Author: kfskadmin

A new drive-down loading dock on Petersburg’s waterfront saw strong support from the local commercial fishing fleet last week and ended up much higher on the city’s capital project priority list. Replacement of North Harbor and building a new library remained the top two priorities on the list.

Seven local organizations are the latest winners of grant money awarded by the Petersburg Community Foundation over the weekend. It’s the second round of grants from an endowment fund created by the foundation in 2008. Among other things, the money will pay for drums, a kids reading program, and fireworks equipment.

The guided sport-fishing industry is bracing for potential impacts from next month’s annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission. As commissioners consider a 47 percent cut to the halibut limit for commercial longliners in Southeast, they’ll also look at more restrictions on the charter fleet.

A local ad hoc committee on commercial fishing this fall recommended Petersburg should pursue a new release site for hatchery salmon near Mitkof Island. Hatchery chum salmon releases have been worth tens of millions of dollars annually to Southeast’s fishing fleets and processing companies. However, Petersburg’s permit holders and processing tenders have had run elsewhere in Southeast to chase these fish. However, a new hatchery run closer to Petersburg is a possibility.

Petersburg’s largest seafood processing company is doing some alterations at its Petersburg plant this winter to boost the amount of fish it can freeze and to expand the dock space for unloading vessels. Icicle Seafoods is putting several million dollars into improvements at its Petersburg plant to get ready for the 55 million pink salmon forecast to return to Southeast next year. Joe Viechnicki spoke with Icicle’s fleet manager in Petersburg, Randy Lanteigne, about the upgrades.