Wrangell Sentinel -

Salmon abundance in the North Pacific has declined slightly over the past decade, but salmon catches remain near all-time highs. For nearly 30 years the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) has summarized abundances and catches of salmon...

In his 46 years as Alaska’s lone representative in Congress, Don Young helped toss out foreign fishing fleets from Alaska’s waters with the onset of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) in 1976, and today he is...

Bering Sea crabbers saw upticks in crab recruits during a good fishery for the 2018/2019 season, along with strong prices. The crab season opens in mid-October for red king crab, Tanners and snow crab (opilio), and while fishing goes fast for red...

Bulldozers, blasters, excavators, vibrators, jaw crushers, drillers, graders, crushers, huge trucks and other heavy equipment are tools of the trade when building and operating large mines - and they all kick up a lot of dust. In the case of the...

 Why should every Alaskan budget watcher care about the price of fish? Because when the price at the docks goes up by just one penny, it means more money for state coffers.  In 2017, for example, the average dock price per pound for all Alaska...

Nearly all Alaska salmon permits have gone up in value since last fall and buying/selling/trading action is brisk. “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been in the last 20 years,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. “Boat sales...

The Panhandle plans to be the next Alaska region to give new life to old fishing gear by sending it to plastic recycling centers. The tons of nets and lines piled up in local lots and landfills will become the raw material for soda bottles, cell...

Alaska fishermen could catch 85 percent more salmon this year (nearly a hundred million more) if state forecasts hold true. That’s good news for fishermen in many Gulf of Alaska regions who in 2018 suffered some of the worst catches in 50 years....

None of the members of the Senate Community and Regional Affairs committee (CRA) lives near the sea, but at a hearing last week they were not impressed by Governor Dunleavy’s plan to pull millions of dollars in fish taxes from remote coastal...

Commercial fishermen pick up the tab for just about anyone who catches a salmon in Alaska that started its life in a hatchery. That was a finding that wended its way to the surface during a hearing last week of the House Fisheries Committee on the...

”A new lender is offering loans to young Alaska fishermen who want to buy into the halibut and sablefish fisheries, and repayment is based on their catches. The Local Fish Fund opened its doors this month to provide alternative loan structures...

­­­So how’s that trade war with China going? Up until last July, when the Trump Administration slapped a 25 percent tax on nearly all U.S. seafood imports from China, that country was Alaska’s biggest trading partner for seven years...

Alaska’s new slogan is “open for business” but good luck trying to find out any budget details when it comes to the business of fishing. The Dunleavy administration has a full gag order in place at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and...

Small electronic beacons that are being widely used by increasing numbers of fishermen could net them big fines. Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) are easily attached to nets, longlines and pots and signal the locations of the gear via a...

Heading into the 2019 salmon season markets are looking good as global demand exceeds supply. That’s due in part to constraints on the world’s biggest producers of farmed Atlantic salmon – Norway and Chile. While farmed production continues to...

When most people think of Alaska crab, they envision huge boats pulling up “7 bys” for millions of pounds of bounty in the Bering Sea. (7 bys refers to the 7’x7’x3’ size of the crab pots.) But it is the smaller, local crab fisheries that...

Eating seafood can save lives. Premature birth is the leading cause of death for children under 5 years old worldwide, accounting for nearly one million deaths annually. Now there is proof that eating seafood or marine oils can significantly reduce...

The government shutdown has caused few problems so far in Alaska’s fisheries, but concern is growing as it enters a third week.  The shutdown of nine out of 15 federal departments and agencies on Dec. 21 has furloughed about 800,000 workers...

This column that each week focuses on Alaska’s seafood industry will enter into its 28th year in 2019. It began in the Anchorage Daily News in 1991 at the request of longtime former business editor Bill White and has appeared in the ADN ever...

Fishermen in Alaska who own catch shares of halibut, sablefish and Bering Sea crab will pay more to the federal government to cover 2018 management and enforcement costs for those fisheries.   For halibut and sablefish (black cod) the annual fee,...

Thorne Bay and Craig Districts Ranger, Matt Anderson, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, closed the Federal public lands of Unit 2 to the harvest of wolf from 11:59 P.M., Tuesday, December 18, 2018 until 11:59 P.M., March...

Alaska is the nation’s super power when it comes to seafood. American fishermen landed just shy of 10 billion pounds of fish and shellfish last year valued at $5.4 billion, both up slightly. Of that, Alaska accounted for 61 percent of total landing...