PWSAC sentenced to pay $1 million

Here's a press release from the U.S. attorney's office.

A $1 million hit to PWSAC

Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. has signed a plea agreement in a case involving the illegal disposal of waste oil and jet fuel, resulting in severe burns to an employee.

Under the plea agreement, PWSAC agrees to pay $550,000 in restitution to the victim and a $450,000 fine.

PWSAC is a major operator of salmon hatcheries.

New skipper at PWSAC

Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. has named Timothy Joyce as interim general manager. Here's the press release.

Cordova hatchery chief to retire

David Reggiani, general manager of Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., is retiring.

PWSAC, based in Cordova, operates major hatcheries producing millions of pink and other salmon.

Cordova hatchery chief charged

State prosecutors have filed criminal charges against David Reggiani, general manager of Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., and two others in connection with a fuel oil spill in 2013 at the Cannery Creek Hatchery.

Hatching 'new tools' for media control in Cordova

Recently published research examining possible negative effects of hatchery salmon production on wild stocks generated quite a bit of publicity such as this.

Folks at Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., Alaska's largest hatchery operator, apparently didn't appreciate all the media attention.

And something will be done about it, according to this summary of PWSAC's May 23 executive committee meeting.

Here's the relevant part:

Chairman's Report (George Covel)
• Google Alerts — PWSAC uses this as a monitoring tool. Recently, over 30 news media stories have been posted on the internet about research conducted regarding the interactions of hatchery and wild salmon. Several of these are publications from ADF&G staff. Covel reported that ADF&G will put into place new tools to prevent this from happening again in the future. It is important for Department to clear this up. PWSAC is monitoring this along with Tracy Foster, Foster Communication Strategies.

Deckboss can hardly wait to ask the Alaska Department of Fish and Game exactly what sort of "tools" we're talking about.

Coming up short on salmon

The statewide commercial salmon catch, all species, now stands at about 161 million fish, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports.

That's a big total. But clearly, with September just around the corner, we won't reach the preseason forecast of 203 million.

One reason appears to be a shortfall of pink salmon, particularly in Prince William Sound. Returns to Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. hatcheries have been weaker than expected.

Here are a few salmon highlights from around the state:

• In Southeast, purse seiners have bagged 51.2 million pinks, 2.4 million chums, 500,000 sockeye and 300,000 coho. "From this year's combination of good returns, above average pink salmon weights and strong prices, the ex-vessel value of the purse seine fishery this season has now reached $100 million," Fish and Game says.

• Upper Cook Inlet's harvest of 5.1 million sockeye ranks as the area's fifth largest ever.

• Kodiak fishermen have harvested 15.5 million pink salmon, fewer than expected for this date.

More pinks!

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.

Hatchery operator fishes for goodwill

Deckboss has reported previously on the controversy swirling around the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., the Cordova-based operator of some of the world's largest salmon hatcheries.

As embattled organizations often do, PWSAC employs an economic consultant and a public relations firm to tout its successes.

Click here to see a summary of a new McDowell Group economic impact study.

Hatchery showdown in Cordova

Deckboss wishes he could be in Cordova tomorrow to hear all the hatchery talk.

The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. (PWSAC), a private, nonprofit operator of some of the world's largest fish hatcheries, wants to make millions more salmon each year, which could mean millions more dollars for commercial fishermen.

The hatchery operator would create additional fish by upping its "egg take," raising more fingerlings for release into the sea. A year or three later, the adult salmon would return home, many to be captured in nets.

At 9 a.m. tomorrow in Cordova, a panel called the Prince William Sound Regional Planning Team will meet to consider the proposed expansion.

The planning team makes recommendations to Alaska's fish and game commissioner, who has the last word.

Going into the meeting, it looks bad for PWSAC.

Here's a 51-page memo from Department of Fish and Game biologists generally opposing the hatchery expansion.

Among other concerns, they say the straying of hatchery-born pink, chum and sockeye salmon into local streams already might "pose an unacceptable risk to wild salmon stocks."

They cite studies that found pink salmon display "competitive dominance," grabbing food such as zooplankton and squid and thus hurting other species of salmon from as far away as Bristol Bay and Puget Sound.

What's more, it appears juvenile hatchery pinks can prey on herring juveniles, helping retard recovery of Prince William Sound's famously depressed herring stocks.

"While this hypothesis needs to be explored with additional research, the rapid decline of herring stocks in PWS did occur shortly after a large ramp-up in production of hatchery pink salmon," the Fish and Game memo says.

Because large numbers of hatchery pinks and chums are "likely having a detrimental impact to wild stocks of salmon and herring," the department's research and management biologists are advising against increased production of these fish, which are the main hatchery species.

OK, so that's the Fish and Game perspective.

At the Regional Planning Team meeting, I expect we'll hear a considerably different perspective from PWSAC.

It'll also be interesting to hear where the commercial fishing industry stands on this. Most Alaska fishermen I know are mother hens when it comes to the health of wild salmon stocks.

According to PWSAC, the time is right to boost production.

"The global salmon market has been steadily expanding over the past several years and Prince William Sound's local processing capacity has increased significantly on numerous fronts," PWSAC said in permit alteration requests to Fish and Game.

The operator said fish resulting from the proposed expansion "should be easily absorbed" in the marketplace.

Chasing major hatchery news

Deckboss hears that salmon hatchery operators in Prince William Sound and in Southeast Alaska are seeking state approval to significantly boost production.

A meeting of the Prince William Sound Regional Planning Team has been scheduled for April 21 to consider the request from the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp.

Look for an update as soon as full details become available.

A hatchery operator gone astray?

The state has issued a breathtaking report titled "Alaska Department of Fish and Game Internal Review of Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation."

It details all manner of problems with the Cordova-based operator of some of the world’s largest fish hatcheries.

The problems include chronic conflict with Fish and Game staff, improper harvest and processing of salmon to cover hatchery expenses, and an apparent disregard for "straying" of hatchery fish intermingling with and possibly damaging wild salmon runs.

The report doesn’t reserve its intense criticism solely for PWSAC (locals pronounce the acronym pizz-wack). It also faults Fish and Game officials themselves for futile attempts to appease recalcitrant hatchery managers by looking the other way on criminal offenses.

If even half this stuff is true, Alaskans — perhaps legislators — are going to be alarmed, angry and asking tough questions.

Now, here’s a really important caveat. Some if not all of these problems are somewhat dated. That’s because the "internal review" was conducted back in 2006.

Since that time, PWSAC compliance has improved, says an epilogue on page 26 of the 207-page document.

However, "the relationship remains strained," with the hatchery operator still not communicating well with Fish and Game and still not addressing the issue of straying salmon.

PWSAC is a private, nonprofit corporation founded in 1974 that runs major salmon hatcheries around Prince William Sound. It’s an integral part of the commercial fishing industry, producing millions of pink, chum and sockeye salmon that make big money for seiners and gillnetters.

It’s partly because PWSAC is so vital to the fishing industry that Fish and Game hasn’t been able to crack down harder on its many permit violations and generally stubborn and uncooperative attitude, the internal review says.

Here’s a few select items from the report:

• PWSAC’s general manager "has created an antagonistic relationship with every commercial fisheries biologist in the Cordova office for the past 5 years. That hostile atmosphere has led, in part, to the high turn-over rate of department staff in the Cordova office."

• PWSAC has more than $25 million in state loans, and plenty of fish to cover costs. Yet hatchery managers have a record of "multiple cost recovery failures" and had to turn to the state for an additional $3 million loan in 2004.

• State biologists have a legitimate interest in what goes on in PWSAC hatcheries, and wanted to see PWSAC’s fish culture manuals. But the hatchery operator called them "proprietary" and refused to hand them over. Result: "The department has no knowledge of how PWSAC operates many aspects of their programs."

• The straying of hatchery chums on a large scale into wild salmon streams, instead of homing to sites where they were released as smolts, is "one of the most serious problems" with PWSAC. Such straying is a violation of state regulations, yet PWSAC has refused to participate in projects to assess it.

Deckboss has not contacted Fish and Game or PWSAC to see if these problems persist.

All I can say is that the department has released the internal review with an August 2009 date on the cover and the epilogue saying "the relationship remains strained."

While the review itself was news to me, I was aware of some of the state’s PWSAC concerns in late 2006, when I wrote an Anchorage Daily News article headlined "State slams hatcheries."

Hatchery managers contended then that many of the problems were either overblown or out of date.

"We’re very anxious to sit down with the commissioner and talk through some of these issues," PWSAC’s general manager, Dave Reggiani, told me at the time.

Fine.

My guess right now, however, is that with the public release of this internal review, Fish and Game still has a serious bone to pick with PWSAC.