Matt Marinkovich’s weekly At Sea Diary entry is a popular feature of the National Fisherman Web site, and now you can post your own reflections on Matt’s experiences fishing in the Pacific Northwest and North Pacific.
Sunday, April 15, 2012 — After a season of quick turn-arounds, we were in super-dink-around mode on our April 15 delivery. Although we arrived in Seward on Sunday, we didn't get our fish off-loaded until the next morning, and didn't take ice until the morning of the 17th, after all our gear was baited.
Our final business at the RBS dock was to off-load our extra bait, as we had arranged to sell it to another boat. This was really good news to me, because it meant we would be only setting the gear we had baited, which was plenty of gear to catch our remaining quota. We left for fishing around 11 a.m., Tuesday, April 17.
We arrived at our halibut spot that evening, and set our single halibut clean-up string. We waited until first light on Wednesday, April 18, and hauled it aboard. Viola! We were done with our halibut quota!
Next we ran a bit to the blackcod spot, slapped out all of our gear in three strings, and waited to haul. We napped, but we weren't sleepy. I fed the crew, but we were just eating to keep occupied. We finally started hauling at 11 p.m., and after the uneventful hauling of three strings with good weather and moderate fishing, were done by noon the next day.
We bucked an easterly headwind the entire way across the Gulf of Alaska, but fortunately it was a very light wind for the first day and a half; it picked up a bit toward the end, but we never made less than 6 knots; so although it was a bit of a shitty ride, nobody was complaining.
We made it across quickly enough to make an afternoon delivery in Petersburg on April 22, which took 3 hours total. We stopped for fuel in Ketchikan, which took FIVE hours because we had to wait for them to open in the morning, but that's OK because there was a spectacular northern lights display that night in Grenville Channel.
We bucked through Seymour Narrows, slowing down to 1.5 knots at full running speed against the strong current. But once we were through the narrows, it was fair tide and, after a few hours of 15 knots of wind on our bow, smooth sailing the rest of the way home. We made it back to Port Townsend around 8 a.m. Thursday, April 26. After we off-loaded the gear and cleaned up the boat, we were done!
TO BE CONTINUED…
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
The Northeast Regional Planning Body, a group of state, tribal and federal representatives from New England who are working to implement the National Ocean Policy and address critical New England ocean issues, is holding a series of public meetings in May and June.
The meetings are being held to discuss draft regional ocean planning goals and associated potential actions. The planning body seeks input on these goals and actions. Additional information on the group's progress can be found here.
The meetings will also provide an opportunity to review draft maps and products from initial efforts to gather information on the natural resources and diverse uses of the ocean, including fishing, transportation, energy and infrastructure, aquaculture, and recreation.
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