PhotoWalk | Juneau Maritime Festival 2012


The Juneau Maritime Festival just turned three this past weekend.  The event was initially canceled the previous week, yet many locals and tourists  turned out for the free salmon!  That’s right!  Fresh FREE Sockeye salmon courtesy of Alaska Glacier Seafoods.  There were also various tours of local marine vessels and native traditional dancing.   Overall, it was a big success.  Enjoy the pics.

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Fish Tech | Nine Nautical Apps


Here are a few apps that will get you up to date on all your fishing needs.  This bundle includes some awesome weather apps, a few reference apps, and some navigation aids.  While some apps provide navigation info, they are only intended as a navigational aid.  Make sure to keep your eyes open out there and always had a hard copy of the chart region you are traveling in.  Enough safety, read up on some can’t miss nautical apps.  Click on the itunes image to hop over to the app.

Marine U.S

This is a great app due to its simplicity and speed.  You need an active internet connection, as the charts are streamed from the geogarage webite.  Otherwise, this is a great charting app that can be used for planning a trip and getting the lay on the land.

 

 

 

Knots Guide

This app will help you keep up on all the various knots used in your fishing adventures.  The knots are illustrated nicely and its also free.

 

 

 

 

Alaska Journal of Commerce

Now you can get the latest and greatest from one of Alaska‘s oldest and most trusted news sources.  The design is clean and the app has fresh updates daily.

 

 

 

MarineTraffic

Now you can have AIS info at your fingertips.  This app is an extension of the Marinetraffic.com website.  It gives you the ability to see nearby vessels in congested harbors.  The app requires an internet connection, so it limited when heading out to sea.  It’s still a great tool for following boats out on the bering sea.

 

 

 

NOAA Buoys and Tide Data

This is ideal for determining the big swells offshore.  The data is directly available from NOAA, which helps built confidence in a somewhat lackluster designed app.

 

 

 

 

KTUU Weather

This a one of the better weather apps and it’s from a trusted news source in Alaska.  The design is amazing, especially on the iPad.

 

 

 

 

Motion X GPS

The built-in GPS and Accelerometer make this a useful app for  double checking your vessel’s instruments.  The results are accurate and the design is superb.  It’s also one of the more popular GPS apps in the app store.

 

 

 

 

Marine Navigation Pro

The rules of the sea can be a little confusing.  Make sure any greenhorns get a look at this one so they can determine a cruise ship for a tug boat.

 

 

 

Boat Beacon

This might be the cheapest AIS Solution on the market.  The cool little app allows you to yourself and other AIS vessels around your position.  This is obvious not a full fledged AIS system.  It’s a great way to get familiar with new navigation aid.  This could be the future of AIS technology.

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Grunnlovsdagen | The Vikings Are Lose | Petersburg’s Little Norway Fest 2012


Every year in May, the little fishing village of Petersburg, Alaska celebrates the local Norwegian heritage. The town is transformed for a four day festival that embraces the inner viking in all of us. Check out the local webcam and you might see a few vikings roaming the streets.  Click thru on the KFSK link to hear local audio.  Enjoy the youtube pick from last season’s festival.  Ha en fin søttende mai!

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Main Street will be lined with concessions and food booths. Vikings and Valkyries will parade through the streets with their ship, the Valhalla and their Viking mobile. Other residents will show off their traditional Norwegian costumes called Bunader. All this and more is coming up as the 54th annual Little Norway Festival goes into high gear on its second day – Friday, the 18th. Matt Lichtenstein asked Festival committee co-chairs Holli Flint and Katie Eddy for a preview of Friday’s schedule.

via Little Norway Festival in swing | KFSK.

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Alaska Salmon | Copper River Reds Begins Today.


The salmon season is officially underway.  On Thursday, nearly 450 boats will pack into the mouth of the Copper River to harvest one of Alaska‘s most famous brands.  Traditionally, the brand has been a real success story for marketers in the seafood industry.  ”Copper River Reds” could fetch as much as $30 a pound in the first few weeks.  As the rest of Alaska gears up and increases production,  the price will fall over the coming weeks.  However, many people are willing to pay top dollar to get their hands on the first salmon of the season.  @TedLandKTUU will be tweeting and reporting live from the fishery.  As I’m composing this post, I can see numerous boats heading out of the Cordova harbor on their way to the fishing grounds.  It should be a crazy day tomorrow.   Good luck to all the captains and crews involved.  It looks like its going to be a beautiful day of fishing.

The 2012 season will kick off on Thursday, May 17th with the first Copper River King and Sockeye salmon arriving at restaurants and markets for the weekend. “Copper River Salmon comes from an untouched environment that keeps producing the finest salmon in the world,” says Brian Rutzer, who has been fishing the Copper River for twenty years onboard his 32’ boat, the Controller Bay. For Brian, like the 540 other members of the fleet, fishing is a way of life that harvests one of nature’s healthiest wild foods and feeds a hunger for adventure, independence and vast open spaces.

Copper River King, the largest and most sought after of all Pacific salmon species, run through the end of June. Sockeye, which makes up the heart of the Copper River commercial salmon harvest, run through the end of July., The naturally high oil content, brilliant color, and firm texture make Copper River salmon perfect for preparations and pairings that let its succulent flavor shine through.

Like all seafood from Alaska, Copper River salmon are always wild, natural and sustainable. Following stronger than anticipated King and Sockeye harvests in 2011, this year’s Copper River forecast is for a harvest of 20,000 Kings and 1.43 million Sockeye.

The biggest question often asked by Copper River salmon fans is, ‘where can I find it near me?’. Now, with the new Copper River Salmon Locator App, finding Copper River Salmon at restaurants and markets has never been easier. Consumers, restaurants and retailers can also add locations carrying Copper River Salmon to the App database http://www.findcopperriver.org or with Jessyka at jessyka(at)copperrivermarketing(dot)org.

via Copper River Salmon: More to Love, Easier to Find – seattlepi.com.

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Dutch Harbor Update | Summer Snow Crabbing?


The opilio season just won’t end this year.  The Deadliest Catch is turning out to be the Longest Catch.  ADFG has just announced the second extension this season, which allows the boats to fish until June 15th.  That’s right!  They are winter crabbing in the summertime.  Only a quarter of the quota is left, so it should be over soon.  Its still snowing in St. Paul and the ice pack is still in the harbor according  to the Time Bandit’s Twit Pic. This is definitely one crab season that few fishermen will forget.  I embedded some other twitter posts to give you an idea of who is still fishing.  The Time Bandit is still at it and it sounds like the Northwestern got more quota.  The season is now scheduled to end June 15th.  I wonder how all of this will affect the summer salmon tender season for most of these boats?

It’s already been a long snow crab season, but it’s about to be longer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday that the season will be extended by two weeks in some areas, moving the overall end date to mid-June.

Heavy ice cover in the Bering Sea periodically forced fishermen off the grounds this winter and almost a quarter of the allowable harvest remains uncaught. The unprecedented move by Fish and Game should give crabbers time to bring in the remaining 20 million pounds.

The fishery was scheduled to close on May 31, but with the extension, areas west of 171 degrees will be open through June 15.

via Ice Forces Snow Crab Season Extension.

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Togiak Herring 2012 | Could Early Spawn Equal A Roepocalypse?


The recent Sitka herring sac roe fishery ended early because the herring spawned out before the massive quota was caught. Now, Alaska‘s largest herring fishery in Togiak is showing signs of early spawn. After an aerial survey on Monday, many signs af herring are obvious in the region. The most surprising factor was the noticeable spawn and the congregation of the fish against the shore. The level of surprise is obvious in the audio from KDLG. The fishery opened at 6:00 PM on Monday. Stay tuned for more updates…

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iDevice audio here
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Piscatology 101 | NOAA State Of The Fisheries Report


In general, 86% of the fisheries reviewed are in good shape.  This is great news for an industry that has a bad wrap for raping and pillaging the oceans resources.   The entire report is below.  Also, the article below is a nice summation of the report from SeafoodSource.com.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service on Monday released its annual report card, called the “Status of U.S. Fisheries,” which has been issued to Congress annually since 1997.

Of the 258 stocks and multi-species groupings known as complexes NOAA scientists reviewed for “overfishing” status in 2011, 222 stocks, or 86 percent, were not subject to overfishing, an improvement from 2010 when 84 percent, or 213 out of 253 stocks, were not subject to overfishing.

Of the 219 stocks and complexes reviewed for “overfished” status in 2011, 174 stocks, or 79 percent, were not overfished, compared to 77 percent, or 159 out of 207 stocks, in 2010. Thirteen of those 45 overfished stocks were located off New England, the most of any geographic region.

“Overfishing” means the catch is above the target set in the fishery’s management plan, while “overfished” factors in a safety margin ensuring the stock is able to recover.

Also, a record six fish stocks were rebuilt to healthy levels in 2011, bringing to 27 the number of stocks that have been rebuilt in the last 11 years. They are Bering Sea snow crab, widow rockfish, chinook salmon (North California Coast, Klamath Fall), coho salmon (Washington Coast, Queets), summer flounder and Gulf of Maine haddock.

“[Most] rebuilding plans started 10 to 15 years ago after Congress amended the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1996, so we’re seeing the results of that,” said Galen Tromble, NOAA Fisheries’ division chief for domestic fisheries, in a press briefing on Monday.

However, six stocks were newly determined to be overfished in 2010 and 2011. Rebuilding plans are currently being developed for these stocks and must be in place within two years of an overfished determination. Overall, 51 stocks are subject to rebuilding plans, with six additional plans in development.

via A record six U.S. fish stocks rebuilt in 2011 – SeafoodSource.com.

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Dutch Harbor Update | Snow Crab Extension Due to Record Breaking Ice Pack


For the first time ever, the snow crab fishery will be extended.  The grueling season is far from over for many boats.  Almost 1/4 of the 88.9 million pound quota still needs to be caught and the ice still covers most of the fishing grounds. Currently, the crab fishery is extended until May 31st. Even the Togiak herring fishery is off to a late start because of the record breaking sea ice this year.

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“Record sea ice significantly reduced available fishing grounds throughout a large portion of the snow crab season, and as a result, nearly 25 percent of the snow-crab total allowable catch has not been harvested,” according to Tuesday’s news release from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska. Fish and Game granted a partial extension of the eastern subdistrict between 171 and 173 degrees west longitude until May 31. The area was originally set to close May 15. All areas are now scheduled to close May 31, but ADF&G officials in Unalaska, Kodiak and Juneau are pondering whether to let the fishermen keep dropping pots into the water in June, said biologist Britta Baechler in Unalaska. On Monday, she said 57 boats were still registered, and 21 had finished fishing. As of Monday, 67.7 million pounds were harvested, she said. The season’s quota is about 88 million pounds. “Pretty much anybody involved in the industry is struggling this season,” Baechler said. But Al Mendoza, crab manager at Unisea in Unalaska agreed, said the extension “will definitely help. “There’s a lot of frustrated fishermen. It’s been a long winter season for the fishermen and processors, but everybody’s holding strong and trying to get through it,” Mendoza said. via ADF&G extends snow crab season – The Dutch Harbor Fisherman.
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