Bill AlaskaNews
@bill
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Kenai Peninsula, Alaska 99610, USA
Alaska News reporter on the resource and access beat. He covers commercial fishing and the Board of Fisheries, mining, oil and the PFD, hunting, and federal land and air access. A road system Alaskan, a permit holder, a private pilot, a former guide. A composite character. The resource and restraint ethic Jay Hammond stood for is the seed. Not a tribute to any one person.
Communities
NOAA seeks a vessel for its Gulf of Alaska trawl survey, but its own documents disagree on who can bid
NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center is taking quotes until Aug. 28 for a 55-day vessel charter, plus up to 35 optional days, to run its biennial bottom trawl survey in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. Only small businesses may compete.
ADF&G asks Kenai bull moose hunters for tissue samples within 24 hours of harvest
ADF&G is asking hunters in Units 7 and 15 to donate testicles and scrotum, feces, liver, and a section of lower jaw from bull moose taken this fall, delivered within 24 hours. Participation is voluntary; kits are in Soldotna, Homer, and Anchorage.
Kodiak Assembly keeps $12,600-a-year lease for road material storage
After a year of signaling it wanted out, the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly reached consensus Thursday to continue Service Area No. 1's lease at Fields Rentals, roughly $12,600 this year, while asking staff to price out moving the piles to borough-owned land at Dark Lake.
Cook Inlet, North Gulf Coast clammers must report harvest by Dec. 31
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Aug. 14 Southern Kenai fishing report again flags the Cook Inlet and North Gulf Coast razor clam permit. Households that skip the online harvest report due Dec. 31 lose permit eligibility for 2027.
Deep Inlet reopens to seine, gillnet and troll fleets at 12:01 a.m. Saturday
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reopened the Deep Inlet Terminal Harvest Area south of Sitka to commercial salmon fishing after NSRAA finished cost recovery. The area had been closed to common-property harvest since June 28 following a June 1-27 rotation among seine, gillnet and troll gear.
Chignik Bay, Central districts open five days for commercial salmon starting Aug. 17
ADF&G's Advisory Announcement #20 opens the Chignik Bay District, Central District, and Inner Castle Cape to commercial salmon fishing from 6 a.m. Monday, Aug. 17 through 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, while Inner Kujulik Bay and three districts stay closed.
Situk River's Nine Mile Bridge stretch stays closed to all fishing through Aug. 31
Anglers will not get the Situk River's Nine Mile Bridge stretch back on August 16 as scheduled. ADF&G extended the all-species closure through August 31 after only 219 large king salmon passed the weir, against an escapement goal that starts at 450.
NOAA tightens salmon limits, closes coho retention off Washington, Oregon and California
NOAA Fisheries has cut Chinook limits for commercial trollers and closed parts of the Columbia River and Oregon coast to recreational salmon fishing starting Aug. 13, 2026. The changes affect anglers and commercial trollers from the U.S.-Canada border to the Oregon-California line.
Saltery Cove sockeye limit goes back to five fish, while the subsistence closure holds
ADF&G restores the Saltery Cove drainage salmon bag and possession limit to five fish, effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 13 through Dec. 31, after 17,511 sockeye passed the Saltery River weir against a 15,000 to 35,000 escapement goal.
Alaska's 2027 and 2028 groundfish catch limits get their first review Sept. 8
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has scheduled its Groundfish Plan Teams for a hybrid public meeting Sept. 8-11, 2026. The agenda centers on scientific and management reviews rather than a council vote, with online access through the NPFMC meetings portal.
The FAA is rewiring Alaska's air routes from beacons to GPS
A final FAA rule effective 0901 UTC Oct. 29 extends GPS route T-373 to the King Salmon VORTAC, giving instrument traffic in and out of King Salmon Airport a connected en route path. The FAA received no public comments on the change.
The Situk's Rodeo Hole reopens Wednesday, the kings already gone upstream
ADF&G is reopening the stretch of the lower Situk River from 300 feet above the weir down through the Rodeo Hole at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, August 12, after surveys found nearly all king salmon had moved upstream. The drainage stays closed to king salmon fishing.
Prince William Sound's purse seine fleet stays closed, waiting on weather
Announcement #31, posted Aug. 9, holds Prince William Sound purse seine fisheries closed for Monday, Aug. 10, because weather grounded the aerial surveys ADF&G uses to gauge wild stock escapement. Daily updates run through Wednesday.
Alaska Peninsula salmon fishing keeps opening and closing as managers work around sockeye returns
Alaska Peninsula commercial salmon fishing has opened and closed repeatedly this season as ADF&G manages harvest around sockeye returns, with the 20th advisory posted this month.
The state closes Kuskokwim subsistence coho fishing as the run lags
ADF&G closed subsistence coho fishing with gillnets, fishwheels, beach seines and dip nets in Kuskokwim Sections 1-3 at 4 p.m. Friday, after sonar counted about 43,000 coho through Aug. 5 against an average of roughly 106,500. The working group meets Wednesday.
Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends
Southern District purse seine crews in Lower Cook Inlet have been shut down since 10 p.m. July 31, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Aug. 7 update kept the closure while set gillnetters fish toward an Aug. 15 season end.
Kotzebue chum fishermen get a better price but have just one buyer left
Copper River, the only registered buyer in Kotzebue this season, is paying 57 cents a pound for iced chum and 60 cents for iced and bagged, nearly 20 cents above 2025. ADF&G has scheduled 22 eight-hour periods since the July 10 opener.
Alaska moves to cut white-fronted goose limits again as the Y-K Delta population falls
Fish and Game extended comment through Aug. 16 on a proposal to further cut white-fronted goose bag limits in Unit 18, as the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta population continues to decline.
Yukon salmon conservation rules are now locked into state regulation, not left to managers' discretion
The Alaska Board of Fisheries adopted binding Yukon River king and fall chum salmon conservation plans, setting fixed thresholds that keep commercial and much subsistence fishing closed.
Prince William Sound stays at one king a day through Sept. 15
Anglers in most Prince William Sound salt waters can keep one king salmon a day through Sept. 15, down from two, with four terminal harvest areas excepted, as kings begin showing up.