A new approach on the Yukon

Commercial fishermen will have a 12-hour shot Tuesday, from noon to midnight, to harvest summer chum salmon in District 1 on the Lower Yukon River.

What's really interesting about this opener is that fishermen can use only beach seines and dipnets, rather than the usual gillnets.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries acted this year to authorize the new, nonlethal gear types as a way to allow chum fishing without seriously impacting the expected poor Chinook run.

Fishermen using beach seines and dipnets will be required to release incidentally caught Chinook back to the water immediately, and alive.

"In the event that a Chinook salmon is killed by these gear types, the dead Chinook salmon must be recorded on a fish ticket and forfeited to the state," says this press release.

Salmon notes

Lots of salmon fisheries are open around Alaska, but the statewide catch remains modest at this point.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports about 2.9 million fish have been taken so far, on a preseason forecast of 179 million.

Here are a few notes on the young season:

• Southeast trollers have landed 11,847 Chinook, which trails last year's catch by 27 percent for this date. The bright side: Prices are very strong at an average of $6.91 per pound, and average fish weight is up by half a pound to 13.3 pounds.

• At the Copper River, gillnetters finally got a couple of openers last week, after enduring a 13-day closure to allow inriver passage to improve. The sockeye harvest stands at an excellent 843,000 fish, and the district will open again at 7 a.m. Monday for a 36-hour period.

• At Chignik, on the Alaska Peninsula, early reports indicate the number of permits fishing this season will be the highest since 2005. Chignik has a significant sockeye run.

• Early season catches have been characteristically low at Bristol Bay, scene of the world's largest sockeye fishery. We likely won't see the action heat up there until early July. Managers on Friday allowed a five-hour fishery targeting Chinook in the Nushagak District.

• The Yukon River Chinook run is expected to be weak again this year, so no commercial fishery targeting those wonderful kings is expected.

McCune takes UFA helm

Jerry McCune, a longtime commercial fisherman out of Cordova and lobbyist in Juneau, has been elected president of United Fishermen of Alaska.

UFA is the state's largest commercial fishing trade association with 36 member groups.

Here's the full announcement with more news on UFA leadership positions.

Longliner sustains fire damage at Unalaska

Lauren Rosenthal with KUCB in Unalaska has a report on a significant fire Wednesday aboard the freezer longliner Blue Pacific.

Council recommends Chinook cap

Here's the final motion the North Pacific Fishery Management Council passed to limit Chinook bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska non-pollock trawl fisheries.

The council is recommending a hard cap of 7,500 Chinook salmon.

As you can see, however, the motion includes a "uncertainty pool" provision that could give trawlers an additional 1,000 Chinook in some years. At least that's how Deckboss reads it.

Council decisions are subject to Commerce Department approval.

For more background on this, see our prior post.

Tough day

We had plenty of trouble on the water Monday.

At 7:30 a.m., police in Cordova received a 911 call from the purse seiner Esperanza reporting a man was lost overboard, had been recovered and was undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The Alaska Wildlife Troopers patrol boat Churchill and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter responded in heavy fog.

The victim couldn't be revived, and the body was transferred to the Churchill.

Troopers said the deceased, Cornell Perry Bean Jr., 40, of Kake, wasn't wearing a life preserver.

In a separate mishap, a crewman on the trawler Alaska Spirit needed an emergency airlift.

The crewman, who wasn't identified, had a crushed finger, the Coast Guard said.

The Alaska Spirit was located 58 miles southeast of Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea.

The victim initially was transferred by small boat to the cutter Boutwell, where the decision was made to medevac him via helicopter.

"Our health care professionals recommended getting the man to a higher level of care within seven hours to have the best chance of restoring functionality to his finger," said Lt. Bernard Auth, a Coast Guard search and rescue controller.

The Alaska Spirit is a 221-foot trawler belonging to Fishing Company of Alaska.

Togiak herring haul worth ho-hum $2.9 million

Here's the official summary of the recently concluded Togiak sac roe herring season.

As previously reported, the catch was impressive at 28,808 tons.

The estimated grounds price was not so impressive at $100 per ton for both seine and gillnet fish. That puts the ex-vessel value of the fishery at $2.88 million.

It's possible, of course, that post-season adjustments could improve the payoff for fishermen.

Farther north, the Norton Sound sac roe herring fishery opens at 6 this evening. Icy details here.