Alaska’s seafloor is not empty space. It is a living habitat that provides shelter, feeding grounds, and structure for the species that sustain our fisheries. Crab depend on bottom habitat for protection and survival. Juvenile rockfish use structures such as cold-water corals and other complex seafloor habitat as refuge. Halibut feed along the seabed. […]
Juneau, AK: A headline in Under Current News published June 9th read: “North Pacific Council Bucks Critics, Preserves Status Quo for Alaska Trawlers”. This is not the news that Alaskan coastal communities and fishermen were hoping for. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council at their June meeting, which ended Tuesday, decided once again to postpone […]
The Alaska State Board of Fisheries this week will consider four proposals that would eliminate or reduce bycatch in the Prince William Sound “midwater” trawl fishery, which has zero observers and regularly bycatches bottom-dwelling species, potentially violating state law CORDOVA, ALASKA—The Alaska State Board of Fisheries is this week set to consider four proposals that […]
This week the federal government shut down the harvest of all polluck in the Gulf of Alaska after two fishing vessels took over 2,000 chinook from the region as bycatch. The news drew immediate condemnation against the two Kodiak vessels that ended the fisheries for 20 vessels in the region. The incident took place as […]