Prince William Sound pollock trawl fishery set

The Prince William Sound pollock trawl fishery is set to open Jan. 20 with a quota of 7.3 million pounds, says this advisory announcement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

That's a 20 percent drop from last season's quota of 9.1 million pounds.

Continued herring strength at Sitka

The state yesterday announced a 2026 Sitka Sound sac roe herring quota of 35,015 tons.

That's nearly as big as the 36,720-ton quota for 2025. Industry took only about 17 percent of that quota during a 13-day fishery from March 23 to April 4.

Two captains address pollock trawl 'misinformation'

Read their opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News.

Silver Bay, Trident score USDA contracts

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased more than $7 million in canned pink salmon from Silver Bay Seafoods.

The fish is for child nutrition and other domestic food distribution programs.

The USDA also purchased substantial volumes of canned pink salmon and Alaska frozen pollock products from Trident Seafoods Corp., according to this purchase award description.

The council's new skipper

Diana Evans today was named the new executive director of the Anchorage-based North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

She had been serving as interim executive director following the October retirement of longtime council chief David Witherell.

Evans becomes only the fifth executive director, and the first woman, to lead the council, which manages ocean fisheries off Alaska and includes 11 voting members from Alaska, Washington and Oregon.

The council's first executive director, hired in 1977, was Jim Branson. Following him, in order, were Clarence Pautzke, Chris Oliver and Witherell.

Evans will manage a staff of 14 employees and an annual budget of $5 million.

Something happening in Homer?

Deckboss has asked the Alaska State Troopers for information regarding possibly a major fisheries enforcement action in Homer.

We hear unofficially that authorities yesterday searched multiple boats and maybe some houses. They were said to have seized some halibut.

We'll keep you advised as we learn more.

And the winners are...

Doug Morgan, Sean Guffey and Casey Coupchiak have won seats on the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association board of directors.

More details on the board election can be found here.

BBRSDA represents Bristol Bay commercial drift gillnet fishermen.