Halibut fishermen will hit the water on March 5 this year, a Sunday opening date that will get the fish to market early during the first week of Lent.
Harvesters will also take home a slightly lower catch during the halibut fishery, which will last through mid-November. That news was announced Jan. 20 by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, which sets annual catch limits for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and British Columbia, Canada.
The commission recommended a coast-wide halibut catch totaling 69.9 million pounds, a 5.4 percent decrease from the 2005 catch limit of 73.8 million pounds.
The IPHC said in its 2006 annual report that the halibut stock appears healthy throughout much of its range, but is believed to have declined in the western Gulf of Alaska and parts of the Bering Sea. This is the second year in a row that harvest rates for those areas have been lowered as a precautionary measure, the IPHC said.
Here are the 2006 halibut catch limits for Alaska: Alaska total, 53.7 million pounds; Area 2C in Southeast Alaska, 10.6 million; Area 3A in the Central Gulf, 25.2 million; Area 3B in the Western Gulf, 10.9 million; Area 4A in the eastern Aleutians, 3.3 million; Area 4B in the western Aleutians, 1.7 million; Area 4C in the Pribilof Islands 1.6 million; Area 4D, northwestern Bering Sea, 1.6 million; Area 4E, Bering Sea flats, 330,000; Area 4 total, 8.6 million.
Get more information at www.iphc.washington.edu.
Fishing and flying deaths
Fishing and flying still account for most deaths on the job in Alaska. Air transportation and commercial fishing accounted for the most work-related deaths in Alaska in 2004, the latest year for which there are statistics.
According to the state Department of Labor's January issue of Alaska Economic Trends, that has been the case since 1992, when the U.S. first began tracking workplace fatalities. The data are derived from the number of deaths per 100,000 workers.
Transportation incidents led Alaska's deadly list, accounting for 73 percent of job fatalities in 2004. That includes any mode of transportation, from cars and trucks to boats and aircraft.
Nearly one out of every three deaths was associated with some type of marine mishap. Twenty percent of Alaska's workplace fatalities that year, or eight out of 40, were commercial fishermen.
Aircraft incidents accounted for one-third of workplace fatalities, or three out of every 10 deaths.
In more recent years, the on-the-job death rate has improved dramatically for both fishing and flying. For fishing, it has dropped from 38 percent in 1992 to 20 percent in 2004. The rate has declined from an average of nine deaths per year for aircraft pilots to four.
Between 1992 and 2004, some 721 workers died in Alaska's workplaces, an average of about one every seven days. Alaska's average annual number of workplace deaths has decreased in the last 10 years, even though the number of workers has increased 10 percent.
In all, Alaska had 40 workplace deaths in 2004, down from an average of 55 in a run of previous years. Nearly three-quarters of those who died in Alaska's workplaces were between the ages of 25-54, and white/non-Hispanics and Asians made up 85 percent of the deaths.
While things are improving, Alaska's on-the-job fatality rate is among the nation's highest, at 9.2 persons per year. That is second only to Wyoming, with a rate of 13.9 on-the-job deaths.
Vegas is wild for "The King"
Seafood lovers selected smoked Yukon king salmon as their favorite at the Alaska Symphony of Salmon contest earlier this month in Las Vegas.
The popular People's Choice Award went to Yukon King Seafoods of Marshall, Alaska, for its Smoked Cajun King Salmon. The buttery texture and balanced flavor of the salmon portions bested 18 other seafood entries, and also drew raves from the judges.
On its entry form, Yukon King Seafoods said its smoked salmon products - which are also available in lemon pepper, traditional and peppered flavors - are currently sold in villages along the Yukon River, and will soon be available online at www.yukonking.com.
The Seafood of Symphony event now moves to Anchorage, where three winners will be announced in three categories - retail, food service and smoked - along with a grand prizewinner. First-place entries earn a trip to the International Boston Seafood Show, scheduled in March.
Now in its 13th year, the Symphony of Seafood was created by the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to showcase new products and introduce them to the marketplace.
Exxon vigil
An all-night vigil was set for Jan. 26 in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Jan. 27 marked the third and probably final round of oral arguments about whether Exxon should pay $4.5 billion, plus interest, in punitive damages to more than 30,000 Alaska plaintiffs whose livelihoods were hurt by the 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.
Laine Welch has been covering news of Alaska's seafood industry since 1988. Her weekly Fish Factor column appears in a dozen newspapers and Web sites. Her daily Fish Radio programs air on 25 stations around the state. Welch, who lives in Kodiak, can be reached via e-mail at msfish@alaska.com.
