 By Laine Welch January 23, 2006
That news was announced Friday by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, which sets annual catch limits for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia. The Commission recommended a coast-wide halibut catch totaling 69,860,000 pounds, a 5.37 percent decrease from the 2005 catch limit of 73,819,000 pounds. The IPHC said in its 2006 annual report that the halibut stock appears healthy throughout much of its range, but is believed to have declined in the Western Gulf of Alaska and parts of the Bering Sea. This is the second year in a row that harvest rates for those areas have been lowered as a precautionary measure, the IPHC said. Following are the 2006 halibut catch limits for Alaska. Get more information at www.iphc.washington.edu 
According to the state Dept. of Labor's January issue of Alaska Economic Trends that has been the case since 1992, when the U.S. first began tracking work place fatalities. The data are derived from the number of deaths per 100,000 workers. Transportation incidents led Alaska's deadly list, accounting for 73 percent of job fatalities in 2004. That includes any mode of transportation, from cars and trucks to boats and aircraft. Nearly one out of three deaths was associated with some type of marine mishap. Twenty percent of Alaska's workplace fatalities that year, or 8 out of 40, were commercial fishermen. Air craft incidents accounted for one third of work place fatalities, or three out of every ten deaths. In more recent years, the on the job death rate has improved dramatically for both fishing and flying. For fishing, it has dropped from 38 percent in 1992 to 20 percent in 2004. The rate has declined from an average of nine deaths per year for aircraft pilots to four. Between 1992 and 2004, 721 workers died in Alaska's workplaces, an average of about one every seven days. Alaska's average annual number of workplace deaths has decreased in the last ten years, even though the number of workers has increased 10 percent In all, Alaska had 40 workplace deaths in 2004, down from an average of 55 in a run of previous years. Nearly three fourths of the people who died in Alaska's workplaces were between the ages of 25-54, and white/non Hispanic and Asian made up 85 percent of the deaths. While things are improving,
Alaska's on the job fatality rate is among the nation's highest
at 9.2 persons per year. That is second only to Wyoming, with
a rate of 13.9 on the job deaths. On its entry form, Yukon King Seafoods said its smoked salmon products (also available in lemon pepper, traditional and peppered) are currently being sold in villages along the Yukon River, and will soon be available online at www.yukonking.com. The Seafood of Symphony event now moves to Anchorage, where three winners will be announced in three categories - retail, food service and smoked - along with a grand prize winner. First place entries earn a trip to the International Boston Seafood Show in March. Now in its 13th year, the Symphony
of Seafood was created by the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation
to showcase new products and introduce them to the marketplace.
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