signature.

Duncan Fields removed from ASMI board

Duncan Fields, of Kodiak, has been removed from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors.

The action comes after Alaska Wildlife Troopers charged Fields and members of his family with multiple criminal counts involving alleged illegal salmon setnet permit transfers.

Fields believes he's innocent of the charges, and had intended to remain on the ASMI board through the end of his term in July.

He occupied a harvester seat on the seven-member ASMI board, which is controlled by representatives of seafood processing companies.

ASMI describes itself as "a public-private partnership between the state of Alaska and the Alaska seafood industry established to foster economic development of a renewable natural resource."

ASMI awarded $4.5M for international marketing

Here's the press release.

Huge government pollock buy coming, ASMI says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to purchase up to $50 million of Alaska pollock, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute said in a press release.

"These USDA purchases provide food insecure Americans with high-quality, healthy and sustainable seafood protein," ASMI said. "They also support American fishermen, companies and communities currently struggling with low pollock prices due to reductions in demand and increased competition, mostly from Russia."

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.

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.

Canned pollock for school kids?

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is holding its annual All Hands on Deck conference this week at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage.

One interesting item on the agenda is a proposed pilot project to demonstrate the acceptability and feasibility of canned Alaska pollock in international school meal programs.

The salmon situation

The latest weekly harvest update from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute offers a concise summary of the waning salmon season.

Salmon snapshots

Here are market bulletins for each of the five salmon species, compiled by McKinley Research Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

Alaska's very own pet food brand?

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is in line for a $500,000 federal grant for "development and marketing of an Alaska seafood pet food brand."

Learn more about this and other grants here.

Fukushima and fish

State agencies have put together a new two-page fact sheet titled Fukushima Incident and Seafood from Alaska.

The fact sheet basically says the dumping of slightly radioactive wastewater from the 2011 catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant hasn't been a problem for Alaska seafood.

Marketing money

The new state budget, signed over the weekend, includes a $5 million "one-time increment" for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced today.

ASMI's new communications director

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute just released the following:

ASMI is pleased to announce that Greg Smith has been hired to serve as Communications Director. Greg comes to ASMI from the Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development (DCCED) where he worked alongside Commissioner Sande as special assistant and legislative liaison. Prior to DCCED, Greg worked for several sessions as the Chief of Staff to Representative Andi Story of Juneau. Greg also serves on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly, and, among his other talents, has also worked as a deckhand on a commercial gillnetter. Greg is a lifelong Juneauite, a graduate of Oregon State University, and he is incredibly passionate about Alaska and Alaska seafood. We look forward to Greg applying his passion and skillset within ASMI beginning June 12.

Personnel file

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is seeking candidates for communications director.

The job carries a starting salary of $117,371 to $135,584, according to the position description.

3,840 cases of pink salmon for Ukraine

A large donation of canned pink salmon has arrived in war-torn Ukraine, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute reports. Read about it here.

Mary Peltola's fish man

Deckboss hears reliably that Tyson Fick will be fisheries aide to Alaska's newly installed U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

Fick is a familiar name in the fishing industry, having worked as communications director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and as executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

In recent years, he's fished commercially.

He was a Peltola supporter on Facebook, posting on Sept. 1 after her election: "Mary is one of my absolute favorite people."

Personnel file

The governor today announced the nomination of Rachel Baker, of Juneau, to the International Pacific Halibut Commission.

Baker is deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She presumably would replace sportfishing lodge owner Richard Yamada on the IPHC.

The governor also announced the reappointment of Jack Schultheis to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors. Schultheis is general manager of Kwik'pak Fisheries.