Port Moller Test Fishing Underway with New Text Updates

The Port Moller Test Fishery is underway! Fishermen can receive daily updates via email and can now get daily summaries texted to their mobile, InReach, or satellite phone. Those wishing to get daily text updates should text only the abbreviation PMTF to 833-612-1053. Make sure there is no other wording in the text other than PMTF. Email michael@bbsri.org with the subject heading “Please add me to the PMTF email list” to get daily email updates.

Unfortunately, the R/V Pandalus was delayed this season while getting some pre-season maintenance work completed. Thankfully, BBRSDA and BBSRI began funding a second research vessel to fully cover the entrance to Bristol Bay beginning in 2019 and again this year. This additional coverage has greatly improved the test fishery usefulness, and, with the breakdown of the Pandalus has provided us an essential redundancy to the project. The Ocean Cat has been covering a good portion of the now larger test fishery transect since June 12, and BBSRI has scrambled another vessel to act as a stand-in for the Pandalus. That vessel should arrive soon and cover the inner test fishery stations and work in tandem with the larger Ocean Cat, which can handle the offshore stations. Should the Pandalus become available in late June it will travel to Port Moller only if the other two vessels are having troubles.

The Port Moller Test Fishery (PMTF) is conducted each year to help processors, fishermen, and fishery managers assess the timing, composition, and abundance of sockeye salmon returning to commercial fishing districts in Bristol Bay. The project is a joint effort between BBSRI and ADF&G, and it has been supported in part by fishermen (via BBRDSA funding) and processors for years. Visit the PMTF website and Bristol Bay Fisheries Collaborative (BBFC) page for more information.