OBI's pullback — and its big score

OBI Seafoods is making news on multiple fronts.

The Kodiak Daily Mirror is reporting OBI has notified setnetters at Alitak, on the south end of Kodiak Island, it won't be buying salmon there this season.

Deckboss has asked the company for more details on this.

In other news, OBI was a big winner in a recent round of government fish procurement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on March 6 announced it purchased $54 million in canned pink salmon and $14.4 million in canned red salmon from OBI.

OBI was created in 2020 through a merger of Ocean Beauty and Icicle.

Are they in or out?

Setnet permit holders will vote by mail in October on whether to pay a landings tax to join the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.

More details in this notice of election.

Bristol Bay setnet election in sight

Bristol Bay setnetters will vote in September on whether to join the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.

So says the BBRSDA's new annual report (PDF Page 15).

How about it, setnetters?

An election will be held this year on setnet membership in the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.

The election will come in the fall following the fishing season, the association said today in its Waypoints newsletter.

As it stands now, only driftnet permit holders are members of BBRSDA.

Bristol Bay salmon driftnetters in 2006 voted to approve a 1 percent tax on the ex-vessel price of fish sold.

Presumably, this will be the main question facing setnetters in the election — whether to shoulder a tax to support BBRSDA.

Kenai closure

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game just announced the following:

In an effort to conserve the Kenai River king salmon population for future generations of Alaskans, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is closing sport fishing for king salmon on the Kenai River and in marine waters of Cook Inlet north of Bluff Point and is closing all commercial setnet fisheries on the east side of Upper Cook Inlet effective ... July 24.

More in this press release.

Setnetters and COVID-19

State officials have issued guidance for commercial fishing harvesters operating from shore.

Bristol Bay setnetters sue over tender sinking

Several salmon setnetters at the Igushik River, on the west side of Bristol Bay, are suing Trident Seafoods and others over the sinking last summer of the tender Lone Star.

The sinking caused a fuel spill that forced a shutdown of the setnet fishery.

A tender is a vessel used to haul fish to a processing plant. The Lone Star was working for Trident.

In a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court at Dillingham, the setnetters are seeking compensation for lost fishing income and other damages.

The plaintiffs also allege that during salvage of the vessel, salmon off the tender was allowed to wash up on the beach, attracting bears that gorged on the fish and then ransacked setnetter cabins.

Click here to read a press release and the lawsuit.

Setnetters fire back

The Kenai Peninsula Fishermen's Association responds to news of a campaign to ban commercial setnets in Cook Inlet and elsewhere.

Sympathetic, but...

Here's the official summary from yesterday's emergency Board of Fisheries meeting on the Cook Inlet setnetters.

"Board members were sympathetic to the setnetters affected by the closure, but were also concerned about the Chinook salmon escapement," the summary says.

Cook Inlet setnetters denied in bid to fish

Multiple media outlets are reporting the state Board of Fisheries today decided to take no action on several petitions to allow salmon setnetters to resume commercial fishing on Cook Inlet's east side.

Who knows. Perhaps a court challenge is next?

Board of Fisheries to meet on Cook Inlet salmon

The Alaska Board of Fisheries will hold an emergency teleconference at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow to consider a petition regarding Upper Cook Inlet salmon setnetters.

State fishery managers have shut down eastside setnetters because of poor Chinook salmon runs into the Kenai River.

That's costing the setnetters big time, as their target sockeye crop is swimming by unharvested.

Here's the public notice of tomorrow's board teleconference.

"The petition requests that setnet fishing in the East Forelands statistical area of Cook Inlet be opened to help keep the Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon escapement within the range set by regulation," the notice says.

Here are comments on the petition from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.