Deer Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats were photographed grazing close to Blue Lake. In the background is Ketchikan and Tongass Narrows.
Front Page Feature Photo By JERRY REYES ©2016

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Fish Factor: Alaska’s premiere crab fishery likely to fetch record prices By LAINE WELCH - It was fast and furious for Alaska’s premiere crab fishery with the fleet catching the nearly eight-million pound red king crab quota at Bristol Bay in less than three weeks.

The overall take was down 15 percent from the 2015 fishery and will likely fetch record prices when all sales are made.

“The only price we have is an advance price so fishermen can pay fuel, bait and other trip expenses. The final price will be determined from now to January,” said Jake Jacobsen, executive director of the Inter-Cooperative Exchange, which represents 70 percent of the Bering Sea crab harvesters.

Crabbers fetched an average price of $8.18 per pound for their king crab last year and the fishery was valued at over $81 million at the docks.

The hauls since the fishery got underway on October 15 averaged 37.4 red kings per pot, compared to 32 crabs last year, Jacobsen said, adding that some boats were catching 60 to 70 crab per pot, even as the fishery was coming to a close.

That’s where the furious comes in – the crabbers believe there are lots more crab on the grounds than were revealed in the standardized summer survey upon which the catch quotas are based.

“It’s not one of those things where we don’t think the crab is there, it’s a result of the survey not being able to find them,” said Ruth Christiansen, science adviser and policy analyst for the trade group, Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

Jacobsen agreed, saying “Fishermen were very pleased with the good fishing and at the same time furious that the catch could be so low when the resource is more abundant than they’ve seen in many a year.”

He added that they also saw high numbers of female and undersized crab, which bodes well for next year. Only legal-sized males are allowed to be retained for sale.

The Bering Sea crab fisheries are co-managed by the state and the federal government. Federal biologists conduct the annual summer surveys and calculate the catch quotas; the state Dept. of Fish and Game manages the crab fisheries in-season.

Trump take downs

What might the election of Donald Trump mean for the seafood industry? Economic reports already are pointing to his platform of opposing trade and pulling out of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a stance that goes against more than 30 years of American policy under presidents of both parties.

NAFTA connects trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and Trump has pledged to impose trade barriers that could reduce markets for seafood and other U.S. exports and drive up the cost of imports, causing banks to restrict lending, according to the New York Times.

It also is a foregone conclusion that he will tank the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. If Trump does implement trade protectionist policies, it could tip the economy into a recession, cautioned global economists.

Trump also has vowed to place a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports and declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. How this will affect the millions of pounds of Alaska seafood that are sent to China for reprocessing and then shipped back for sales in the U.S. is anyone’s guess.

The Wall Street Journal said Trump’s victory could begin “an era of U.S. combativeness” with two of our biggest trade partners - China and Mexico – and prompt trade wars and stall international growth.

Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing and communications Ocean Beauty Seafood agrees. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 15, 2016

Alaska: Why do seabirds eat plastic? - If it smells like food, and looks like food, it must be food, right?

Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma furcata) are found only in the North Pacific Ocean and are most abundant in Alaska. The subspecies Oceanodroma furcata plumbea breeds from islands off Southeast Alaska to northern California.
Photo courtesy US Fish & Wildlife

Not in the case of ocean-faring birds that are sometimes found with bellies full of plastic. But very little research examines why birds make the mistake of eating plastic in the first place.

It turns out that marine plastic debris emits the scent of a sulfurous compound that some seabirds have relied upon for thousands of years to tell them where to find food, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. This olfactory cue essentially tricks the birds into confusing marine plastic with food.

The study, published Nov. 9 in the journal Science Advances, helps explain why plastic ingestion is more prevalent in some seabird species than in others. Tubenosed seabirds, such as petrels and albatross, have a keen sense of smell, which they use to hunt. They are also among the birds most severely affected by plastic consumption.

The Birds' Point of View

"It's important to consider the organism's point of view in questions like this," said lead author Matthew Savoca, who performed the study as a graduate student in the lab of UC Davis professor Gabrielle Nevitt and who is with the Graduate Group in Ecology. "Animals usually have a reason for the decisions they make. If we want to truly understand why animals are eating plastic in the ocean, we have to think about how animals find food."

The study could also open the door to new strategies that address the ocean's plastic problem, which plagues not only seabirds, but also fish, sea turtles and other marine life. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 15, 2016

Columns - Commentary

TOM PURCELL: Why 'Deplorables' Elected Trump - "They still don't get what the Trump win was all about. All those people protesting and calling their fellow citizens racists, sexists and xenophobes don't have a clue why Hillary really lost."

"It's a bit silly to protest nearly 60 million Americans who exercised their constitutional right by voting for a candidate the protesters opposed. The fact is, there are dozens of sound reasons why millions voted for Trump."

"You raise a fair point. It's very difficult for either party to hold the White House for more than two terms. According to, About.com, the last Democrat candidate to succeed a two-term Democrat president was James Buchanan way back in 1857."

"And after eight years of Obama's policies, no small number of Americans were ready for some serious changes. Nothing motivated me to cast a vote for Trump more than my soaring health-care premiums."

"To be sure, health insurance premiums have shot up again this November because of the massive disruptions brought on by ObamaCare. Millions of Americans are still angry that they could not keep their doctors and that the average family did not save $2,500 a year in premium costs ---- two whoppers Obama told to win support for his health-care overhaul." - More...
Tuesday AM - November 15, 2016

MICHAEL REAGAN: Get a Grip, Losers - It's all over.

So why are people still arguing about something Donald Trump said three weeks ago?

Why are protestors milling around the streets of our cities holding up misspelled signs and promising revolution?

The argument ended early Wednesday morning when the votes were counted.

Trump won.

It was shocking, amazing, impressive, historic ---- all that and more.

The billionaire with no ideology except egoism, the ex-Democrat no one thought had a chance, turned everything upside down and made fools, losers or incompetents out of both major political parties, the liberal media, the pundits, the pollsters, the financial markets, the weathermen...

You hear suicidal talking heads in the liberal media saying that Trump tapped into something they didn't see.

Of course they didn't see it. They're liberals.

The reality is that Trump tapped into the kinds of issues that talk radio has been talking about for 25 years. - More...
Tuesday AM - November 15, 2016