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.
November 8 to 10 — The fishing schedule Washington's DFW granted to us for the week of November 8 was Tuesday and Thursday nights in Seattle, and Tuesday and Thursday days in Hood Canal. In both areas the seiners fished before us on Monday and Wednesday.
There weren't a ton of fish in the canal, but the seiners caught enough to put them WAY ahead of the gillnetters, and catch up most of the remaining non-Indian quota, so the state shut the canal down after Tuesday's fishing. On the Seattle side they cut the seiners' Wednesday opening back to six hours, then gave the gillnetters an extra night, Wednesday night, in addition to our previously scheduled Thursday night opening.
YOWSA! It's enough to make one's head spin, but I just try to keep things simple and not spend my WHOLE life out strangling fish, so I skipped the Hood Canal portion of this week because my boat is so slow and I figured the gillnetters wouldn't catch that much following the seiners in the confines of Hood Canal, which turned out to be the case. I caught about 125 fish on the Seattle side Tuesday night, which turned out to be on the better side of the catches, but still wasn't all that hot, in my opinion.
On Wednesday morning, with the unplanned Wednesday opening staring me in the face, I decided once again to skip the opening. I based this decision on the fact that the entire seine fleet had the whole flood tide to mop up an already spotty assortment of fish, AND my daughter and I were planning an 11-11-11 party/bonfire for her teenage pals, for which I had to prepare. Besides, Fawn John was slated to fish Thursday night, which he did, and added another 100 fish to the season's gross stock.
So I didn't make all the openings, but I didn't miss that much either, and I indulged in a once-in-a-lifetime pagan bonfire.
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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