Bristol Bay homicide investigation

The Alaska State Troopers today posted this press release.

State records list a Henry Ayojiak, of Manokotak, as a Bristol Bay salmon setnet permit holder.

Juneau watch

The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee tomorrow will consider a special audit request from Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, chair of the House Fisheries Committee.

She's seeking a review of how the Alaska Board of Fisheries has been conducting business of late, saying the board has "lost the public's trust."

Here's the committee agenda. The hearing begins at 8:30 a.m. and will be teleconferenced.

Salmon notes

• The Bristol Bay catch now stands at 23.6 million sockeye toward a preseason harvest forecast of 32.3 million.

• Dillingham radio station KDLG has a report on the Northline Seafoods freezer barge and its alliance this season with Silver Bay Seafoods. Listen to it here.

• The Southeast Alaska summer Chinook troll fishery appears to be progressing slowly and will remain open "until further notice," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said yesterday. "Based on landed catch and reported harvest onboard freezer vessels to date, less than 40,000 of the 83,700 Chinook salmon allocation has been harvested over the first 10 days of the fishery."

• Looking farther south, to Canada, the forecasted run size for Fraser River sockeye is 7.7 million fish, the Pacific Salmon Commission reports.

What's behind the decline of Yukon Chinook?

Increased natural mortality associated with Bering Sea marine heatwaves is "an important driver" of the Yukon River Chinook salmon crash, a new study finds.

The study also "found no evidence that harvest of adult salmon or bycatch removals prior to spawning have been significant factors in population level declines of Yukon River Chinook," says this write-up from NOAA Fisheries.

Blotter

Bristol Bay fishermen are catching a lot of salmon — and a lot of citations from the Alaska Wildlife Troopers. Follow all the enforcement action on our sister blog The Brig.

'The question that needs to be asked'

Independent journalist Craig Medred today posted this remarkably cogent comment on his site:

When you look at the data, the pollock trawl fishery is among the cleanest damn fisheries in the state. Should the country sacrifice millions of tons of renewable, high-quality protein to save the comparatively small number of kings taken as bycatch in that fishery? That's the question that needs to be asked.

A trawler takes to task both Sullivan, Peltola

Here's his opinion piece on the Anchorage Daily News website.