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Alaska commercial fishing news and notes
About me
- Deckboss
- I'm a journalist covering Alaska's commercial fishing industry. My real name is Wesley Loy. Reach me at wloy61@gmail.com.
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2026
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September
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- USCG reports Southeast sinking, helicopter rescue
- Board, council to talk trawl next month
- Dump those halibut, or donate?
- A warship in Whittier
- A big price increase for Bristol Bay fishermen
- UFA's new skipper
- Ideas, anyone?
- Washington watch
- Addressing trawl issues in Alaska
- Kodiak fisheries debates
- Wrangell declares Dungeness fishery disaster
- Salmon notes
- Blotter
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September
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10 comments:
The same tired commentary on trawling we have heard before. At the Kodiak fisheries debates, one of the governor candidates said it best: "We have been following the science for decades and look where it has got us."
Commissioner, I thank you for your opinion. Being a lifelong Native fisherman of Alaska, I think you are spot on. A lot of us participate in multispecies fishing because that's what we do to survive. We also rely on subsistence. In your opinion letter you did an outstanding breakdown of what's been happening to either prevent or minimize bycatch or incidental catch. It's probably wishful thinking but I certainly hope this would help some people understand what is actually being done. Probably not but I certainly appreciate your opinion and thanks for your eight years of service representing all Alaskans. I'm sure it's not an easy job!
Nice to get the same lazy, conclusive, cookie cutter anti-trawl commentary. One compelling narrative about how we got here: the IPHC overharvested halibut for nearly a decade before fixing its models, then has allowed Canada to overharvest because the treaty is shit, all while cutting back on science and surveys. At the same time, halibut fishermen have opposed lowering size limits, resulting in 12 million pounds of discarded halibut a year. Observer coverage is under 7 percent. Southeast fishermen throw 59,000 dead chinook overboard every year, with zero observer coverage or accountability measures, and sport catch and release mortality on spawners is unmonitored. There's also that whole climate change thing.
I agree with the quoted statement. We've been reducing bycatch and limiting trawling since the '90s. Yet we're still here. Maybe it's time to look elsewhere for a solution.
Inconvenient truth:
2025 GOA halibut trawl bycatch 580,000 pounds
2025 GOA fixed-gear halibut discard mortality 1.8 million pounds
Bad mouthing other fisheries is the only thing these paid trawl supporters can do to fight the long overdue reckoning that is coming for Alaska’s dirtiest fishery.
No commercial fishery is going to survive the assault on management, science, and reason that 1:09 espouses. Hope it works out for you.
"No commercial fishery is going to survive the assault on management, science, and reason that 1:09 espouses. Hope it works out for you."
With the direction momentum against trawl - we are going to see if your speculation is correct.
The direction against trawl, hatcheries, any out-of-state fishermen, commercial fisheries in general. You have every governor candidate saying that they're gonna try and put permits only in Alaskan's hands, you have sportfish getting their own executive order as a foot in the door to 'restoring access', and you have the hatchery program under real threats from many forces. That combined with KRSA and American Sportfishing Association gaining a lot of ground, I'd say it's already happening.
https://thealaskastory.com/alex-gimarc-the-magical-world-of-jkt/
"[JKT's] balance is predicated on every single fish in the salt belonging to commfish. He names several nominees he supported to the Board of Fish, all commfish friendly. He is sufficiently clueless to ignore the fact that the 500,000 sportfish license holders ought to have equal access to the same resource claimed by nearly 16,000 commfish crewmember licensees."
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