Fisheries

It’s herring time.

The multi-million dollar Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery could open as early as the end of this week. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game announced Monday evening that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, the fishery will be placed on two-hour notice. That means seiners could have their nets in the water as soon as Thursday morning, if the department’s test samples find a high enough percentage of mature roe, or eggs, in the fish by then.

The Sitka herring fishery packs a major economic punch in a short time span. The roe is sold to markets in Asia, and the fishery, which only lasts about a week, is worth an average of nearly $6 million to fishermen at the docks.

Seiners will target more than 16,000 tons of herring in Sitka Sound this year. That’s considerably more than last year’s limit — but it’s a target, not a guarantee. For the last two years, the herring spawn has happened so fast that the fleet wasn’t able to catch the full limit.

To harvest the roe, the herring must be caught before they spawn, in the window of time between when the female fish develop mature eggs and when they actually move to shore to lay those eggs. Determining that window is the difficult job of Fish and Game biologist Dave Gordon.  He said the Department decided to put the fishery on notice this week so that they’ll be ready in case things start to move fast.

“We have very large fish. The sample we saw yesterday was really as big as they get in Sitka Sound, 200-gram-plus fish. And from what we’ve seen from those larger fish, when they get ready to spawn, they go. And they do it in a hurry, so we want to be prepared for that.”

Once it opens, the fishery will progress in stages. There’s only enough processing capacity in Sitka to handle about four- to five-thousand tons of herring at once. With 48 seiners participating in the fishery, that typically means the opening only lasts a few hours, Gordon said.

“You’re really putting them on the fish,” he said. “The fish are there, and you’ve got 48 boats that have fairly huge capacity to get fish, and it doesn’t take long to get the kind of tonnage that we’d be looking for. Four- or five-thousand tons can be caught in 15 minutes depending on the situation.”

After an opening, the fishery must close for about two days to allow the processors to work through the catch. With a harvest level of about 16,000 tons, Gordon said, he’s anticipating about four separate openings.

The department’s research vessel, the Kestrel, will be in Sitka starting Wednesday. Fish & Game will also be conducting daily aerial surveys.

The department will hold an organizational meeting for fishermen and processors at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, at the Westmark Hotel in downtown Sitka.

The head of the Federal Drug Administration told a U.S. Senate committee today her agency is still working on its review of an application to produce a genetically modified salmon.

Director Margaret Hamburg gave no indication when the FDA would issue a decision.

“Actually we got … 33 or 35, 000 comments, so this is topic that people care a lot about. We’re going through those comments, taking them very seriously. And we will be moving forward in a science-driven way.”

AquaBounty Technologies says its fish would be farmed inland and would be incapable of breeding. Opponents, though, say the fish would threaten natural salmon runs and cause confusion in the marketplace. Ahead of the FDA decision, Friends of the Earth is pressing supermarket chains to agree not to carry the product. Last week, it added Safeway and Kroger to its yellow-light list of retailers, those that say they have no plans to carry genetically modified salmon. Target and Trader Joe’s made the environmental group’s green-light list with policy pledges not to carry the product.

Previous Coverage:
Alaska Senate set to approve anti-Frankenfish resolution
Alaska House passes resolution opposing “Frankenfish”
Frankenfish Vote Fails
FDA To Announce Decision On Genetically Modified Salmon

The United States and four other Arctic nations have tentatively agreed to prevent commercial fishing in the high Arctic.

The Canadian Press reports that Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Russia signed on to the ban after three days of meetings in Greenland last week. The measure was originally pitched by the United States, and it didn’t have support from Norway or Russia until now.

The details of the ban are still being worked out. But the basics are clear: The countries have to do more scientific research on Arctic fish stocks. In the meantime, they will not engage in commercial fishing in the Arctic Ocean outside their 200-mile exclusive economic zones.

In the United States, that area begins at the northern edge of Alaska. Fishing has already been banned within the American Arctic since 2009.

Because this new moratorium applies to international waters in the Arctic Ocean, there’s no guarantee that other countries will choose to honor it.

The next step is to get more nations on board beyond these five Arctic states. In a statement, the Arctic group said they plan to spend the rest of the year lobbying for broader support.

The City and Borough of Juneau has lost its appeal of a decision allowing the new Petersburg Borough to operate with expanded northern territory along the mainland.

The decision was issued Friday by Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez and it essentially means that the area from the middle of Holkham Bay down to Cape Fanshaw will remain under the jurisdiction of Petersburg.

The CBJ argued the Local Boundary Commission did not properly consider evidence submitted by Juneau officials. They also argued the contested area was more closely associated with Juneau.

Petersburg officials claimed stronger ties to the area and argued that Juneau’s evidence was actually considered when the LBC took up their borough incorporation petition.

As both Juneau and Petersburg submitted separate petitions for overlapping land annexations, Judge Menendez also wrote that there was no requirement for the LBC to compare both communities’ interests and connections to the contested area.

Juneau City Attorney Amy Mead said they can still appeal the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court. But that won’t be her call.

“I think that there were some significant legal problems with the analysis,” Mead said. “But I really feel I need to apprise the (CBJ) Assembly of that before I am more specific.”

Petersburg officials also warned that invalidating the current voter-approved boundaries would create chaos with dissolution of their municipality and a possible restart of the borough incorporation process.

Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen was boarding an Alaska Airlines flight Tuesday morning to take him right past the contested lands on his way to Juneau for the regional high school basketball tournament. Jensen was happy about the ruling.

“Well, I think that’s great,” Jensen said. “We’ve been going through the transition period already and spending some of the money the state has supplied us. Hopefully, there’s not an appeal by the Juneau borough and it’ll just stand and we’ll move forward.”

Petersburg dissolved its city government and became a borough government after voters approved the change in late 2012.

Juneau Mayor Merrill Sanford did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday. Bruce Botelho, who was mayor when Juneau’s annexation petition was filed, declined to comment until he had a chance to review the judge’s decision.

Oral arguments on the appeal of the LBC decision approving the Petersburg boundaries were held in Juneau Superior Court on Sept. 4, 2013.

 

 

Related stories:

Juneau-Petersburg boundary dispute argued in court

Juneau appeals Local Boundary Commission’s Petersburg borough decision

Boundary commission postpones Juneau’s annexation petition