Cod Processor ‘Katmai’ lost at sea near Aleutian Islands

The Katmai motors toward the Ballard Locks in Seattle in this undated photo. The cod processor sank west of Adak Island in the Aleutians October 22, 2008. (Photo courtesy of Seattle Times)

In sad news related to fishing in the Bering sea, the processor boat Katmai went missing early Wednesday morning (24 hours ago) as it traveled along the Aleutian Islands near the intersecting point of the Bering Sea and Northern Pacific Ocean. (see map below)
Initially one survivor was rescued by the coast guard and since that time, three more have been rescued.  Five crewmen are confirmed dead, and two are still unaccounted for.  There were 11 onboard in all. Keep them in your thoughts….

Read the story

 
(map and chart courtesy of Anchorage Daily News)

2007/8 Opilio Fleet

Hope all “Deadliest Catch” fans had a wonderful Holiday break!

With the 2007 King Crab season behind now, the fishermen (both featured crews on the show and the rest of the fleet) are gearing up for Opilio season which is typically fished in January-March.  As of October 12th, the list of fishing vessels below were the pre-registered fleet for Opilio season.  It looks as though there might be more registered for Opilio then there was for King crab…Either way, with the TAC (total allowable catch) being over 60 percent higher then last year, not to mention it being the highest TAC in over a generation, you can bet there are some mighty large quotas to fill this season.  Check out the list below and see how many of these boats you can recognize…..

 2007-2008 Vessel Pre-Season Registration as of 10/12/07

 Adventure               Alaskan Challenger           Alaskan Spirit
Alaskan Beauty      Alaskan Enterprise           Aleutian Beauty
Aleutian Lady         Aleutian Mariner              Aleutian No. 1
Amerian Lady        Arctic Hunter                     Arctic Lady
Arctic Marine         Arctic Sea                           Atlantico
Ballyhoo                  Baranof                                Barbara J
Bering Hunter        Bering Sea                           Bering Star
Big Blue                   Bountiful                              Brenna A
Bristol Mariner      Bull Dog                                Cape Caution
Cascade Mariner    Confidence                           Constellation
Controller Bay        Cornelia Marie                     Destination
Determined            Early Dawn                           Erla-N
Farrar Sea              Farwest Leader                   Fierce Allegiance
Guardian                Gulf Winds                            Handler
Incentive                 Island Mist                          Jennifer A
Kari Marie              Karen Lynn                          Katie K
Keta                         Kevleen K                              Kiska Sea 
Kodiak                     Kustatan                               Lady Aleutian
Lisa Marie              Maverick                               Melanie
Mystery Bay          Nordic Mariner                   North American
North Sea               Northern Marine                 Northwestern
Nuka Island           Ocean Fury                           Ocean Hunter
Ocean Olympic      Pacific Mariner                     Pacific Sun
Paragon                   Pinnacle                                Polar Lady
Polar Sea                 Ramblin  Rose                      Rollo
Royal Viking           Sandra Five                          Scandies Rose
Seabrooke              Silver Dolphin                       Silver Spray
Southern Wind       Starward                              Sultan
Tempo Sea             Time Bandit                          Trail Blazer
Valiant                    Viekoda Bay                          Viking Queen
Vixen                      Western Marine                    Westward Wind
Wizard

A bit about Opilio crab season…

The Bering Sea area Opilio crab season actually opened up on the 15th of October, along  with the King crab season however, it’s traditionally been fished at the beginning of the year.  Prior to crab rationalization in 2005,  the Opilio season officially began in January and it seems to have remained so.  That being said, many of the fishing vessels have returned from the Bering sea with their harvest of king crab and after a little holiday break, most will head out for Opilio unless they’re also taking part in the Pot cod fish season.  In the current issue of Seafood Business, there’s some interesting historical and current information on the snow crab fishery…

Alaska’s Bering Sea snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) fishery was on top of the world not long ago, hauling in 243.3 million pounds in 1998 and 194.2 million pounds in 1999.
Since then, the harvest has been a shell of its former self, bottoming out at 24 million pounds in 2004.

But the Oct. 15-March 31 fishery may be returning to its heyday. The 2007-08 quota is set at 63 million pounds, up from 36.6 million pounds in 2006-07. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which slashed the snow crab quota in 2000, has been steadily rebuilding the fishery.

Opilio prices are up this year from Alaska to Atlantic Canada. When Alaska’s 2006-07 fishery was winding down in late April, fishermen received an average of $1.39, up 55 cents a pound from a year ago, with some Dutch Harbor crabbers getting as much as $1.90. When Canada’s 2007 fishery opened in early April, crabbers earned $1.65, up 60 cents a pound from a year ago.

“Alaska is not the market price setter,” says one industry official in Seattle. “Eastern Canada and Greenland are still the primary producers. Hopefully the market can absorb an additional 30 million pounds.”

At wholesale in October, 5-ounce-and-up Alaska opilio clusters fetched up to $4.75 a pound while 5- to 8-ounce Canadian opilio clusters commanded as much as $4.85, up nearly $1 from a year ago.

Through Sept. 30, Newfoundland crabbers had landed 50,184 metric tons (110.6 million pounds), exceeding the 2007 quota by 2,521 metric tons.

Alaska’s 2007-08 tanner crab (C. bairdi) quota is set at 3.5 million pounds in the eastern Bering Sea and 2.2 million pounds in the western Bering Sea, up from 1.9 million and 1.1 million pounds, respectively, in 2006-07. Japan buys the bulk of Alaska’s tanner crab harvest, which was closed from 1997 to 2004 to prevent overfishing. — S.H.

2007 Bristol Bay Red King Crab Fleet

This is the entire list of the pre-registered fishing vessels for the Bristol Bay King Crab season according to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game.  If you’re a Bering sea fishermen most will probably sound familiar and if you’re a true die-hard fan of “Deadliest Catch”, you’ll recognize at least the fishing vessels in red.  Other “Deadliest Catch” boats are–  ERLA-N, LADY ALASKA, LUCKY LADY, RETRIEVER, SAGA, SEA STAR, WESTERN VIKING, ALEUTIAN BALLAD, VIXEN, BILLIKIN, BIG VALLEY.

ADVENTURE                        ALASKA CHALLENGER     ALASKA SPIRIT

ALASKAN BEAUTY            ALASKAN ENTERPRISE     ALEUTIAN LADY

ALEUTIAN MARINER        AMERICAN LADY                 ARCTIC LADY

ARCTIC HUNTER               ARCTIC MARINER               ARCTIC SEA

ATLANTICO                        BARANOF                             BARBARA J

BERING HUNTER              BERING STAR                       BIG BLUE

BOUNTIFUL                       BRISTOL MARINER             BULL DOG

CAPE CAUTION                CASCADE MARINER            CONFIDENCE

CONSTELLATION            CONTROLLER BAY              CORNELIA MARIE

DESTINATION                  DETERMINED                         EARLY DAWN

FARRAR SEA                    FARWEST LEADER               FIERCE ALLEGIANCE

GUARDIAN                        GULF WINDS                            HANDLER

INCENTIVE                        ISLAND MIST                          JENNIFER A

KARI MARIE                     KARIN LYN                              KETA

KEVLEEN K                       KISKA SEA                              KODIAK

KRUSTATAN                    LADY ALEUTIAN                    LISA MARIE

MAVERICK                       MELANIE                                  MYSTERY BAY

NORDIC MARINER         NORTH AMERICAN               NORTH SEA

NORTHERN MARINER  NORTHERN SPIRIT              NORTHWESTERN

NUKA ISLAND                 OCEAN FURY                         OCEAN HUNTER

OCEAN OLYMPICS        PACIFIC MARINER               PACIFIC SUN

PARAGON                        PINNACLE                               POLAR LADY

POLAR SEA                      PROVIDER                              ROLLO

ROYAL VIKING               SANDRA FIVE                        SCANDIES ROSE

SEA BROOKE                  SILVER DOLPHIN                 SILVER SPRAY

SOUTHERN WIND         STARWARD                             STORMBIRD

SULTAN                          TEMPO SEA                            TIME BANDIT

TRAIL BLAZER              VIEKODA BAY                      VIKING QUEEN

WESTWARD WIND       WIZARD

Crab Quota up, Russian busts may boost Alaska Market

Article reprinted with written permission of Margaret Bauman of the AlaskaJournal of Commerce.

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Jose Garcia sorts golden king crab in March on the Alaska Glacier Seafood dock in Auke Bay in Juneau. Crab quotas are up for the coming season. AP Photo/Brian Wallace

   

It’s still anyone’s guess what this season’s prices will be on wild Alaska Bering Sea king, snow and tanner crab. But the good news is there will be plenty to go around.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Sept. 28 set the harvest levels for the three fisheries at 20.3 million pounds of king crab, 63 million pounds of snow, or opilio, crab, and 5.6 million pounds of tanner, or bairdi, crab.

The quota for the Bering Sea red king crab fishery is up from 15.5 million pounds a year ago. The king crab fishery gets under way Oct. 15 and runs through Jan. 18.

The allowable snow crab harvest of 63 million pounds is nearly double the harvest guideline for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. The tanner crab harvest, which is divided between the eastern and western Bering Sea sectors, will be 5.6 million pounds, nearly double the allowable harvest for the 2006-07 season.

The red king crab harvest includes 18.3 million pounds to those with individual fishing quotas, plus 2 million pounds for the community development quota fisheries. That compares with the 2006-07 quota of 14 million pounds for the IFQ fishery and 1.6 million pounds for the CDQ fishery, said Forrest Bowers, area management biologist for shellfish at Dutch Harbor.

Officials also set the snow crab harvest at 63 million pounds, including 56.7 million pounds for the IFQ fishery and 6.3 million pounds for the CDQ fishery. That fishery also begins Oct. 15, but runs through the end of May.

The eastern Bering Sea tanner crab quota was set at 3.4 million pounds, including 3.1 million pounds for the IFQ sector and 344,500 pounds for the CDQ fishery. For the western Bering Sea, the total quota is 2.1 million pounds, including nearly 2 million pounds for the IFQ sector and 217,600 for the CDQ fishermen.

The higher harvest quotas are music to the ears of entrepreneurs like Rob George, of the Crab Broker.

“I need more crab,” said George. “Every year I buy more than the year before. In the eyes of a harvester, I’m a great customer. I buy it all in November. I pay for it. I’m loyal, and I do a great job marketing Alaska king crab.”

George also operates crab connoisseur tours in Dutch Harbor in October to give chefs and others an education on the harvest, the processing and the people involved in it. Some 45 people are signed up for the upcoming tour, he said.

Russian crab bust

Also weighing in on crab markets and prices is competition from imported Russian king crab. In late September, Arkady Gontmakher, the head of Global Fishing in Seattle, the largest U.S. importer of Russian king crab, was arrested in Moscow.

Beneath a British Columbian Waterfall…

June 12, 2007 

Greetings from aboard the Greenpeace ship, M/V “Esperanza”!

We’re anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall in one of British Columbia’s magnificent “fjords” to prepare for this summer’s intensive expedition to the Bering Sea.

Greenpeace Vessel M/V Esperanza

Greenpeace’s largest ship, the Esperanza, will be visiting the Bering Sea in Alaska for most of the summer.The expedition will be using manned submersibles and an ROV to survey Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons, specifically to map and document deepwater corals living at depths of more than 1,000 feet. These corals, some hundreds of years old, are vital components of a healthy marine ecosystem. Unfortunately, these corals are at great risk, ending up in trawling nets as “bycatch.” Many tons of corals have been destroyed by this indiscriminant fishing gear. It is our hope that the data collected on this expedition will help advance our scientific understanding of these deepwater coral communities and be helpful to policy makers as well, leading to more effective conservation measures. A Scientific Advisory Panel is advising the project, including representatives from Scripps, the Smithsonian, the St. George Island Ecosystem Office, MCBI, Oceana, Texas A&M, and Nova  Southeastern. I’ve been asked to serve as a submersible pilot and scientific advisor.

Sub Pilots for Bering Sea Expedition

We’re using two DeepWorker submarines, 1-person mini-subs, untethered, that are capable of a depth of up to 2,000 feet. The sub is equipped with high-definition video, a manipulator arm for collecting samples, sonar for navigation and is always in contact with the surface using through water (acoustic) communications. DeepWorker uses CO2 scrubbers, similar to what’s used in spacecraft, providing up to 80 hours of life support. A typical dive lasts 4-6 hours.

The expedition is scheduled to begin in Dutch Harbor, Alaska (in the Aleutian Island chain) in mid-July. We are spending this week aboard ship near Vancouver training additional pilots, planning the expedition, and preparing the ship and crew for work in the Bering Sea.

Thanks to a satellite uplink, I am able to access the Internet when there are no mountains blocking the ship’s view of the satellite. The ship is very comfortable, excellent food, and my personal favorite amenity, an espresso machine.

Yesterday we practiced launch and recovery operations. Today we’re working through emergency drills at shallow depth. Our ship is being guarded by a fleet of four Canada geese who dutifully orbit the vessel every 5 minutes. Lots of harbor seals are also checking us out. Spotted a double rainbow on Saturday — this is considered very good luck, especially aboard a rainbow-adorned Greenpeace ship.

.source

Deadliest Catch

 …Things you may or may not already know about Deadliest Catch…

DID YOU KNOW…Thom Beers is the CEO and executive producer of Original Productions which is the creator of Deadliest Catch.  He founded the company in 1999 which is the same year that he filmed and produced a one hour show called, The Deadliest Job in the World.  According to Beers, The Deadliest Job in the World was THE original predecessor of Deadliest Catch as we know it today.

DID YOU KNOW…That the greatest and deepest canyon in the world isn’t the Grand Canyon?  Instead, the greatest canyons on earth are found below the Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska. Here, seven canyons exist together. Among them are the 240-mile-long Bering Canyon, the 60-mile-wide Navarin Canyon, and the 9,000-foot-deep Zhemchug Canyon. The Grand Canyon, in contrast, is only 10 miles wide and mile deep, winding 250 miles through Arizona.They were created 75 million years ago when slow movement of the crust plates created a broad shelf 8,500 feet above the ocean floor from Alaska to Siberia.   YIKES!  This is what our favorite fishermen are fishing over?  Try imagining THAT while watching the next episode!

DID YOU KNOW…Deadliest Catch is an internationally acclaimed show and the Discovery website has information and fansites on Deadliest Catch for other countries, for example DiscoveryUK DeadliestCatch.  What’s really interesting, is that UK fans can potentially win a free trip to Alaska!  As of now, the competition for a free trip has closed and a winner is soon to be announced!

DID YOU KNOW…According to Jeff Conroy on his Avid Podcast interview, after the film crews are completely finished with their work on the boats, they take two to three days to write an outline of the storyline that took place on their respective fishing vessels while they were out at sea.  The outline is then given to the film editors who use it as a guideline in deciding what film footage we end up seeing on television!

DID YOU KNOW…Sig Hansen is not only the skipper and owner of the F/V Northwestern, and Larry Hendrick’s is not only the owner of the Sea Star, they are currently the only two professional consultants to the show, Deadliest Catch.

DID YOU KNOW…Some people might assume that because crab fishing is such a physical blue collar line of work that it doesn’t consist of men who are intellects, yet Cache Seel, the lone survivor of the tragic sinking of the F/V Big Valley in 2005 is alive and well, and writing quite prolifically for Egypt Today: The Magazine of Egypt.

Crab Fishing From a Few Years Ago

 There are many who’ve been fascinated with king crab fishing and the fishermen who do it.  One such individual is Karen Ducey, writer and photographer.  I ran into her galley of photos on the National Geographic website and understood right away that her pictures tell a remarkable story of Bering sea fishermen.  In order to deepen her own understanding of this subject, Karen Ducey spent three years at sea during crab season(1993-1995), so I have no doubt that her photographs and captions were very carefully chosen.  Please use the links provided to view her gallery on the National Geographic website.

Sea Santa

Santa Claus climbing out of a chimney? No, a deckhand emerging from the hold of a fishing boat that sells cod bait to crabbers in port. “I shot this photograph of Dennis Scholl in February 1993 on the Sea Spider in Dutch Harbor, Alaska,” says Ducey. “He was preparing for a fishing expedition by hosing ice into a dark, empty hold. He had one of the hardest jobs of anyone I met; at sea he would slip vertically down a hatch wide enough for a codfish or a ray of light. During long, lonely evenings Scholl shoveled ice around codfish and stacked them. As rough seas pounded the boat, heavy codfish would sometimes drop down the hatch on top of his head.”

“Aleutian Stare”

“Aboard the deck of the Big Valley, I was transfixed by the glassy eyes of Eric Grumpke and Barbara Stanwyck, star of the television show that is the boat’s namesake. Grumpke drove the crane that shifted gear and equipment on deck,” says Ducey. “Daylight begins at around 10:30 a.m. during Opilio crab season. The sun barely comes above the horizon before it begins its retreat back below the surface. Arctic nights last 18 hours. Our eyes adjust to the long winter nights, creating a glassy-eyed crew. The “Aleutian stare” is a common affliction everyone gets as a result of fatigue and being in this empty, gray world for indefinite periods of time.” Heart failure killed Grumpke only 19 days after this picture was taken.