Tracking red king crab by Saildrone www.pacificfishing.com THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR FISHERMEN n JULY 2019 Fast boat, dream boat US $2.95/CAN. $3.95 • Record Alaska herring haul 63126 • B.C.’s new PFD requirement Cool Chain... Logistics for the Seafood Industry! From Sea to Serve Lynden’s Cool ChainSM service manages your seafood supply chain from start to nish. Fresh or frozen seafood is transported at just the right speed and temperature to meet your particular needs and to maintain quality. With the ability to deliver via air, highway, or sea or use our temperature-controlled storage facilities, Lynden’s Cool ChainSM service has the solution to your seafood supply challenges. www.lynden.com | 1-888-596-3361 IN THIS ISSUE ® THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR FISHERMEN B.C.’s new PFD requirement • Page 9 Boats and engines • Page 10 Record Alaska herring haul • Page 19 West Coast Dungeness update • Page 20 Tracking red king crab by Saildrone • Page 14 VOLUME XL, NO. 7 • JULY 2019 Pacific Fishing (ISSN 0195-6515) is published 12 times a year (monthly) by Pacific Fishing Magazine. Editorial, Circulation, ON THE COVER: The fishing vessel Fitzcarraldo and Advertising offices at 14240 Interurban Ave S, Ste. 190, Tukwila, WA 98168, U.S.A. Telephone (206) 324-5644. n Subscriptions: One-year rate for U.S., $18.75, two-year $30.75, three-year $39.75; Canadian subscriptions paid in U.S. is hauled over the Chigmit Mountains toward funds add $10 per year. Canadian subscriptions paid in Canadian funds add $10 per year. Foreign airmail is $84 per year. n The publisher of Pacific Fishing makes no warranty, express or implied, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility Bristol Bay. Alli Harvey photo for the information contained in Pacific Fishing. n Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, Washington. Postmaster: Send address changes to Pacific Fishing, 14240 Interurban Ave S, Ste. 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. Copyright © 2019 by Pacific Fishing Magazine. Contents may not be reproduced without permission. POST OFFICE: Please send address changes to Pacific Fishing, 14240 Interurban Ave S, Ste. 190, Tukwila, WA 98168. WWW.PACIFICFISHING.COM £ JULY 2019 £ PACIFICFISHING 3 KEEPING UP PREFERRED PUBLICATION OF: It’s FREE!* It’s the best commercial fishing news digest BRISTOL BAY Fish available in the North Pacific. Here’s some of FISHERMEN’S ASSOCIATION Wrap what you missed by not reading FishWrap. CORDOVA DISTRICT FISHERMEN UNITED Herring haul: The Togiak purse seine fishery Columbia, putting the controversial bill on OREGON DUNGENESS could break the harvest record for the gear type. life support after years of political wrangling. CRAB COMMISSION – kdlg.org – vancouversun.com UNITED FISHERMEN Ocean fish farming: Alaska Congressman Copper River gets going: The first opener of OF ALASKA Don Young introduces legislation that would the season produced 20,400 sockeye salmon, WASHINGTON DUNGENESS prohibit finfish aquaculture in the federal lagging the projected harvest of 23,400 CRAB FISHERMEN’S ASSOC. EEZ unless specifically authorized by Congress. sockeye. – adfg.alaska.gov WASHINGTON REEF NET – donyoung.house.gov Culinary craze: The first Copper River salmon OWNERS ASSOC. Newport shrimp strike: The Pacific pink of the season arrives in Seattle. – kiro7.com WESTERN FISHBOAT shrimp season has been open for a month, but OWNERS ASSOC. processors and fishermen are still far apart on The big picture: Salmon catches remain price. – newportnewstimes.com at near all-time highs, the North Pacific Salmon time! The Copper River salmon season Anadromous Fish Commission reports. – scribd.com To subscribe: is set to open May 16. – adfg.alaska.gov www.pacificfishing.com ‘Mayday, vessel Masonic going down’: The A good sign: The Copper River yields an Ph: (206) 324-5644 U.S. Coast Guard rescues five fishermen from a encouraging 53,200 sockeye salmon during the [email protected] life raft after they were forced to abandon their season’s second opener. – adfg.alaska.gov Main Office boat southeast of Sitka. – content.govdelivery.com 14240 INTERURBAN AVE S. SUITE 190 Bristol Bay cannery sale: The former Wards TUKWILA, WA 98168 Juneau watch: Kodiak Sen. Gary Stevens lays Cove property on the Egegik River is offered for PH: (206) 324-5644 out the state budget situation. – kmxt.org $3.5 million. – pr.com Rescue video: The U.S. Coast Guard comes to Norwegian salmon die-off: About 8 million Chairman/CEO/Publisher MIKE DAIGLE the aid of a Petersburg fisherman. – kfsk.org farmed salmon have suffocated in northern [email protected] Trade war: Alaska’s seafood industry is Norway as a result of persistent algae bloom. Associate Publisher exploring strategies to reduce damage from – nytimes.com CHRISTIE DAIGLE [email protected] the Trump administration’s trade dispute ‘This is it’: Cordova fishermen tell harrowing with China. – apnews.com tales of a trip home in waves whipped by an EDITORIAL CONTENT: Coast Guard to the rescue: A skipper is saved, unseasonable storm. – adn.com Editor but his boat breaks up near the Columbia River WESLEY LOY Trade war: U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan requests a bar entrance. – content.govdelivery.com [email protected] tariff exemption for Alaska seafood. – adn.com Ph: (907) 351-1881 Legal battle: The Dunleavy administration Alaska fish politics: The governor has named West Coast Field Editor weighs in on the Pebble-backed lawsuit against DANIEL MINTZ the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development John Wood to the state Board of Fisheries. Association. – kdlg.org – gov.alaska.gov PRODUCTION OPERATIONS: Who is he? Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s latest Art Director, Design & Layout The Mary B II capsizing: A Coast Guard PATRICIA WOODS hearing in Newport, Oregon, focuses on issues pick for the Board of Fisheries is his former [email protected] with the captain. – newportnewstimes.com legislative aide. – kbbi.org SALES & MARKETING: B.C. tanker ban in jeopardy: A committee The winners: The Alaska Department of Fish JOHN NORDAHL votes to defeat the Liberal government’s and Game announces this year’s sablefish tag Ph: (206) 775-6286 moratorium on oil tankers in northern British recovery drawing winners. – adfg.alaska.gov [email protected] Ad Support CANDICE EGAN *You can subscribe to Fish Wrap by sending an email to [email protected]. Write your first Ph: (206) 324-5644 name, your last name, and the words “Fish Wrap.” Do it now, before you go another month without Fish Wrap! [email protected] 4 £ PACIFICFISHING £ JULY 2019 £ WWW.PACIFICFISHING.COM PULLING TOGETHER YOUR PASSION: harvesting Alaska’s wild seafood. OUR MISSION: making sure the world demands it. While you spend time working on Building global demand for Alaska your boats and gear to prepare for seafood sustains fishing families and the season ahead, we are also looking communities for generations. The beyond the horizon, developing new Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute markets and maintaining relationships team is proud to be on deck with you. with your customers in the U.S. and overseas. www.alaskaseafood.org COMMENTARY by JOHN SCHANDELMEIER Limited entry isn’t perfect, but it keeps Bristol Bay teeming with sockeye Editor’s note: This column was first published on June 17 by the Drift gillnetting is more expensive yet. The permits are edging Anchorage Daily News. It is reprinted here with permission of the author. up near the $175,000 mark. A 32-foot drift boat that can contend with competition and hold enough fish and crew to work the short he early 1970s were not good years for the salmon industry openings can set you back $100,000 to $200,000 or more. And, you in Bristol Bay. The largest catch in the first five years of the T had better be a mechanic, or have a good crewman on board who is. decade came in 1970, a paltry 10 million fish. Compared to today’s or be numbers, a catch that small would be called a disaster. Some say it is time for limited entry to go away modified. I disagree. The system has been a stabilizing factor in When 1973 yielded 2 million fish, the state of Alaska, knowing the fishery. something needed to change, instituted a limited-entry program. Quality is the one item that is often overlooked by those who The theory was there were too many fishermen targeting too few wish to get rid of the limited-entry system. Much of the success and fish. In reality, most of the poor runs were associated with poor improved quality in Bristol Bay fishing is due almost entirely to the fisheries management. knowledge of experienced fishermen and their understanding of what’s necessary to produce quality fish. Another argument used to naysay the entry program is that our local permits are going south. Let’s take a little closer look at that. In 1900, there were no local fishermen. None. The canneries brought all of their people from Seattle and beyond. Fishermen, processing crews, and all. Local guys got some employment in grunt jobs, but they did not run the fishery. Things gradually changed over the decades, sometimes not for the better. The Japanese had a dozen or more factory trawlers in the Bay in 1937. In 1975, when limited-entry permits came on the scene, 84 percent of setnet permits and 60 percent of the drift gear was held by resident Alaskans, many of whom resided in the Bristol Bay watershed. The numbers published in 2011 by Fish and Game showed drift gear to be 55 percent nonresident. Set permit ownership had dropped to 67 percent for Alaska residents. However, not all of this change is due to permit sales. The median age of permit holders has risen. Some of these older residents migrated south for the off season.