Hickel and halibut

Wally Hickel, the former Alaska governor who died Friday, was always thinking big. And so I expect his sendoff will be big, too.

Here's a remembrance from a fish perspective.

In 1991, during Hickel's second go as governor, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved revolutionary individual fishing quotas for the halibut and black cod fisheries. Or what people fashionably call "catch shares" today.

How did this happen?

As the story goes, Hickel instructed his "fisheries tsar," Clem Tillion, who held a seat and considerable sway on the council, to put more fresh halibut on the dinner table by creating longer, less frenzied fisheries.

Like 'em or hate 'em, that's pretty much what IFQs have done for halibut, which used to all pile onto the docks in only a few hours and head straight for the freezer.

Deckboss hopes Hickel got his share of that fresh halibut toward the end of his 90 years.

On watch at Togiak

Historically, Alaska's biggest herring sac roe fishery by volume has been in Bristol Bay, near the remote village of Togiak.

We're only a few days away from the season opener there, and biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are on the lookout for sea lions and other signs that the herring have arrived for the spawn.

Here's the department's latest update.

This fishery used to be crazy competitive, not unlike the wild derby we just witnessed at Sitka. Alas, Togiak has become a yawner since the roe market collapsed in Japan, with the number of participating boats and processors falling way off.

On the upside, Togiak offers herring aplenty. This year's harvest quota is huge at 25,905 tons. It's so big, in fact, that the industry is likely to leave a big chunk of the quota in the water.

Last year's catch of 17,107 tons on a quota of 21,260 tons paid fishermen $2.6 million. That's a pretty humble payoff for a fishery that 15 years ago was worth nearly $17 million.

So, when will the fishery open at Togiak?

Last year, seiners and gillnetters got started on May 16.

Upcoming events

Here's a rundown of some significant meetings planned in Alaska in the coming days:

• The 2nd International Congress on Seafood Technology runs Monday through Thursday at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. Sponsors are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the University of Alaska. Click here to see the agenda and find registration details. I see some pretty interesting talks on tap such as "developments in automation of processing equipment,"
"alternatives to antibiotics in aquaculture," and "surimi, state of the technology." Local university economist Gunnar Knapp will talk on "economics of value addition for fish and fishery products," and Fairbanks food technologist Peter Bechtel will talk on "utilization of Alaska fish processing byproducts."

• The North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Crab Plan Team meets Monday through Friday at the Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood. Here's the agenda. Fishery biologists and managers on the plan team review all the science related to the Bering Sea's lucrative stocks of king and Tanner crab. One tasty item I see on the agenda concerns a "discussion paper on crab bycatch in the groundfish fisheries."

• The National Marine Fisheries Service has been holding a series of "listening sessions" around the country to gather feedback on plans to develop a new ocean aquaculture policy. Anchorage is the last stop, with a listening session planned for 1 p.m. May 21 at the Hotel Captain Cook. Deckboss expects Alaskans will continue to shout a collective "no" to any aquaculture.

Headed for the shop

The patrol vessel Stimson. DPS photo

The familiar Alaska Wildlife Troopers patrol vessel Stimson could be out of action for a while this summer.

That's because the state is looking to put the boat into drydock for work ranging from hull painting to propeller reconditioning to fixing those darned wobbly chairs in the wheelhouse.

The state has posted this invitation to bid seeking a contractor to do the work.

The plan is to complete the job over a month's time, most likely in August.

As far as I can tell, this is just routine maintenance and not the result of something unusual, such as a run-in with an outlaw crabber.

A state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman tells Deckboss the boat was last hauled three years ago.

The 156-foot Stimson is based at Dutch Harbor and is the largest patrol vessel in the state fleet. Its primary duty is commercial fisheries enforcement in the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay.

The vessel is named in honor of Sgt. John Stimson, who died in 1983 after a helicopter crash during a rescue mission.

Katmai report now available

As we reported yesterday, the U.S. Coast Guard does indeed plan to hold a Friday event in Seattle to talk about the investigation into the Katmai sinking.

Meantime, the Coast Guard has gone ahead and posted the 136-page report publicly. Click here to see it. FYI, the document is a little slow to open.

Thirty-two recommendations start on page 2.

Here's the press release:

May 5, 2010

Coast Guard releases investigation report on fishing vessel Katmai

WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard on Tuesday released the final report of the investigation into the Oct. 22, 2008, sinking of the fishing vessel Katmai in Amchitka Pass, Alaska.

Of the 11 crew aboard the Katmai, four were rescued, five deceased crewmembers were recovered and two remain missing.

This Marine Board of Investigation was directed by the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. The investigation and public hearings were conducted in Anchorage and Seattle by investigators from the Coast Guard with assistance from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators interviewed 24 witnesses including the four survivors, the vessel owners, the crew and captains of the fish-processing vessels Patricia Lee and Courageous, previous Katmai crewmembers, naval architects and Coast Guard fishing vessel examiners to gather facts about the Katmai's overall condition, operations and the events that led to the sinking.

Several primary causal factors that led to this casualty identified in the report include imprudent voyage planning; failure to maintain watertight boundaries; excessive loading of cargo in the vessel's fish hold; and exposure to heavy winds and high seas. The cause of flooding in the engine room remains unknown.

Recommendations in the report, aimed at preventing recurrence, include several regulatory and legislative changes focusing on inspection and stability requirements, licensing of fishing vessel masters and revising Title 46, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 28, which contains the specific requirements for commercial fishing industry vessels.

The Marine Board of Investigation members will meet with the Katmai crewmembers' next of kin or their legal representatives at 9 a.m. Friday at the Jackson Federal Building, Eagle Room, 915 2nd Ave., Seattle. This meeting is not open to the public or media.

The Coast Guard will hold a press briefing at 1 p.m. Friday.

Report on Katmai sinking could come out Friday

A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman tells Deckboss the investigative report into the sinking of the fishing vessel Katmai likely will be publicly released at an event Friday in Seattle.

The Katmai, you'll recall, sank with an 11-man crew and a load of cod in remote Aleutian waters west of Adak Island on Oct. 22, 2008.

Seven crewmen died while four others were rescued after a harrowing night on a wave-pummeled life raft.

Hal Bernton, a Seattle Times writer, wrote this article last week after obtaining an advance copy of the report, which authorities had sent to survivors and family members of the dead crewmen.

According to the article, the report appears to contain few if any surprises about what led to the boat's demise.

Those factors include an overloaded hold, flooding through an unsecured watertight door, and a poor decision to travel through rough weather, the article says.

Are hatcheries bad for wild salmon?

We've been talking a good bit recently about Alaska's network of big salmon hatcheries, and specifically their expansion plans.

Hatcheries are always good for debate, and certainly the fish talk will be running strong this week in Portland, where a four-day conference starts tonight on this intriguing topic: "Ecological interactions between wild and hatchery salmon."

None other than Tom Brokaw is slated to deliver welcoming comments this evening.

The agenda includes a number of speakers with a history of involvement with Alaska salmon including Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington; Greg Ruggerone of Natural Resources Consultants Inc.; John Burke of the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association; and Rich Brenner, Steve Moffitt and Eric Volk of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Deckboss is especially interested in Volk's topic: "Balancing benefits and risks of large-scale hatchery salmon production in Alaska."

Click here to learn more about the conference and see the agenda.