The EPA issued its Recommended Determination today, the next step in the process to (hopefully) enact permanent protections for Bristol Bay salmon using the Clean Water Act. This is big news, and the farthest anti-Pebble advocates have gotten to date.

The Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force issued its final recommendations, which were many, and include: establish a permanent state bycatch advisory entity, develop a State of Alaska bycatch policy, rationalize Gulf and Bering Sea fisheries, 100% observer coverage for bottom trawlers and 100% electronic monitoring for pelagic trawlers, chum salmon cap in the Bering Sea, and many more.

AMSEA has a few Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor workshops coming up this month and next: Dec. 3 in Juneau, Dec. 9 in Sitka, Jan. 10-12 in Kenai, and Jan. 23 in Sitka.

Senators from Washington and Alaska jointly penned a letter to the Dept. of Commerce urging them to “immediately declare a federal fishery disaster for the 2022-2023 Bering Sea snow crab, the 2022-2023 Bristol Bay red king crab, and the 2021-2022 Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries.” 

The Government Accountability Office has told the USDA to provide more seafood in school lunches. Well, that just makes sense now, doesn't it? 

Fishermen on the East Coast are taking Feds to the Supreme Court over NOAA's requirement that they pay the observers (the ones NOAA requires them to take out). 

This week's Alaska Fisheries Report: no fatalities within Alaska’s commercial fishing fleets this year; river eel season on the Kuskokwim River; Northline Seafoods is planning a big comeback.

The bottom of the Bering and Chukchi seas could become too warm for some important species, which could have far-reaching affects on the food chain. Why is it always bad news? 

Northline Seafoods plans to convert a 400' x 100' Gulf of Mexico barge into a massive, vertically integrated salmon processing vessel for Bristol Bay, in what they say will be the “world’s most sustainable and efficient mobile commercial salmon processing platform.”

A man is presumed dead and a woman and dog were rescued after the F/V Randi Jo ran aground in Southeast. 

North Pacific Seafoods paid a $345,000 fine for Clean Air Act violations at two of its Naknek plants, after operating unpermitted incinerators that lacked any emissions controls or monitoring. Oops.