Business

Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands pelagic trawlers caught 312 king salmon in the week beginning June 15, bringing the total for the month of June to 1411.  During the same week, non-pelagic, or bottom trawlers caught 176 kings, according to data from onboard observers overseen by the National Marine Fisheries Service, (NMFS). June’s king salmon bycatch in the bottom trawl fishery to date is 762.  There was no reported salmon bycatch in the pot, jig, and non-halibut longline fisheries.  

The Southern District of Lower Cook Inlet, which includes Kachemak Bay, opened to seiners this Monday, June 17, with sixteen-hour openers scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported Monday’s salmon harvest as four Chinook and 110 sockeye on four deliveries, all from the China Poot section. Sections with fewer than three deliveries are not included in public reports.

  The National Marine Fisheries Service reports a total halibut bycatch for the first two weeks of June of 506,747 pounds in all groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands management areas, excluding the halibut and sablefish longline fisheries.   Total halibut mortality for the month so far is 460,457 pounds for a mortality rate of just under ninety-one percent.

Locally produced food and products were well represented on this week's Coffee Table.
Guests:
Homer Farmers Market Director and Kenai Peninsula Food Hub Coordinator Robbi Mixon, Susan Houlihan of Alpenglow Skin Care, and Jenny Medley from Blood, Sweat, and Food Farm.

BlueCrest Energy is producing its first barrels of oil from the Cosmopolitan Unit north of Anchor Point. Company officials say the new crude is high quality and some of the cleanest they’ve ever seen. 

The city of Homer is expecting a drill rig with the exploration company Furie to pull into the port Saturday. The city will host the rig after another company that parked a jackup rig in Homer went bankrupt and demanded contractors that serviced the rig pay them back. 

Bald Mountain Air Service is accused of suspending, firing and then essentially blacklisting a pilot who blew the whistle on the company for violating federal safety standards. The U.S. Department of Labor ordered the air service to reinstate the pilot and pay him $100,000 in damages on top of a little more than three years’ back pay. 

Petro Marine Services had a big scare last week when the Homer City Council considered putting the lease for a property the business has used for years up for public bid. The company could have been forced to move millions of dollars of equipment. A city employee says opening the lease up for bid was a hard conversation to have but it was important to keep the city’s options open.

BlueCrest Energy pledged to hire four Kenai Peninsula College graduates to work at their drilling site near Anchor Point. The company made good on its promise. One of BlueCrest’s local hires says the job is the next step in what he hopes will be a promising career.

An annual two day event designed to take the temperature of industry on the Kenai Peninsula got underway Thursday at the Old Carr's Mall in Kenai. The event’s sponsors invited government officials, company executives and industry advocates to speak. BlueCrest Energy, the company drilling for oil north of Anchor Point, accepted their invitation. 

The maritime industry is a key part of Homer’s local economy and local business owners  want to support it with a steady stream of fresh recruits. KBBI's Quinton Chandler spoke with members of the Homer Marine Trades Association about  ongoing efforts to improve vocational offerings that focus on the maritime industry.

A Homer business owner wants to use a drone to take pictures and shoot video of properties in Homer. But, restrictions on drone piloting hurt his chances of making the business work.