New battles coming on hatcheries, trawling

The Alaska Board of Fisheries concludes its 2025-26 meeting cycle with a five-day session starting tomorrow in Anchorage on statewide finfish and supplemental issues.

Among the more notable issues, a trio of proposals (170, 171 and 172) would constrain pink and chum production from salmon hatcheries. Two of the proposals are from the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.

Another trio of proposals (163, 164 and 165) would appear to make life tougher for trawlers. The proposals are from an organization called the Alaska Healthy Habitat Alliance.

Proposal 163 would define all trawls operating in state waters as bottom contact gear. Proposal 164 would "establish bottom contact monitoring requirements for pelagic trawl gear."

The Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association hates these trawl proposals, commenting in a letter to the board:

There seems to be an assumption that trawlers operating in the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound regularly put their pelagic nets on the bottom. This is not accurate. The seafloor in the GOA and PWS are rocky, and our pelagic nets are relatively delicate. Contact with the bottom (or sunken shipwrecks) shreds our nets, requiring time-consuming and expensive repairs or replacement, and lost fishing time. On average a pelagic trawl net alone for our members costs $110,000, and we are not going to intentionally damage an expensive piece of gear.

An update on that Kodiak trawling case

An interesting case involving an alleged trawling violation has been pending quietly for about a year and a half in Kodiak District Court.

Now, the matter seems to be heating up.

The defendant, Steven Spain, who was operator of the fishing vessel Mar Pacifico, has filed a motion to dismiss the case against him.

The Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions appears determined to press on with the case, filing this 19-page opposition to the motion to dismiss.

Spain, 63, is charged with a misdemeanor. He's accused of operating nonpelagic trawl gear in state waters closed to such gear.

The case raises an important question for the fishing industry: What constitutes a pelagic trawl — that is, gear that doesn't contact the bottom?

The complaint filed against Spain says a claimed pelagic trawl net on the Mar Pacifico had prohibited attachments including chafing gear and chain rib lines "making this net suitable for fishing on the seabed."

Prosecutors argue the state definition of pelagic trawl gear is clear.

Their opposition filing includes details about Operation Bottom Drag, an enforcement action said to have reverberated throughout the trawl industry.

What is pelagic trawl gear?

State Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, weighs in with a letter to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is meeting this week in Anchorage.