Partners Provide Critical Support in Unprecedented Year for Alaska Research and Fisheries Management
For more than two decades, Alaska has led the way in using ecosystem information to inform resource management decisions. In 2020, contributions from research partners and local communities together with NOAA scientists helped fill some data gaps.
Each year, NOAA Fisheries scientists compile information from a variety of sources to produce and update annual indicators of ecosystem status in the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. Data and information are provided by federal, state, academic, non-government organizations, private companies, and local community partners across Alaska. Collected data complement NOAA Fisheries’ own research.
Intra-NOAA Collaboration To Prepare For Future Deep-Ocean Exploration in Alaska
January 2021
The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) and the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) partnered to create a publicly available spatial bibliography of Alaska deep waters in support of identifying exploration priorities in the region.
In preparation for future work in the deep waters (greater than 200 meters) of Alaska, OER collaborated with NOAA NCCOS to create an online, publicly available spatial bibliography (metadata here). Its purpose is to help identify scientific data and knowledge gaps, as well as unexplored and underexplored areas, in the Alaska region.
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Wed, 01/13/2021 - 9:57am
The North Pacific pollock fleet starts its 2021 season Jan. 20 after a rough last year market by elusive and small fish along with multiple COVID-19 outbreaks aboard fishing vessels. (Photo/Dreamstime.com/Tribune News Service)
Skipper Kevin Ganley spent most of the summer and fall pulling a massive trawl net through the Bering Sea in a long slow search for pollock, a staple of McDonald’s fish sandwiches. The fish proved very hard to find.
“We just scratched and scratched and scratched,” Ganley recalls. “It was survival mode.”
Ganley’s boat is part of a fleet of largely Washington-based trawlers that have had a difficult year as they joined in North America’s largest single-species seafood harvest. Their catch rates in 2020 during the five-month “B” season that ended Nov. 1 were well less than long-term averages.
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North Pacific fishing crews on edge about what they’ll find this month, after a tough 2020 of small fish and COVID-19 By Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times
Published: January 10, 2021, 6:00am
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Skipper Kevin Ganley spent most of the summer and fall pulling a massive trawl net through the Bering Sea in a long slow search for pollock, a staple of McDonald’s fish sandwiches. The fish proved very hard to find.
“We just scratched and scratched and scratched,” Ganley recalls. “It was survival mode.”
Ganley’s boat is part of a fleet of largely Washington-based trawlers that have had a difficult year as they joined in North America’s largest single-species seafood harvest. Their catch rates in 2020 during the five-month “B” season that ended Nov. 1 were well below long-term averages. They also encountered more skinny, small fish fit for mince but not prime fillets than in a typical year, according to a federal review of the season.
Picks and pans for 2020 in Alaska s seafood industry January 7th |
This year marks the 30th year that the weekly Fish Factor column has appeared in newspapers across Alaska and nationally. Every year it features picks and pans for Alaska s seafood industry a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year. Here are the choices for 2020, in no particular order:
Best little known fish fact: Alaska s commercial fisheries division also pays for the management of subsistence and personal use fisheries.
Biggest fishing tragedy: The loss of five fishermen aboard the Scandies Rose that sank southwest of Kodiak.