Spc

Discussion area for political and legal issues affecting Alaskan salmon fisheries.
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Carol W
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Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:32 am
Location: Ketchikan

Spc

Post by Carol W »

First I can understand frustration and questions reguarding the 2nd advance on chum, I was hoping even though I don't fish chum that your 2nd advance would be better than it sounds. I would like to point out that even though SPCNhas bought chum before we haven't really in the past put a long range chum plan in effect. Having sat for many years on the SSRAA marketing committee I can tell you that there are several things we need to do to get the highest return in the industry. We need the best quality chum there is on the market which shouldn't be a problem looking at the method we use for harvest, next we need a long term supply that is fairly stable, and lastly we need to find a better market for the egg than we have had the last 2 years. As I have said we should be able to have the highest quality no problem there. Supply on the other hand is an issue if those of you in the chum pool are not willing to bring your chums to us if it looks like we may be a few cents short this past season. Reasoning behind continuing to pool your chums with spc versus the competition is one we all own SPC, secondly in order to establish a long term marketing relationship with users of chum we need to be able to demonstrate a committment from our members that we will have pounds available for the market. Most users of chum are value added processors and they look at chum the way Jiffy looks at peanuts, supply at a reasonable cost. Chum production is valueable to all members of the coop in it is more pounds across the floor which lowers our fixed costs per pound, in my short tenure on the board I have come to the conclusion that we need 15 million pounds across our floor to maximize the effiencey of our plant. The board and staff have struggle with how we maintain 15 million pounds, chum production is very much part of that equation. The board authorized staff to buy a block freezer to freeze our chum eggs in a block form so that we can get into the European and Russian market which with the shift in economies and taste buds will give us a better return on eggs than Japan in a few years.
I know you were expecting more on the second advance remember when the 2nd advance came out we still had inventory of chum and that we are in the process of building a program, and lastly SPC is your company and in the longterm we should be able to give the best returns.
Salty
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Re: Spc

Post by Salty »

Tom and Howard,
Good comments. I like most of the other chum trollers are disappointed in what looks like a 44 cents per pound final settlement. On the one hand that is a fine price and certainly makes fishing chums the thing to do for some of us versus chasing coho up and down the coast it is also a loss when we consider that Sitka Sound Seafoods payed 45 cents and Baranof paid 45 and up to 50 cents for some loads at the end of the season. Plus, some of our members were quite disappointed when SPC lowered the price after the coho closure. I understand the need to lower the price when the percentage of darks and smaller females skyrocketed. Without a good egg market, SPC was not in a competitive position for those fish.
SPC did a wonderful job responding to our groups work with the staff to make SPC competitive in terms of service, speeding up the unloading process, organizing the unloading through communication and appointments, getting us iced up quickly, etc. We really do want the high powered wands to clean the totes, holds, and brailer bags. That move alone is worth at least a couple of cents a pound to me.
I hear you about the long term production planning. I have been trying to get a long term marketing situation set up for several years. It was just a few years ago that we had no markets and lots of chums here in Sitka. I had to scramble to get Norquest to come over. I was hoping things would work out with Baranof. He may still be a player but there are some problems there. I was hoping SPC would follow up on the excellent start they had with their service last year with a return in the 50 cents area, some continued improvement like high powered wands, and the group I work with could just plan on bringing our production there. 44 cents jeapordizes that situation for at least some of our group.
With the competitive situation developing for chum this year it appears that our group may not need to organize to make sure we have competitive markets. There may be opportunities to go several places depending on the price and services offered that week. I hear pretty substantial rumors that we may be offered as much as fifty cents a pound the first week. I may end up selling equally to Baranof, SSS, and SPC or just one of them. I do think that if the 10 or twelve guys loosely affiliated with our group decides to bring all our production to one plant then that should be worth some commitment in terms of both service and price. Our work then benefits everyone trolling chums.
But, I have been preoccupied with my health issue, and not able to think about organizing. As you all know organizing trollers is no easy task. In the last year our group has developed at least a couple of internal schisms so I don't know if we could get it together to negotiate as a group. Since there seems to be plenty of market interest there isn't the need to organize like there has been in the past.
On the good news side is the fact that NSRAA staff has advised me that they will not be proposing adjustments to the cost recovery/troll agreement we made during the last Board of Fisheries cycle. That will save us lots of work.
Tom, what is SSRAA doing to help trollers regain access to SSRAA chums? It looks like we are as far behind in our allocated share of the value of SE hatchery salmon as ever. Perhaps the gillnetters will invite us into the DiPac area to help alleviate the problem.
Finally, for those of us who have fished chums for many years we know that last years stock here in Sitka was the best biting groups of chums ever seen. Plus they were spread out over a pretty wide area. Thus the fishing was as pleasant as it has been since there were only five or six of us on the grounds. Unfortunately some of the new guys are anticipating that the fish will bite as well and the fishery will be as pleasant as it was this year. I fear a crowded situation will develop. Also, on the negative side, there is quite a bit of concern about ocean conditions leading to another relatively poor return. So, who knows how it will go.
Carol W
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Location: Ketchikan

Re: Spc

Post by Carol W »

Hi Eric
I will make sure the board and staff are aware of your desires for the wands and unloading schedule. I wouldn't be surprised if in the final settlement we aren't right with SSS but it remains to be seen. The chum market has changed quite dramatically in the last 2 years a pale meated carcass can now be sold for a very slight profit which is a huge step from where it was a few years ago. However the staff played the game conservatively when the grade of darks got to high and thus the lowering of the price, it is still as you said a hell of a price, I can remember 11 cents. Spc as I am sure you are aware of is also filleting chum carcasses which if it doesn't boost the return this year, one would think that filleting will add value in subsequent years if coho and chinook are any indication. Last year we sold our eggs as green eggs which at the time I felt was a good strategy, however with the block freezer I do beleive we will be able to recapture more value from our eggs. Going the traditional method into Japan isn't a good strategy, for even though the markket heated up some this fall it was mainly due to a shortfall in Hokaido. The young Japanese are moving away from traditional foods and the over all egg market is a lot softer than it was in the 90's. So I guess it comes down to management to provide the wands, an unloading schedule and the faith by members that your company can do the job more efficiently and that in the long run as with other fish we pool you are better pooling your chums. One of the ironies I have seen in my tenure on the board has been that before I came we were suffering from low low prices, membership told management to come up with a new marketing strategy to improve returns. Staff did just that beat the bushes for High-end markets, got them now if the competition offers a nickel more during the season a portion of the membership sells to the competition, the net effect is we cannot supply our markets because we don't have the pounds. Then we wind up losing the market and that is next to impossible to regain.
I have to go for a bit I have rambled on.
Keep your hand on it an eye on the fathometer.
Carol W
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Posts: 286
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:32 am
Location: Ketchikan

Re: Spc

Post by Carol W »

In relation to SSRAA we can access the chum in the Behm Canal corridor but fishing inside of the bay is based entirely on run strength and projection of the run. This coming season is a real "I GOTTA guess run" in the fact we had very little 3 year olds come back, the few that did return were really small, so we don't know if the feed situation in the ocean prevented the 3 year olds from reaching a size that they come back to the Bay, or if they just didn't survive. We still have the access if we want it the main problem seems to be a market, none of the chum buyers want to run a packer to Neets Bay on speculation there will be a few trollers there. I think this is further compounded by two things oone of coarse is in the south end we have a seine and gillnet fleet that supply these buyers with out the head ache of trollers, secondly is consolidation of the major buyers.
I will tell you that the troll represenatives on the SSRAA board have the loudest voice that I have seen on the SSRAA in my 20 years of being on that board, the trollers are definately a power block that the other 2 gear groups have come to realize they have to listen to.
SSRAA in conjunction with USFS have started a new coho lake plant project that should start putting adults in the fishery in 3 seasons. It is not a huge project but it will definately add coho to our fishery, and most of SSRAA's coho are caught in district 113. If NSRAA would shift all their coho realease sights down to the south end I would bet we would have a much higher catch rate on their coho. In 06 common property fisheries harvested over 95% of SSRAA coho with 65 to 70% being caught by the troll fleet. We commonly catch over 60% of SSRAA coho.

Well my hand is sore from typing.
Lets hope the weather lets us go catch some fish before the price collapses.
Salty
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Re: Spc

Post by Salty »

Good thoughts and information, Tom. Thank you for an update on SSRAA. I hear you about the SSRAA coho. We see those from Cape Cross down the coast in September now. My son who fished chums a week after I went to Cross Sound and then fished coho off the Cape here had a much better fall than I did. Lots of these coho are SSRAA and wild coho headed for Southern SE. The problem with fishing for them is that the weather seems to be deteriorating in September and the days to effectively work the Coast then seem to be diminishing.
I talked to Pete and Steve at NSRAA yesterday about a bunch of things. They have no idea why their Hidden Falls coho failed. They think it was between the time they ponded them and the release. The same stock is used to plant at Mist Cove and they survived at a 10% rate.
They are only predicting a return of 1.6 million chum here this year. This will make the whole troll fishery marginal unless it is dry and the fish hold up. With the big snow pack we will probably have lots of run off into Deep Inlet regardless so I am thinking the fish might move by us pretty fast.
They are optimistic about the Chinook return both here and at Hidden Falls. I have not heard from the treaty folks but the little I am hearing second hand does not sound great.
In other news, the Sitka Assembly voted 4-2 last night to accept the bid from Silver Bay Seafoods to buy the Dock at the old mill site. Lots of testimony against it. Eventually those guys are going to want troll production to complete their sales offerings. Might be interesting, especially for chum trollers.
Katlian
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Re: Spc

Post by Katlian »

View on the Co-op chum program.
The unloading process for chums last summer far exceeded all of my expectations. It really highlights the difference in efficiency between slush bags and layer fish. The peak example was on afternoon when only one door was working. I watched a gentleman troller unload cohos for 90 minutes. His total load was about 100 fish. Each brailer came out of the hold filled to the brim with ice and a handful of fish. Three dock employees sat there watching each load coming in and rolling their eyes. There are a lot of efficient layer icec boats out there. This was not one of them. The SPC dock program allowing everyone their turn needs to be addressed. People should be as encouraged to be just as aggressive in leaving the dock as they are about getting tied up. The cumulative cost of sloth on cost of labor, lost sleep for fisherman and lost fishing time is unpleasant to fathom. There also seems to be a break in the flow of responsibility for labor efficiency. The ice house makes the list and calls in the boats. Then the dock crew gets to their work. Perhaps there should be one of the dock crew whose job includes making sure that the dock is not stalled for an inane reason. I appologize, my crewman last year ran a dock in petersburg for 7 years. He tortured me whenever things were not sailing through. As a comparison, Baranof unloading is eager and rapid to the point of fear and danger. But, you never feel like you are waiting on them. And the S-S-Scene is so painfully disorganized it pains me to remember my last visit.

Unloading is such a large part of a chum troller's day, as much attention to streamlning the process in key to retaining a fleet. Well, efficiency and allocating the fixed costs in such a way that a chum troller is rewarded for making the economy of scale work at the co-op in lean coho years.
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