The Draft Spending Plan for funds appropriated to address the 2016 Gulf of Alaska pink salmon disaster is available for comment until September 7th at 5pm. The full draft plan is here, below is a summary. Guiding Principles for fund Distribution: disbursement of funds will be prioritized based on the following criteria: 1) funds will be allocated to improve fishery information to better assess and forecast future fishery performance; 2) fishery participants directly involved and harmed by the 2016 pink salmon disaster; 3) funds will be disbursed to positively affect the broadest number of people possible; and 4) address losses to primary business and infrastructure that directly support pink salmon fisheries and that incurred the greatest losses as a result of the disaster. Categories Read more…
USCG Alert LED Light Interference
The USCG is receiving reports of radio frequency interference caused by LED lamps. Some ships have experienced degradation of VHF receivers, including AIS, caused by LED navigation lights. LED lighting installed need VHF antennas has also shown to compound the reception. The full alert and instructions to test for the presence of LED interference can is here.
Petersburg Fishing Families Workshop
Marysia Szymkowiak from NOAA fisheries will be traveling to Petersburg to hold a work shop on September 17th from 5:30-7:30pm at the Scandia House Conference Room. The Alaska Fisheries Science Center is holding a workshop to discuss the interactions of fishing families and changing regulations, environments, and socioeconomic conditions in Alaska’s fisheries and fishing communities. This is an area of consideration for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and other regulatory bodies and there is little information on it. All participants in Alaska’s fisheries are welcome. The flier for the event is here.
Guidelines for Navigating around Cruise Ships
The Southeast Alaska Pilot’s Association is distributing this flier on sharing waters with large vessels.
Platypus Marine BBQ
Platypus Marine will hold their annual ‘Captains and Crews BBQ’ in Petersburg on Wednesday, June 6th at 5pm at the SONs. The event will be catered by Liv and Heidi’s Kjokken & Kito’s Kave. Please view the flier here.
Pubic Outreach meeting on IFQ Program Amendments
In Kodiak during the NPFMC meeting a public outreach session will be held concurrent with the June meeting. The session will be Tuesday, June 5, from 5 pm-6:30 pm in the Pavilion Room, and will provide an open forum for stakeholders to give insight on the present state of the halibut and sablefish IFQ Program and provide direction for future actions that might be considered by the Council and its IFQ Committee. The Council is particularly seeking input on issues related to entry level opportunities and rural participation in the fishery. The listening session will be held in a round-table format chaired by Council member Buck Laukitis. NPFMC and Alaska Fisheries Science Center staff will provide an overview of findings in the 20-Year Program Review that relate to the session’s Read more…
April NPFMC Newsletter
The April NPFMC Newsletter is out. In April the NP Council took final action and created an annual renewal process for chart halibut permits (CHPs). The is meant to provide the Council with more information on the CHP program and to facilitate retirement of non-transferable permits when ownership changes, and improve the ability of enforcement to ensure only valid permits are being used. The NP Council also took action to restrict halibut harvested by sport fishing guide services and possessed with halibut harvested not using sport fishing guide services. Previously these two types of sport harvest had separate limits. Under the Councils new direction, guided and unguided halibut onboard one vessel are held to the stricter management measure of for guided sport fishing including bag Read more…