Northline barge heads north

Northline Seafoods announced on Facebook today that its 400-foot freezer barge, the Hannah, departed Bellingham for the Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

This is notable, as the company had seen upheaval in recent weeks with the abrupt resignation of its chief executive, Ben Blakey.

This will be the barge's third season packing sockeye in Bristol Bay.

To the best of our knowledge, Northline and its barge are under the control of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and Zachary Scott, a Seattle private investment firm.

It's believed Northline might work cooperatively with a larger processor, Silver Bay Seafoods, to handle Bristol Bay salmon catches this summer. But thus far, no company has publicly confirmed such an arrangement.

Copper River gets it started

Alaska's new salmon season kicked off Friday with a 12-hour commercial driftnet opener in the Copper River District.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a harvest of 967 Chinook salmon and 39,000 sockeye.

That compares to 1,090 Chinook and 28,128 sockeye in the first opener last year.

The department has set another 12-hour opener for Tuesday in the Copper River District.

Circle Seafoods touts salmon prices for 2026

Here's the announcement.

Personnel file

Eric Deakin is retiring from Coastal Villages Region Fund after six years as executive director and CEO.

Based in Anchorage, CVRF is the largest of Alaska's six community development quota organizations. These companies are major players in the state's commercial fisheries, harvesting fish and crab on behalf of often impoverished Bering Sea villages.

The CVRF board has appointed Nick Souza, previously director of sales and marketing, as the new CEO.

More details in this press release.

Heads-up on a possible Area M bombshell

Deckboss hears reliably that Alaska's acting attorney general, as soon as tomorrow, will block most or all of the controversial actions the Board of Fisheries took recently on Area M salmon fisheries.

The AG's expected action comes in the context of a lawsuit from commercial fishing groups, the Aleutians East Borough and others seeking to void regulations the board adopted at its February meeting on Alaska Peninsula finfish.

The suit focuses, in part, on board members with alleged conflicts of interest. The plaintiffs say two proposals the board approved on close votes would "dramatically reduce open fishing time and area for commercial purse seine and gillnet gear in the South Alaska Peninsula."

In February, the borough and tribal governments called on the AG to "act on a formal ethics complaint filed against members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries."

UFA seeks new skipper

The state's top commercial fishing organization, United Fishermen of Alaska, is recruiting a new executive director.

The position carries an estimated starting salary of $90,000 to $100,000 depending on experience, a job description says.

The successful candidate will replace the outgoing executive director, Tracy Welch, who just won legislative confirmation to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.

Trawl electronic monitoring bill clears Legislature

The Legislature has passed House Bill 117, which includes language authorizing Alaska's fish and game commissioner to require electronic monitoring for vessels operating in state trawl fisheries.

The bill now goes to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for his signature.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, offered the language. He said in a recent Facebook post that electronic monitoring will "allow the state to better manage our fisheries through better bycatch data, monitoring compliance, and catch and discard information."

The bill includes provisions meant to limit impacts to trawlers. For example, the bill says vessel owners won't be required to "purchase or install electronic monitoring equipment beyond what is already required" for vessels in federally managed fisheries.