A bill to ban octopus farming

U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have introduced legislation to ban commercial octopus farming in the United States and prohibit imports of farmed octopus from foreign countries.

"Octopuses are among the most intelligent creatures in the oceans. And they belong at sea, not suffering on a factory farm," Whitehouse said in this press release.

The bill "protects Alaska's marine ecosystems and supports wild harvest opportunities for Alaska's fishermen," Murkowski said.

Outlaws at Egegik

Citing "numerous reports of illegal fishing activity in closed waters," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game today is closing commercial fishing with driftnet gear in Bristol Bay's Egegik District.

A big canned salmon deal

The court-appointed receiver for Peter Pan Seafood is looking to sell the company's canned salmon inventory to Silver Bay Seafoods in a $27.3 million deal.

Silver Bay would use the inventory to help fulfill a U.S. Department of Agriculture contract, according to this motion filed in King County Superior Court.

Turning the page on paper logbooks

The International Pacific Halibut Commission has launched a trial of electronic logbooks in Alaska.

The commission distributed tablets to several vessel captains to record fishing activity normally put down in paper logbooks.

Here's a press release with further details.

More Peter Pan news

Proceedings continue in the case of Peter Pan, the legacy seafood processor now in receivership.

The latest twist is an offer from Peter Pan's president, Rodger May, to acquire certain assets, including the Port Moller processing plant, for $15 million.

For more details about the proposal, plus some interesting remarks about Silver Bay Seafoods, see this 18-page motion filed in King County Superior Court.

Salmon notes

Here are a few important developments in the salmon fisheries.

• The Bristol Bay sockeye fishery continues and the harvest has now exceeded the preseason forecast. The catch currently stands at 26.5 sockeye, well above the projected 25 million.

• Northline Seafoods says its Bristol Bay freezer barge is back to full operations following a fire that hobbled the platform earlier in the season.

• Hannah Heimbuch tells the story of how salmon setnetters at Alitak, on the remote south end of Kodiak Island, saved their season after processor OBI Seafoods dropped the fleet this year. The setnetters found a helping hand in Silver Bay Seafoods, Heimbuch writes.

• It's a big day for Alaska's troll fishery tomorrow in San Francisco, where the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in the Wild Fish Conservancy case. The organization has been trying to shut down the fishery, which it claims is harmful to endangered killer whales.

Eagles on the attack in Kodiak

KMXT radio has the story.