Support for Sea Grant

U.S. senators including Washington's Maria Cantwell and Alaska's Dan Sullivan are sponsoring legislation to reauthorize the National Sea Grant College Program. Here's a press release.

Attention youngsters!

The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program is holding another Alaska Young Fishermen's Summit on Dec. 10-12 in Anchorage.

The organizers say it's a great chance to bone up on fishery business, marketing and regulation.

This will be the fifth summit since 2007. To see the conference agenda, and to register, click here.

Want to save on fuel costs?

Check out this new publication from Alaska Sea Grant.

Reefer madness!

The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program is bringing its popular fishing vessel refrigeration workshop to Kodiak.

Click here for more information, including how to register.

This is cool

The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program is partnering with Integrated Marine Systems Inc. to offer the one-day refrigeration workshop March 29 in Anchorage.

The workshop is designed to help commercial fishermen better use and maintain onboard refrigeration systems.

Interested? Sign up here.

Your chance to chill in Petersburg

Here's a cool opportunity from Alaska Sea Grant:

Sea Grant offers vessel refrigeration workshop for fishermen

PETERSBURG — Top quality Alaska seafood products begins with properly chilling the catch aboard vessels at sea. To help commercial fishermen improve their operation and maintenance of onboard marine refrigeration systems, the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program is partnering with Integrated Marine Systems Inc. to offer a one-day workshop Feb. 1 in Petersburg.

The workshop will focus on how to maintain, operate and troubleshoot onboard refrigeration equipment. Additional topics include refrigeration theory, system winterization, controller programming, refrigeration safety and system sizing. Participants will use a marine refrigeration training unit for hands-on activities.

The workshop will be held beginning at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 1 at Petersburg's PFI Cookhouse.

The workshop fee is $150 and includes a course manual. Space is limited and preregistration is required by Jan. 26. Register here.

For questions, contact Sunny Rice at the Petersburg office of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program: sunny.rice@alaska.edu or (907) 772-3381 or (888) 788-6333.

Dollars and good sense

The start of a new year is a fine time to assess your finances.

For you fishermen out there, here's some help courtesy of Alaska Sea Grant.

It's a nifty guide titled Tips for Managing Yearly Fishing Income.

Lots of good knowledge in these four pages, guys.

Alaska Sea Grant looks to enliven shellfish farming

Alaska Sea Grant says it wants to "reinvigorate the state’s sluggish shellfish farming industry."

In 2010, some 67 shellfish farms held licenses to operate in Alaska, primarily in Kachemak Bay, Prince William Sound and Southeast, Sea Grant said in a recent press release. But only 25 farms regularly supply shellfish to the seafood market.

"Moreover, the farms produce only about 10 percent of their capacity," Sea Grant said. "Total shellfish production has been level for the past five years, averaging about $500,000 in total sales each year."

Ray RaLonde, an aquaculture specialist, hopes to liven up the industry using a two-year, $284,000 grant from the national and Alaska Sea Grant programs.

“Shellfish farming has great business potential for coastal Alaskans, and this grant will allow us to work with communities and individuals to open new areas to shellfish farming,” said RaLonde, with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program.

RaLonde will work with colleagues Quentin Fong, MAP marketing specialist; Gary Freitag, Ketchikan MAP agent; Glenn Haight, MAP business specialist; and Deborah Mercy, MAP instructional media specialist.
 
They'll conduct shellfish farming instruction, helping the Alaskan Shellfish Growers Association develop a best practices manual and assisting communities with aquaculture plans.
 
One goal is to identify four new aquaculture zones that could accommodate 20 farm sites, Sea Grant said.
 
RaLonde said the grant covers a range of other activities: training high school students and new farmers; economics research; business support and technology transfer for existing farmers; and infrastructure assessment for communities interested in aquaculture.

Alaska Young Fishermen's Summit

A three-day Alaska Young Fishermen's Summit begins today at the Hilton hotel in downtown Anchorage.

This is a popular event offering young people a crash course on the marketing, money, management, politics and physical dangers of fishing for a living in Alaska.

It's the third such summit hosted by the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program since 2007.

Summit participants will hear from a broad array of experts and veteran fishermen.

Among the presenters: Gunnar Knapp, University of Alaska Anchorage fisheries economist; Kodiak trawl guru Al Burch; Seward halibut and sablefish longliners Jim and Rhonda Hubbard; University of Alaska Fairbanks fisheries scientist Gordon Kruse; Sitka salmon troller Eric Jordan; Haines commercial fisherman and state Rep. Bill Thomas; Lea Klingert, president of the Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank; John Sackton, editor and publisher of the Massachusetts-based Web site Seafood.com; and Steve Wardley of the Findus Group, a leading European seafood supplier.