Jumbo argument coming on shrimp?

The Alaska Board of Fisheries will consider dozens of shellfish proposals during its meeting Tuesday through Saturday at the Hilton Anchorage.

Deckboss has reviewed the list and is particularly intrigued with four proposals on the commercial shrimp pot fishery in Prince William Sound.

The makers of proposals 358, 359, 360 and 361 all want to see the fishery shut down.

They contend commercial shrimpers actually lose money on the fishery, and that continuing the harvest will crash the stock to the detriment of sport and subsistence shrimpers.

All involved target spot shrimp, or prawns, a very large and tasty variety.

The commercial fishery was closed for 18 years due to low abundance.

It reopened in 2010, and again in 2011, producing catches of 45,349 pounds and 52,694 pounds respectively.

State figures show 75 vessels participated in the fishery in 2010, and 44 vessels in 2011.

As for noncommercial harvest, well in excess of 3,000 permits were issued in both 2010 and 2011, with an estimated take of 87,699 pounds and 59,182 pounds respectively.

The commercial harvest worries the proposal authors. They want the board to put a stop to it.

"Prince William has been a great place for friends and families to go do some shrimping and that is going to go away," writes Mike Crawford, in proposal 361. "The value of the resource is much higher for the noncommercial use than the $200,000 that the commercial fishery is worth."

Unless the commercial fishery is halted, adds Jeff Benkert, in proposal 359, the Sound will "become the desert" it was before.

The Department of Fish and Game, in a February management report, said "survey results for 2011 suggest that spot shrimp abundance remains high relative to recent years."

This year's commercial shrimp pot season is set to open April 15 with a 51,240-pound quota.

Fish and Game says it's neutral on what it terms the "allocative proposals."

A big little fishery

So, did you know they do a little trawling in Prince William Sound?

Yep. Looks like pelagic trawlers just cleaned up 6.1 million pounds of walleye pollock.

That's enough for a whole bunch of fish sandwiches, but it's hardly a nibble compared to the 2.65 billion pounds the big boys are chasing this year in the eastern Bering Sea.

A pretty lady lost

The Lively Jane in happier times. Joshua Roper photo

We told you last week about the Lively Jane, a Prince William Sound salmon seiner that hit a rock and sank in Anderson Bay six miles southwest of Valdez.

Sometimes when we hear a report that a boat has sunk, it means she just swamped. But as you can see by the smaller photo from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Lively Jane went to the bottom. Boom was deployed around the sunken seiner to corral any fuel or oil leakage.

Divers were able to plug the vessel's fuel vents and "remove the 20 feet of seine net and bridle from the vessel," said the Coast Guard, noting it was monitoring salvage efforts.

Fortunately, all five crewmen got off safely. But too bad for this pretty boat.

My thanks to Joshua Roper Photography for the nice shot of the Lively Jane.

Crew safe after seiner sinks near Valdez

The U.S. Coast Guard reports the purse seiner Lively Jane hit a submerged rock and sank this morning in Anderson Bay, six miles southwest of Valdez.

The five crewmen were able to climb aboard a skiff before the seiner went down, the Coast Guard says.

As always, the cause is said to be "under investigation."

The owner of the 56-foot Lively Jane is listed in state records as Jon L. Andrews Jr. of Seward.

Have a taste for something different?

Lest you think salmon is all we care about during summertime in Alaska, Deckboss notes that commercial fisheries opened today for weathervane scallops and lingcod.

What's to blame for PWS herring collapse?

A new journal article examines hypotheses for the decline and poor recovery of Prince William Sound herring, and identifies hatchery pink salmon among possible culprits.

The article finds "no evidence that oil exposure from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, harvest effects, spawning habitat loss, the spawn-on-kelp fishery, or disease have led to either the decline or poor recovery of PWS herring."

Here's the article abstract:

This paper updates previous reviews of the 1993 stock decline of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and focuses on hypotheses about subsequent poor recovery. Recent age structured assessment modeling with covariate analysis indicates that the population dynamics of the sound’s herring are influenced by oceanic factors, nutrition, and, most substantially, hatchery releases of juvenile pink salmon. For the 1993 decline, poor nutrition remains the most probable cause with disease a secondary response. Concerning poor recovery, we examined 16 potential factors and found three to be causal: oceanic factors, poor nutrition, and hatchery releases of juvenile pink salmon. Absences of strong year classes at both Sitka and Prince William Sound after 1993 indicate the action of large-scale ocean processes. Beyond regional-scale environmental factors, two factors specific to the sound influence the population dynamics of herring and are likely impeding recovery. First, pink salmon fry releases have increased to about 600 million annually and may disrupt feeding in young herring, which require adequate nutrition for growth and overwintering survival. Juvenile pink salmon and age-1 herring co-occur in nearshore areas of bays in late spring and summer, and available data on dietary overlap indicates potential competition between the age-1 juvenile herring and juvenile pink salmon. Field studies demonstrate that juvenile herring reduce food intake substantially in the presence of juvenile pink salmon. Second, overwintering humpback whales may consume potentially large amounts of adult herring, but further studies must confirm to what extent whale predation reduces herring biomass.

Three fishermen rescued, Cordova boat adrift

From the U.S. Coast Guard:

May 20, 2011

Coast Guard rescues three southeast of Hinchinbrook Island

KODIAK — A Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, forward-deployed to Cordova, on Thursday rescued three fishermen 17 miles southeast of Hinchinbrook Island.

Sector Anchorage command center received a distress call via VHF radio from the crew of the Knee Deep, a 28-foot aluminum bowpicker, reporting their vessel was disabled due to engine trouble and their attempt to drop anchor had failed.

The helicopter crew, already flying in the area, diverted to assist the Knee Deep crew at 8:39 p.m.

When on scene, the helicopter crew found the fishermen in survival suits and struggling to anchor their vessel.

The helicopter crew deployed their rescue swimmer and safely hoisted all three men into the helicopter.

The rescue crew flew the fishermen to Cordova where they were taken to the Cordova Community Medical Center reportedly showing signs of mild hypothermia but in good condition.

The Coast Guard is plannning an overflight of the last known position of the Knee Deep to check on the vessel's current location and condition.

Sector Anchorage command center continues to issue a broadcast notice to mariners over VHF radio informing all vessels in the vicinity of Hinchinbrook Island to be aware of the adrift vessel.

The vessel is reportedly carrying 50 gallons of gasoline on board and no pollution has been reported.

The weather at the time of the rescue was reported as low visibility with winds of 35 to 45 mph and 15-foot seas.

Princely prawns

The Prince William Sound commercial shrimp pot fishery wrapped up its first opener of the season on April 19, and the preliminary results are in: 33 boats caught about 10,000 pounds over five days.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reopened the fishery at 8 a.m. yesterday, and boats can keep catching until 8 p.m. April 29. The quota for the season is 52,760 pounds.

This is the second consecutive year for a commercial shrimp pot harvest in the Prince William Sound. The fishery previously was closed for 18 years due to weak shrimp stocks.

In 2010 the fleet took 45,349 pounds of shrimp out of a quota of 55,000 pounds.

Shrimpers haul up predominantly spot shrimp, also known as spot prawns, in their pots.

These are big, luscious shrimp, the kind Forrest Gump and Bubba Blue could talk about all day long.

Spot shrimp are the largest variety of shrimp in the North Pacific. They take their name from the white, paired spots located just behind the head and just in front of the tail.

More pinks!

The chief operator of Prince William Sound salmon hatcheries is again asking for permission to expand production of pink salmon, having been denied last year.

The Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., based in Cordova, wants a combined 22 percent increase in pink salmon production capacity for its Armin F. Koernig, Cannery Creek and Wally Noerenberg hatcheries.

Such an expansion is controversial.

In denying the production increase last year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game raised a number of concerns including hatchery salmon straying into streams, potentially harming the genetic integrity of wild salmon.

PWSAC, however, says in its application letter that this genetic threat is "theoretical speculation."

Besides, the market is hungry for more pink salmon, PWSAC says.

Well, Deckboss is sure he has given a most inadequate summary of the above-referenced correspondence, and so he urges you to read it for yourself.

Nice save

The U.S. Coast Guard safely airlifted the three-man crew of the fishing vessel Ruffian to Whittier this morning after the boat began taking on water north of Latouche Island in Prince William Sound. The crew, which reportedly was fishing for Pacific cod and skate, beached the boat on purpose to keep it from sinking. The Ruffian is a 42-footer out of Homer. USCG photo

Best salmon tally in 18 years

This year's commercial salmon harvest generated a preliminary dockside value of $533.9 million, the best since 1992, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today.

The happy total comes on the strength of high market demand for Bristol Bay's huge sockeye harvest, plus a record catch of pink salmon in Prince William Sound.

Here's a press release with more details.