On Today's Catch;   Fresh Sea Lion

Every April around the start of the Kodiak Sac Roe Herring fishery, a pod of Orcas makes their annual appearance in and around Kodiak Harbor.  These whales  has been dubbed "The Kodiak Killers". The pod consists of one large male named Bently due to his huge curved dorsal fin,  2 females and a few babies. This pod of Killer Whales is a transient pod. They travel around in search of thier favorite food,  marine mammals. The whales use the shelter of the Near Island Channel and the surrounding cannery waterfront to train thier babies to become sea lion killers.

Every year the Killers catch a few sea lions on thier way through the area. The sea lions know when the whales are around and they school and take shelter under docks and around pilings.You know when the Killer whales are around, because you can hear the sea lions growling and making a ruckus under the dock.  The whales seem to work these groups of sea lions into a panicked frenzy. When this happens, the whales usually pick off one sea lion.  They get him apart from the group and drag him out to deep water. Once seperated from the group, the sea lion stands no chance. The whales seem to play with thier new catch, slapping thier tails down and tossing the sea lion around a bit. A few years ago, the Killers caught one right under the Island Seafoods dock. It was like being at Sea World. The whales were within 15 feet of where I was standing. Of course, I didnt have my camera handy. Well yesterday I did have my camera. In the stinging rain, I captured a Sea Lion Kill in the Near Island Channel. Here are some photos of the action. 

 

 
In the picture above, the sea lions are herded up next to the shore with the pod of whales just about 50 yards away.  In the picture below, the whales have a sea lion seperated from the herd and are taking turns biting at him. The sea lion is the brown image in the water. 

 

These Killer Whales will be around the Kodiak area for the next few weeks before they move on in search of fresh meals. I will update the site if there is any more action. 

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It has been a very busy day here at Island Seafoods. We had the Coho come in late last night and the Stella in this morning.  The night crew took care of offloading the Coho,  so early this morning the day shift could get started cutting right away. While the crew is processing the sole from the Coho, the dock crew was busy with the Stella and his 120,000 pounds of Arrowtooth Flounder.  We can cut this almost as fast as we can get it off of Captain Peter's boat. Once the Stella had finished the offload, it was time for the F/V Major.

With Snow comming in sideways, the dock crew started in on the first Black Cod delivery of the season.  First out of the fish hold came the beautiful red rock fish. 

After the rock fish was offloaded, the crew carefully places each black cod into the brailer.  Ceasar pauses for the camera with a nice big Black Cod.

 

With the last brailer of halubut off the boat, Santiago climbs the ladder to help out.

Twenty minutes after the last halibut is off the boat, Fresh Halibut is ready for dinner!!

I will be sending out fresh Halibut, Black Cod and Rockfish from Today's Catch on Monday the 13th. Call or Email me to reserve yours.

Check back tomorrow, I will be interviewing Captain Bob and Captain Perky about their recent Cod trip and the Massive Deliveries. They must have found that school they were talking about!

Until next time, Enjoy!

 

 

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The Kodiak Fishing Fleet finally got a break from the weather this weekend and headed out to sea.  Fair winds and calm seas were forecasted for the next few days, a welcome change after nearly a week of ferocious winter storm systems. By Monday morning St Paul Harbor, right next to Island Seafoods, was nearly empty.  

  

The Cod Jigging fleet headed out on Saturday, hoping to put a dent in the nearly 3.6 million pounds of quota left.  I spoke with Greg Perkins of the F/V Grouper and Bob Martin of the F/V Argonaut at the ice dock as they took a few tons of ice before they headed out to sea.  Captain Greg or Perky as everyone calls him and Captain Bob travel together to the fishing grounds for safety, to share fishing info and strategy, and just plain old good company. They have a pretty good idea where the big schools of cod are hiding and they are confident if they find them they will each return with their fish holds loaded. They were on the fish last week, but storms forced them to retreat to sheltered waters where the fishing wasn’t as hot. Like all good fishermen though, they kept the location of the giant schools under their hats. Look for Fresh Cod from Capt. Bob and Capt. Perky later this week.

 

The F/V Coho and the F/V Stella also took advantage of the favorable fishing conditions and headed to sea this weekend. Brothers, Capt. Peter and Capt. James McCarthy are targeting Rock Sole, Flathead Sole and Butter Sole. Our processing crew will be filleting much of this fresh sole for our company Pacific Seafood. We will freeze the fillets and ship them south to Oregon, where they will be distributed to restaurants and seafood retailers across the country. I was so pleased with the quality from the last load of Sole from the McCarthy Brothers that I will be offering fresh frozen Rock Sole fillets in the online store from their next delivery. If you have never tried Fresh Rock Sole, you have no idea what you are missing. There is nothing else like in in all the oceans of the World!

 

The F/V Major, skippered by Captain Alexus Kwachka departed yesterday afternoon for their first combo, Black Cod and Halibut trip of 2009. Capt. Alexis is expecting to be back in Kodiak to offload his catch Thursday or Friday. Island Seafoods is proud to be featuring both Fresh Halibut and Fresh Black Cod from the F/V Major, Online. This Fresh fish will ship out on Monday the 13th. Along with the Halibut and Black Cod, Captain Alexus usually brings in big, beautiful red rockfish, typically Yelloweye or Rougheye Rockfish. I will also be offering fresh, never frozen, fillets of this delicious white fleshed fish.

 

I will be posting updates later in the week as the fresh deliveries get closer. There is a lot of action on the Kodiak waterfront right now, so the next few weeks will prove to be exciting. As always, feel free to give me a call to find out what we are processing fresh that day at Island Seafoods.  It would be my honor to box some up and ship it out for you and your family to enjoy for dinner. 

Until next time, Enjoy!

Ian

 

 

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The F/V Northern Jaeger delivered the First Halibut of the year for Island Seafoods this morning and to mark this special occasion, I decided to make this the topic of Today's Catch.

Island Seafoods will be the first company to bring fresh Halibut to the Market from Kodiak Island. This Fresh halibut will be shipped to Anchorage today and by tomorrow will be featured on Dinner Menus and super market display cases. Fresh Halibut from the F/V Northern Jaeger will also be available in the Online Store.

Captain Ron Thompson of the F/V Northern Jaeger was one of only a handful of Kodiak long liners to head out for the Season Opener. He headed south toward Area 3B to start out his season. Once he got near the fishing grounds, the storm that battered the fleet had arrived with full fury. With winds gusting 40 to 50 knots, Captain Ron turned the Northern Jaeger into Alitak Bay and anchored up. There they sat and waited for the storm to pass. Captain Ron described the wind as confused and coming from every direction. He said that they would anchor up on the west side of the bay and a few hours later the wind would whip around the other direction and he and the crew would have to pull the anchor and run to the other side of the bay. When they finally got a break in the weather, he headed out and set his gear in front of the tiny village of Akhiok. When the weather came back up he ducked back into Alitak Bay and tied up to the Ocean Beauty Plant in Alitak. As soon as he had a window, he hauled his gear and headed north for Kodiak. Now that he is back in town, he plans to take a few days off and relax before he heads back out to continue to catch his quota of Alaskan Halibut. Look for more action from the Captain Ron and the F/V Northern Jaeger in the coming month. Until next time, Enjoy!!

 

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Well Old Man Winter and Mother Nature have conspired to make this week one of the wildest in recent memory. There is a television show on the History Channel called “Tougher in Alaska”. Well they aren’t kidding, it is tough. I am pleased to announce though, that the weather here in Kodiak today consists of bright blue sky and lots of sunshine, far from the arctic beating we took earlier this week. The bad news is that the volcano Mt. Redoubt has erupted again several times this morning, grounding all flights to and from Kodiak. Mt. Redoubt is located 100 miles southwest of Anchorage and sits right in the path of planes coming to and from Kodiak Island. The ash from the volcano is not like the ash you would find in your fireplace at home or from around a campfire. This ash is essentially small bits of rocks that are spewed from the volcano up to heights of 60000 feet!! This ash is extremely hazardous to machinery and especially turbine engines on air planes. The last time the volcano erupted was in 1989, and it erupted sporadically for the next 5 months.

Saturday marked the official opening of the 2009 Halibut season, and with it followed a huge storm that ravaged the entire Gulf of Alaska with 50 knot winds and heavy freezing sea spray. Several boats ventured out with only a few making deliveries. Only one vessel made a small delivery to another processor here in Kodiak. I can say though that our company, Pacific Seafoods was the first company to bring fresh Halibut to the market through our processing facility Resurrection Bay Seafoods in Seward. Here in Kodiak, the F/V Northern Jaeger is on the fishing grounds, but the weather has forced him to stay on anchor for much of the week. He should be in tomorrow with the first load of the season for Island Seafoods. All of this fish will be shipped North to the Anchorage are to be distributed to Supermarkets, Restaurants and retail seafood markets,  so I will not be offering any fresh halibut from this delivery. However, I will be offering fresh halibut later in April as the weather gets nicer and more boats are able to get out and work their gear.

 

The Kodiak Jig fleet continues to chip away at the State Water Quota. But the fleet is getting restless. They have been in town for several days hanging out at Harborside Coffee, waiting out this series of brutal arctic storm systems. Here is the F/V Transporter getting a fresh load of squid and a few tons of ice, ready to head out to sea at a moments notice.

Monday morning Kodiak Island awoke to a fresh coat of snow. But unlike the typical Kodiak Winter maritime climate, the snow didn’t turn to rain by mid day. This storm was just getting started. By 5 pm that day, Kodiak was at the mercy of a full blown arctic blizzard, with winds in excess of 50 knots and total white out conditions. Safe inside my cozy house, my wife and I could only watch with amazement as our yard and driveway disappeared before our eyes.

Tuesday morning I spent the next hour just trying to clear a path out the front door.

I grew up here in Kodiak and this is probably in the top 3 huge snow storms I can remember. The whole town shut down; schools, city, borough, the Coast Guard Base, everything.

Once I got everything dug out, I rallied down to Island Seafoods, to find the crew and a fleet of plow trucks had cleared out most of the parking lot and dock. Everything seems to be more complicated in the snow. The weather service says we got 30 inches in 24 hours. Wednesday the weather warmed up and rained about 6 inches. Well this melted much of the snow and overwhelmed the whole drainage system and many roads were flooded. The flooding has stopped all the gutters are clear and today is beautiful and sunny. This just goes to prove that you can expect the unexpected when it comes to Kodiak winter weather.

With a new storm system forecast for tonight and tomorrow, skippers and crew are staying busy with projects and boat maintenance. Here, Alexus Kwachka, skipper of the F/V Major, steadies the brand new 530 horse power John Deer engine into position on his Bristol Bay gill netter, the F/V No Point. With this repower, Alexus hopes to save on fuel consumption when traveling and when he is towing on the gill net. The new motor fit like a glove and he should be finished up in time to head out on the F/V Major next week to target halibut and Black Cod.

Until next time, Enjoy!

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