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Industry foresees $500 million loss

By Kirk Moore

he Alaska Department of Fish T and Game canceled all opilio snow, red king crab, and blue king crab seasons for 2022-2023, in a devastating blow to North Paci c shermen and processors after trawl surveys showed a continuing crash in abundance.

The announcement came Monday after Bering Sea crabbers had pressed the North Paci c Fishery Management Council during its October meeting to do more to reduce crab bycatch in trawl sheries.

“On the heels of that decision came to an announcement that Bristol Bay red king crab will be closed for the second year in a row, and Bering Sea snow crab will close for the rst time in the history of this shery,” according to a statement from the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.

The group projects lost revenue at $500 million and warned that “Many members of Alaska’s eet will face bankruptcy, including second- and third-generation crabbers whose families are steeped in the culture of this industry. Long-time crew members who have worked these decks for decades will be jobless.”

“This decision just destroyed a shing business of over 50 years and the crew that have a combined 100 years invested in it,” said Joshua Songstad from the F/V Handler. “Our crew of six has a combined 16 children to feed. No shing model accounts for that.”

Andy Hillstrand from the F/V Time Bandit and the TV show Deadliest Catch said, “We’re going to have to let people go because there’s no work and we’ve lost the ability to make money for the upkeep of the vessel. Out of the 60-vessel crab eet remaining since we consolidated years ago,

Red crab season closed

NOAA we could lose up to half or more with this decision.”

Biologists and shery managers had been warning for months that preliminary indications show the stocks in trouble, with rapid declines suspected to involve multiple ecosystem conditions. Those range from variations in ocean temperatures and season sea ice extent to predator pressure.

“Clearly, there’s no smoking gun,” Mark Stichert, a ground sh and shell sh sheries management coordinator with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told National Fisherman in July. “We’ve been in this trend for quite some time, and something is preventing the young crab from entering the shery.”

Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab sheries were declared closed. Last year’s allowable snow crab harvest of 5.6 million pounds was the smallest in 40 years, a lingering e ect of stock collapse after the sudden 2019 ocean warming of the Bering Sea.

Fishermen scramble to recover, get back to work

By Sue Cocking

asey Streeter lost everything to the monstrous winds and storm surge of Hurricane Ian when it roared over southwest Florida.

His Island Seafood Market in Matlacha? Gone. Home in St. James City on Pine Island? Gone. Retail market on Sanibel Island? Gone. It's pretty much the same for most of his commercial shing colleagues and neighbors in the region.

“We are devastated here,” Streeter said. “Four out of ve sh houses in Pine Island are gone. The shrimp eet is gone. Nowhere to unload. No docks are here. Everybody went out of business at one time. We worked ten years and it was gone in ten hours. We're dealing with impossible things.”

Despite his overwhelming losses, though, Streeter vows he's not giving up on the commercial shing industry

A boat stranded by Hurricane Ian's storm surge at Matlacha, Fla. Casey Streeter

here. He's got four grouper boats that got tossed around that he's hoping he can x, and a seafood truck he's been using to ferry food, ice, and other supplies from the mainland to Pine Island, now that a temporary bridge has been erected.

“We're gonna build back, “ Streeter declared. “This is the next chapter of our island. It's important for our area to have a shery. It'll be the people here that bring it back. We're not going to let this go away.”

Nick Ruland is not ready to throw in the towel either. His restaurant and dock on Fort Myers Beach were badly damaged, along with three of six shing boats that harvested grouper, snapper and stone crab. He was prepared for waiting for a long rebuilding process.

“I'm going to do it one way or the other,” he said. “I can't really guess on when. I hope to be partially open within a month.”.

Seeks overturn of whale rulings

By Kirk Moore

he Maine Lobstermen’s Association hired former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to bring the association’s appeal of the new National Marine Fisheries Service rules to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The association is challenging what it calls the “scienti cally- awed federal whale plan that will cripple Maine’s lobster industry.”

“When we said we refuse to let a single judge’s decision be the last word and that MLA is preparing to go all the way to the Supreme Court, we weren’t kidding,” said MLA president Kristan Porter.

“This is a clear case of government overreach. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the Maine lobster shery, a national icon, hangs in the balance,” Clement said.

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By Paul Molyneaux

ooper Curtis had big plans when he started Highmark Marine Fabrication in Kodiak, Alaska in 2014. “I went to AVTEC, the Alaska Vocational Technical Center, for welding, and then I joined the Marine Corps. I started this business when I was still in the reserves,” says Curtis, 31. He now employs 50 people and works all over Alaska. “Our aim is to be one-stop shopping for marine services here in Kodiak,” he says, and he is well on his way.

After launching his business eight years ago, Curtis has rapidly expanded the company’s capacities and services, primarily for the vessels of Alaska’s fishing fleet. “We work on sailing vessels, yachts, and we do a lot on tow boats for the barges, but I would guess that 75 percent of our work is on fishing vessels,” he says.

Curtis began as a welder, but soon added marine coatings to what Highmark could offer. “Then we bought Kodiak Metals & Supply,

Highmark Marine Fabrication holds current weld certifications for steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper nickel, and other alloys. Welding services include SMAW, GTAW, GMAW, FCAW, Oxyfuel.

and that made us the metals supplier on the island. Since then, we added commercial diving, engine work – we sell FTP engines. We recently took over operation of Kodiak Shipyard, which has a 660-ton travel lift and dry dock, so whether you need a quick fix or a total refit, we can handle it.”

One of Highmark’s specialties is fabrication of deck gear. When Curtis bought Kodiak Metals, he also bought their designs for some deck equipment, particularly scissors tables and pot launchers for the pot longline fisheries for black cod, Pacific cod and other species.

“Those are pretty much cookiecutter,” says Curtis of the pot launchers. “Over the years we’ve tweaked them a bit. You know, if someone comes in with one that’s been in service for a few years and we see it cracking somewhere, then we’ll strengthen that. We’re making deck gear for Alaska fishing boats, and it has to be strong enough to do more than its job. If a pot gets loose and slides into the scissor table, it has to be able to take it. Ideally, we want to make equipment that lasts.”

Besides scissor tables and pot launchers, Highmark makes davits for pot haulers and booms for salmon seiners. The company also designs and fabricates fish handling systems for tenders. “We also build longline systems for the black cod and cod pot fishermen,” says Curtis. “But we pretty much have everyone around here done now.”

According to Curtis, he started building systems for boats that were switching from hooks to pots. “The first one, was about four years ago. They came to us and told us what they wanted. I did some research, started talking to people and we put a system together. We don’t do the hydraulics, but after the line comes through the block it needs to go through a bunch of small stainless steel rollers to get it to the line bin, we do all that. We do the line bin with a trolley for coiling the line. Sometimes we

Cooper Curtis, seen here line boring a stern tube, started Highmark Marine Fabrication in Kodiak, Alaska in 2014 as a welding company, and has since grown his business to include many other services.

Before the advent of slinky pots over the last two years, most pot longline vessels used pots similar to the heavy one’s used for king crab, Highmark builds heavy davits to handle them. Highmark’s scissors table design came with its purchase of Kodiak Metals. The table can be lowered for the crew to empty pots into it, and then raised to make sorting fish or crab easier.

put in a hopper for the slinky pots, or something for pot handling depending on what they’re using.”

Curtis notes that some bigger boats with room for traditional steel pots are still using them. “They have an investment,” he says. “But when slinky pots came out a year or so ago, most of the small boats switched over right away.” Curtis notes that the longline systems are set up for snap-on gear “Usually we cut a slot out of the bulwarks on the stern or make a ramp for the pots to go out,” he says. “If they’re using slinky pots of course they don’t need as much, and we’ll make the slot smaller.”

Curtis notes that the systems Highmark sets up for longliners are usually modeled on what the boat already has, but they have also done some new builds. “The Aleutian

Endurance was the last one we did,” he says.

“We got our power block from Island Hydraulics, and the scissor table from Highmark Marine,” says Blake Burkholder, who oversaw the Aleutian Endurance project for his family’s company Buck & Ann Fisheries, of Warrenton, Oregon. Burkholder notes that they already have one boat, the Northern Endurance, and pretty much had the layout they wanted for the new boat.

Curtis notes that the tenders he builds equipment for usually have a

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Among the deck gear components that Highmark builds are dumping tables for vessels in the longline pot shery for black cod and Paci c cod.

setup that works for them. “We just improve on it if we can. They’ll have a 10 to 12-inch vacuum pump, then a dewatering box that is like a series of rollers that the sh slide across and then down a chute to a sorting system with diverters that send di erent species into di erent boxes. Then they go into smaller boxes for weighing that are controlled manually or hydraulically, and then down into the hold. We can help them streamline the process.”

Most of the components are made from aluminum and stainless steel, Curtis notes. “We’ve tried using some steel with coatings on it. We metalize it – it’s a thermal spray. But in the saltwater environment, it just doesn’t hold up.”

Besides making deck gear for various sheries, Highmark provides its expanding services to every size boat in the region, including freezer trawlers. “We usually work on them over at our East Point Dock because we can’t haul them here,” Curtis says of the Bering Sea behemoths.

Whatever the project, Curtis is driven to provide the best he can and continue expanding and improving what Highmark o ers. “We enjoy the ,design and engineering challenges, guring out how to get things done. We like the problem solving,” he says.

As on the Alaskan Star most pot longline systems include a hydraulic block, heavy davit, dumping table, and line bin. Highmark cuts a slot in the stern to make deploying pots easier.

Paul Molyneaux is the Boats & Gear editor for National Fisherman and author of “The Doryman’s Re ection.”

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