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Southeast Alaska: M/V Tazlina to Service Parts of Northern Panhandle – Last week several lawmakers who represent coastal communities urged the Dunleavy Administration to fulfill the Alaska Department of Transportation’s mission statement to “Keep Alaska moving through service and infrastructure” by promptly getting two essential Alaska Marine Highway System vessels back into operation.

DOT recently made an announcement that M/V Leconte and Malaspina would be laid up, leaving the communities of Angoon, Gustavus, Pelican and Tenakee Springs completely without ferry service and leaving Hoonah and Kake with only limited runs. The decision leaves the communities in “existential crisis,” the lawmakers wrote.

“The ferry is the only economical means of transportation for many Southeast Alaskans,” the lawmakers wrote. “We know Railbelt residents would feel similar with a simultaneous closure of the Glenn, Parks, and Richardson Highways. With the multitude of recent, severe budget cuts to AMHS, and delayed maintenance to system vessels, this is leading to future economic and social disasters, if management action is not taken quickly.”

“This seems to be a funding priority crisis that can be solved. We understand that the department budgeted $1.2 million for repairs to the LeConte and the real cost of repair is closer to $4 million. This is not a valid reason to hamstring these communities and the administration has the tools to solve the problem. There is funding available — $20 million was set aside in an earlier budget for just this type of situation.

Reps. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka), Dan Ortiz (I-Ketchikan), Sara Hannan (D-Juneau), Andi Story (D-Juneau), and Sen. Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) signed the November 12, 2019 letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and DOT Commissioner John MacKinnon.

M/V Tazlina to Service Parts of the Northern Panhandle

After weeks of effort, discussion, and negotiation, the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) announced Friday, November 15th, that the M/V Tazlina is being brought out of layup status and will begin operating Nov. 21, 2019 to provide service to parts of the northern Panhandle through Jan. 5, 2020.

Crew for the ship are currently being called back to service, and will sail from Ketchikan to Juneau on Saturday. The ship will then dock in Juneau while preparing to return to revenue service. - More...
Tuesday PM - November 19, 2019

Fish Factor: Alaska's 2019 Salmon Season Worth $657.6 Million to Fishermen By LAINE WELCH - Alaska’s 2019 salmon season was worth $657.6 million to fishermen, a 10% increase from the 2018 fishery. 

Sockeye salmon accounted for nearly 64% of the total value, topping $421 million, and 27% of the harvest at 55.2 million fish. 

Those are the lead takeaways in a summary from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that reveals preliminary estimates of salmon harvests and values by region. The final values will be determined in 2020 after processors, buyers, and direct marketers submit their totals paid to fishermen.

Pink salmon were the second most valuable species representing 20% of the total dockside value at $128.6 million, and 62% of the harvest at just over 129 million fish. 

Chum salmon accounted for 10% of the value at $63.8 million and 9% of the harvest at 18.5 million. Coho salmon contributed about 5% of the fishery value at $29.6 million and 2% of the harvest at 3.8 million fish. 

The Chinook salmon harvest of just over 272,000 was worth $14.4 million to fishermen, the third lowest value since limited entry began in 1975.         

Salmon prices for 2019 took a dip for all but sockeyes which averaged $1.45 per pound, an increase from $1.33. The average price for Chinook was $4.48 per pound, down from $5.98 in 2018. Cohos at $1.15 dropped from $1.34; pink salmon at $.30 declined from $.45 and chums at $.49 took a big dip from the $.78 paid on average last year. 

The price drops, especially for pinks and chums, likely stemmed from the huge Russian harvest that was expected to approach 1.8 billion pounds this year. That compares to a 2019 Alaska salmon catch of just over 872 million pounds. 

Average salmon weights this year were 11.84 pounds for Chinook, up from 11.59 pounds in 2018. Sockeye weight of 5.24 pounds was down slightly from 5.26 pounds. Coho salmon averaged 6.77 pounds, down from 7.42; pinks averaged 3.27 pounds, down from 3.76 and chum weight at 7.07 pounds declined from 8 pounds on average.

At Southeast Alaska fishermen caught 32.2 million salmon valued at over $101.8 million. That compares to 21.2 million fish valued at $133.6 million in 2018.

Prince William Sound fishermen harvested 57.75 million salmon this valued at just under $115 million. Last year’s take was just over 29 million fish valued at nearly $95 million.         

At Cook Inlet, fishermen caught more than 4.3 million salmon valued at nearly $23 million. That’s a slight improvement over the nearly 3.3 million fish valued at $18 million in 2018.

Bristol Bay fishermen had a total salmon catch of nearly 44.5 million salmon of which almost 43 million were sockeyes. The value of over $306.5 million was a record and compares to 43.5 million fish worth $281 at the docks in 2018.

Kodiak’s salmon fishery produced 35.7 million fish valued at $47 million. That compares to fewer than 9 million salmon worth $27.8 million last year.

At Chignik, fishermen fared far better with a catch of 3.5 million salmon valued at $8 million. Last year harvesters took just over 1,000 salmon (only 128 sockeyes!) worth less than $4,000.

At the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands region, a bumper catch of nearly 21 million pinks in the southern district pushed the total salmon catch to nearly 27 million salmon valued at over $49 million. Last year fishermen there took just over 6 million salmon worth more than $29 million. 

On the Yukon, fishermen took 561,644 fish, mostly chums, for a total fishery value topping $2.5 million. That compares to over one million salmon valued at nearly $4.7 million in 2018.

Norton Sound harvesters landed 381,124 salmon worth just over $2 million at the docks. That compares to 540,796 salmon valued at $4 million last year.

At Kotzebue, fishermen caught 493,340 salmon, nearly all chums, valued at over $1.5 million. 

That’s down from 695,000 fish last year, worth nearly $2.3 million at the docks. 

Once again, there was no salmon fishing opportunity for fishermen at the Kuskokwim. The region’s CDQ groups abruptly closed its plant at Platinum a few years ago. No buyer means no commercial salmon fishing. - More...
Tuesday PM - November 19, 2019

PNW Fisheries: Bigger doesn't mean better for hatchery-released salmon; Over 65 years, Chinook salmon hatcheries in the PNW have skewed towards releasing larger fish that are more easily preyed upon - Fish permeate the culture of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In particular, the iconic salmon has been an important part of the region for thousands of years, from ancient Native American trade routes and legends to modern fishing and sporting. In the area of the Salish Sea - inland waterways including Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca - the cultures, economies, and technologies there are all impacted and influenced by salmon. It is no wonder, then, that salmon are of high conservation interest and constitute a large proportion of hatchery-raised fish in the region.

A recent study in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere examines hatchery practices in regard to how the Chinook salmon that are released back into the natural waterways in the PNW are affecting wild populations.

In the face of changing climate, ocean conditions, freshwater habitat loss, and increased human consumption, many salmon populations in the PNW are depleted relative to historical abundance. A large salmon, for instance, is a prized and sought-after catch for a sport fisher. There is a growing demand for salmon hatcheries to provide food security and to bolster fish populations; many hatcheries release fish after they reach a certain age or size, with a goal of increasing opportunities for commercial, recreational, and indigenous fishers.

Salmon hatcheries in the PNW, however, seem to be releasing young fish when they are the desired size for predators to prey upon. In this case, bigger does not equal better for the salmon population's survival.

Chinook salmon - named for the native Chinookan peoples, also known as King salmon - is the largest Pacific salmon species. As juveniles, they migrate to the ocean in their first or second year of life and return to freshwater to spawn as adults 1-6 years later. It is as juveniles that populations are most vulnerable to predators. "Survival during the first year at sea has a large impact on the total lifetime survival and adult abundance of Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest," says lead author Benjamin Nelson. "This is a problem for other species that depend on them, like endangered killer whales, and for people who depend on them, such as Native American communities and commercial fishers."

Researchers analyzed more than 65 years of records and data on hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in the Salish Sea to examine long-term changes in hatchery release practices. It appears that hatcheries have progressively released juvenile fish at bigger sizes and they are currently releasing them in a larger size range preferred by fish, bird, and marine mammal predators. A 2017 study using GPS tags found that harbor seal feeding increased shortly after hatchery releases of large coho salmon, but interestingly, the seals did not respond to far more abundant but smaller-sized Chinook releases a few weeks later. Many predators show similar large-size (over 10cm) preference in studies over the years showing that smaller juvenile salmon encounter fewer predators. Thus, hatchery-origin chinook are more likely to be eaten before they have a chance to spawn. - More...
Tuesday PM - November 19, 2019

RICH MANIERI: Impeachment Hearings are a Lose-Lose Proposition - I’m not sure who to believe anymore.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman, and impeachment hearing ringmaster, Adam Schiff (D-Cal.) says he doesn’t know the identity of the whistleblower.

President Trump says he’s “too busy” to watch the hearings on television. 

Each claim seems a bit far-fetched.

There are multiple reports that members of Schiff’s staff had secret meetings with the whistleblower. And we all know it’s unlike the president to miss, much less ignore, anything said about him by the media or his political opponents.

So, we hunker down with a bag of chips to watch the hearings to see if our side is winning. Meanwhile, America loses.

This process, such as it is, is so polluted by partisanship that I have very little confidence we are ever going to get to the truth which, after all, is what this is supposed to be about.

Instead, these hearings are an exercise in groupthink. Either the president is being railroaded or he’s already guilty and all that’s left is to fill in a few blanks.

Impeaching a president is a big deal. It doesn’t happen very often – four times in the history of the republic, though Richard Nixon resigned before the vote. It would be nice if we could trust our elected representatives as responsible stewards of such a gravely serious procedure.

But we can’t, and it’s their fault.

Our political discourse has plunged to such depths as to make it nearly impossible to accept anything we see or hear at face value. Many, if not most Democrats blame the president for this. Fine. To be clear, Trump doesn’t help himself by his bombast and name-calling. He has several nicknames for Schiff including “little pencil-neck.” 

On the other hand, Schiff’s motives seem less than pure when he holds a series of secret hearings and declares, before any official impeachment inquiry, that the president is guilty. - More...
Tuesday PM - November 19, 2019

Political Cartoon: Moderate Democrats Take Center Stage at Debate
By R.J. Matson ©2019, CQ Roll Call
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.

The fifth Democratic presidential debate, which will again feature 10 candidates, will be on Wednesday, November 20, from 9 to 11 ET at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and will be broadcast by MSNBC.