Alaska

Reported trawling too close to Kuskokwim Bay draws industry response

Published

2 years ago

June 13, 2024

Reported trawling too close to Kuskokwim Bay draws industry response

Kuskokwim Bay (From NOAA ShoreZone)

Coastal communities near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River have expressed concern about bottom-trawling vessels operating in close proximity to where salmon enter the river. But trawl industry leaders say that this is nothing new.

In recent weeks, posts widely shared on a popular Facebook group critical of the trawl industry have raised issues with vessels apparently just a few miles offshore. The posts on the STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch page featured marine traffic maps showing the location of the trawlers, with one post reading “six trawlers right outside the mouth of Kuskokwim.”

Chris Woodley, executive director of Groundfish Forum, a trawl industry association that represents 17 catcher-processor vessels operating in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands regions, testified about the issue before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council during its June 7 meeting in Kodiak.

“Over the past two days, I’ve been hearing concerns coming from stakeholders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim region regarding the presence of trawl vessels fishing southwest of Kuskokwim Bay, and concerns regarding those fisheries’ impacts upon western Alaska salmon,” Woodley said. “This is a public perception issue. What we have been hearing in the past, and this year, is that boats are fishing in the mouth of the river. And that is just simply not true.”

Woodley told the council that the vessels were operating in full compliance with federal regulations and that the maps could be misleading, making vessels appear closer to shore than they actually were.

According to Woodley, the vessels flagged on Facebook were fishing well outside of an established 8.2 million acre conservation zone off-limits to bottom trawling. The zone encompasses the entirety of Kuskokwim Bay and extends to buffer nearby coastal communities.

“In the spring, a limited number of our vessels fish for yellowfin sole in the federal waters, approximately 25 miles southwest of Kipnuk,” Woodley said.

David Bayes, a Homer-based fisheries advocate who also runs a halibut charter company, says that the presence of the conservation area that Woodley referred to doesn’t necessarily ease concerns about threats to Kuskokwim River salmon stocks.

“The thing that people get concerned about is the fish don’t have fences down there,” Bayes said. “So if somebody is dragging right next to the habitat zone, they might not be in it, but the fish theoretically would go back and forth. And it’s not like the fish just stay in one spot.”

Bayes is one of the moderators for STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch, the Facebook page where many of the concerns have been posted.

Beyond the direct impact on fish, Bayes also says the ecological damage to the area from trawling can’t be overstated.

“They do have a lot of habitat damage. So all their stuff is hard on the bottom trawl,” Bayes said. “We’ve heard from crews talking about the corals getting mashed down year after year. They used to get big chunks, but now they get smaller and smaller, and now there’s none at all. So you can imagine the habitat side of that.”

According to Woodley, the bottom-trawl vessels operating near the mouth of the Kuskokwim have yet to scoop up a single protected salmon in the area this year.

“In 2024, there have been zero incidental catch of chum salmon and zero incidental catch of chinook salmon in this fishery,” Woodley said. “These bycatch data are confirmed by two federally trained fishery observers on board our vessels, 100% of the time.”

However, the groundfish fleet that Woodley represents is responsible for only a small percentage of Alaska’s salmon bycatch. The vessels are instead responsible for the vast majority of halibut bycatch in Alaska waters, a species which coastal communities like Kipnuk rely on as a food source.

“The rates in this area are much lower than any place else in the Bering Sea. I believe at this point we have, I want to say, 7 metric tons of [halibut] bycatch for the season in this area,” Woodley said.

Following Woodley’s testimony in Kodiak, council member Andy Mezirow asked whether the Groundfish Forum director had any ideas for changing public perception. Woodley didn’t have a direct answer.

“This is becoming a kind of an annual thing, both for the Togiak fishery as well as for this fishery, and we’re just trying to do our best in this process where a lot of these issues are raised and concerns are expressed to communicate what’s going on here,” Woodley said.

Beyond his testimony, Woodley didn’t outline a plan for addressing community concerns about trawling in the Kuskokwim Bay area at the June 7 meeting. Online, public perception appears to remain widely skeptical about the proximity of trawlers to Kuskokwim salmon.

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Alaska

Over $150K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Over 0K worth of drugs seized from man in Juneau, police say

JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaska drug task force seized roughly $162,000 worth of controlled substances during an operation in Juneau Thursday, according to the Juneau Police Department.

Around 3 p.m. Thursday, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) approached 50-year-old Juneau resident Jermiah Pond in the Nugget Mall parking lot while he was sitting in his car, according to JPD.

A probation search of the car revealed a container holding about 7.3 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for methamphetamine, as well as about 1.21 gross grams of a substance that tested presumptively positive for fentanyl.

As part of the investigation, investigators executed a search warrant at Pond’s residence, during which they found about 46.63 gross grams of ketamine, 293.56 gross grams of fentanyl, 25.84 gross grams of methamphetamine and 25.5 gross grams of MDMA.

In all, it amounted to just less than a pound of drugs worth $162,500.

Investigators also seized $102,640 in cash and multiple recreational vehicles believed to be associated with the investigation.

Pond was lodged on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, five counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving a substance and an outstanding felony probation warrant.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

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Alaska

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lake

SAND POINT, Alaska (KTUU) – A teenage boy who was last seen Monday when the canoe he was in tipped over has been found by a dive team in a lake near Sand Point, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Alaska’s News Source confirmed with the person, who is close to the search efforts, that the dive team found 15-year-old Kaipo Kaminanga deceased Thursday in Red Cove Lake, located a short drive from the town of Sand Point on the Aleutian Island chain.

Kaminanga was last seen canoeing with three other friends on Monday when the boat tipped over.

A search and rescue operation ensued shortly after.

Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team posted on Facebook Thursday night that they were able to “locate and recover” Kaminanga at around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We are glad we could bring closure to his family, friends and community,” the post said.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more details become available.

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Alaska

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Opinion: Homework for Alaska: Sales tax or income tax?

iStock / Getty Images

This is a tax tutorial for gubernatorial candidates, for legislators who will report to work next year and for the Alaska public.

Think of it as homework, with more than eight months to complete the assignment that is not due until the November election. The homework is intended to inform, not settle the debate over a state sales tax or state income tax — or neither, which is the preferred option for many Alaskans.

But for those Alaskans willing to consider a tax as a personal responsibility to help fund schools, roads, public safety, child care, state troopers, prisons, foster care and everything else necessary for healthy and productive lives, someday they will need to decide on a state income tax or a state sales tax after they accept the checkbook reality that oil and Permanent Fund earnings are not enough.

This homework assignment is intended to get people thinking with facts, not emotions. Electing the right candidates will be the first test.

Alaskans have until the next election because nothing will change this year. It will take a new political alignment led by a reality-based governor to organize support in the Legislature and among the public.

But next year, maybe, with the right elected leadership, Alaskans can debate a state sales tax or personal income tax. Plus, of course, corporate taxes and oil production taxes, but those are for another school day.

One of the biggest arguments in favor of a state sales tax is that visitors would pay it. Yes, they would, but not as much as many Alaskans think.

Air travel is exempt from sales taxes. So are cruise ship tickets. That’s federal law, which means much of what tourists spend on their Alaska vacation is beyond the reach of a state sales tax.

Cutting further into potential revenues, state and federal law exempts flightseeing tours from sales tax, which is a particularly costly exemption when you think about how much visitors spend on airplane and helicopter tours.

That leaves sales tax supporters collecting from tourists on T-shirts, gifts for grandchildren, artwork, postcards, hotels, Airbnb, car rentals and restaurant meals. Still a substantial take for taxes, but far short of total tourism spending.

An argument against a state sales tax is that more than 100 cities and boroughs already depend on local sales taxes to pay for schools and other public services. Try to imagine what a state tax piled on top of a local tax would do to kill shopping in Homer, already at 7.85%, or Kodiak, Wrangell and Cordova, all at 7%, and all the other municipalities.

Supporters of an income tax say it would share the responsibility burden with nonresidents who earn income in Alaska and then return home to spend their money.

Almost one in four workers in Alaska in 2024 were nonresidents, as reported by the state Department of Labor in January. That doesn’t include federal employees, active-duty military or self-employed people.

Nonresidents earned roughly $3.8 billion, or about 17% of every dollar covered in the report.

However, many of those nonresident workers are lower-wage and seasonal, employed in the seafood processing and tourism industries, unlikely to pay much in income taxes. But a tax could be structured so that they pay something, which is fair.

Meanwhile, higher-wage workers in oil and gas, mining, construction and airlines (freight and passenger service) would pay taxes on their income earned in Alaska, which also is fair.

It comes down to what would direct more of the tax burden to nonresidents: a tax on income or on visitor spending. Wages or wasabi-crusted salmon dinners.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.

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