Cole Hockema has been fishing since he was a teenager growing up in Oregon. For 12 years now he’s been trawling for pollock in the Gulf of Alaska, but today he’s sitting at home with his young daughters in Kodiak.
“We had lots of projects and stuff scheduled that we wanted to do at the end of the year and now we have a lot of time to do those, but we’re putting those on hold now until next year just because of a lack of money,” Hockema explained.
Hockema captains the Pacific Storm, a 100-foot trawler based out of Kodiak, which his father owns. The vast majority of the Central Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet is made up of local boats like his.
According to the trade group Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, 19 boats were fishing in the Central Gulf of Alaska when the pollock fishery closed on Sept. 25. 15 of those are homeported in Kodiak.
Normally, fishermen like Hockema would be out on the water until early November, when the Gulf of Alaska’s pollock B season typically closes. But this fall season ended just three weeks into fishing, when two vessels incidentally hauled in approximately 2,000 Chinook salmon, which exceeded the fishery’s annual bycatch limit. Hockema said the Pacific Storm was offloading its catch on Sunday, Sept. 22 when they first got the news about the bycatch and he knew the fleet would need to stop fishing immediately.
Bycatch from the trawl fleet has caught a lot of negative attention over the years, especially as king salmon runs decline across the state.
Since the closure, the Central Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet has separated out into a few camps – some are trying to switch into rockfish and or flatfish to make up lost revenue, others are doing a couple trips for Pacific cod, and a few like Hockema are done fishing for the year.
“Yeah we just can’t invest in nicer, better gear to go get this one
Hockema estimates his boat missed out on roughly $250,000 due to the fishery being closed so early. Hockema said the Pacific Storm does technically have a permit to fish for rockfish, which is a cooperative program, but they do not have any quota and would have to pay a lease fee which would not make sense economically for them to do so.
The ex-vessel price for rockfish in Kodiak right now is anywhere from 9 cents to 12 cents a pound. Chelsae Radell with Alaska Groundfish Data Bank told the City Council earlier in October, “We have approximately 16 million pounds of rockfish available, but at this time, I think, just based on who we have here and how much time, we'll only probably harvest about eight to ten million pounds."
Overall, there were still at least 100 million pounds of Central Gulf pollock left unharvested in the water when the season ended. The fleet is thought to have lost out on $9 million total in dockside revenue, based on current market prices of 9 cents per pound for pollock.
Local fishermen still have to cover loan payments on boats, insurance, which fishermen told KMXT has increased significantly this year, repairs, maintenance, and other expenses. And of course, paying wages to deckhands and crew.
Alaska Groundfish Data Bank estimates that up to 70 mostly Kodiak-based crew were employed by the local pollock trawl fleet. A third or 30% of that ex-vessel revenue was expected to go to crew if the fishery had gone on until November.
Another longtime Kodiak pollock trawl fisherman, Paddy O’Donnell, said he feels lucky to still have crew after the pollock fishery closure.
“We go through a lot of crew. We got two new crew for the fall season here that are different from the crew I had during the A season," O'Donnell stated. "Guys move around, get into either herring in the spring, salmon in the summer. This year now, there is a crab fishery happening in the Bering Sea so I’m sure some of them are shifting towards that.”
O’Donnell, who is also the President of the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers board, told KMXT on Oct. 17 that his 85-foot boat, the Caravelle, was likely going to switch over to Pacific cod soon but the fishery is only open until November 1. The season opened on Oct. 4 in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska, after the fleet agreed to a voluntary catch share plan. And so far, cod fishing is reportedly slow this year and may not be very economical for a variety of reasons, such as the fish being more spread out this time of year, boats having to burning more fuel which are at higher costs, and poor prices from processors.
The fishermen aren’t the only ones affected by the Central Gulf of Alaska pollock trawl fishery closure.
An initial, informal analysis from one Alaska-based fisheries economist, Garrett Evridge, pointed to at least 100 workers that would be let go from the four major Kodiak processors that handle pollock. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported that OBI Seafoods laid off 50 of its employees at the local plant in response to the pollock fishery shutdown.
In an email to KMXT, OBI Seafoods CEO John Hanrahan wouldn’t call them layoffs. He said the processing season ended early for some employees and schedules were reduced for others.
Hanrahan said, “The unexpected closure of the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery resulted in a significant decrease in the fish that we process in Kodiak at this time of year. Unfortunately, we had to end the season earlier than usual for some of our employees and have reduced schedules for some of our remaining employees as a result. The closure is also negatively affecting Kodiak fishermen and the community by reducing their revenue during very difficult times. OBI will continue to provide as much support as we can to our fishermen and employees during this unprecedented closure."
The early closure also means many fishermen can’t afford to pay for boat work they’d typically have done in the shipyard this time of year.
Kodiak’s Highmark Marine Fabrication handles repairs on many of the local pollock trawl boats. Owner Cooper Curtis said a good portion of their winter work starts in November and lasts until January, while the trawlers are typically dry docked or not fishing.
“And with the recent closure, we’re probably looking at about, collectively, at least a $1 million impact to our business," Curtis said.
That’s not to mention the impacts on the other local marine services like refrigeration, hydraulics, and the Kodiak shipyard, which Highmark operates.
Pollock is Kodiak’s largest fishery by volume, also known as the local bread and butter fishery. So state, borough and city tax revenue are also taking hits - Alaska Groundfish Data Bank estimates a projected loss of $500,000 in taxes to the municipalities of Kodiak as a whole. That includes Borough severance tax, state fisheries business, fishery landing tax, and City sales tax.
During a recent city council work session on Oct. 8, Radell with AGDB said it’s very unlikely the other fisheries will be able to cover the losses in revenue created by the pollock fishery closure.
“Combined rockfish, flatfish and cod landings since the time that the closure went into effect through November, would probably be about 17.5 million pounds of harvest with an ex-vessel value of approximately $2.5 million and we think that might be a little optimistic," Radell told the council.
Despite limited options and a small chance of breaking even this year, Hockema, the sidelined fisherman, is holding out hope that pollock fishing will get better.
Curtis with Highmark shares a similar point of view. He said that all the small businesses in Kodiak that benefit from the pollock trawl fishery have to be flexible, just like the fishermen.
“At the end of the day we’re all in this together, this community. Every vessel, every service provider, we all need each other. So we’ll be flexible and we’ll all make it," Curtis stated.
Meanwhile, Hockema will have to wait until next year, when the “A” pollock season opens in January.