Chum Trollers Association News

Discussion area for political and legal issues affecting Alaskan salmon fisheries.
Salty
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

Good questions Yak. Do you guys pay three percent in Yakutat? Not that it makes much difference in looking for a hatchery site.

There are a lot of criteria to go through to protect both the natural runs and the hatchery production. We don't move fry around the state too much. So, you would have to start with a local stock, probably from Yakutat Bay. You would have to have good water, that doesn't freeze up, is disease free, and plenty of it. You need access to the land etc. Anyway there is a whole permitting process, brood stock selection and development, management planning, terminal and special harvest area mapping, loan application, board development and training, personnel hiring etc. Unless you got NSRAA to look into a project. Then you have a Board, staff, and experience on line already. But, it would mean loss of local control which I think would be important in Yakutat.

If I were to try and get something going in Yakutat I would probably look into forming a separate Regional Association for the Yakutat area.

But, it is like I tell people when I make presentations on changing the future. It starts with a "vision".

Eric
kalitan97828
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by kalitan97828 »

Remember to get your NSRAA ballots in. Voting closes Feb 5 . A vote for Eric Jordan would be appreciated.

Carl
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

I talked to Pete Esquiro, General Manager of NSRAA, today at about 2:00 pm. He informed me that I was elected to the NSRAA Board as a power troller. I last served on the NSRAA Board in 1980 as an elected hand troller. Since then I have run for the Board as a power troller at least three times and been defeated by ever increasing margins to George Eliason, Alan Anderson, and somehow to my good friend, Bill Paden, when we screwed up and both ran for the same seat.
Over the years I have attended as many NSRAA Board meetings as possible as I have a degree as a hatchery technician, helped organize NSRAA, and have always been fascinated by both the group dynamics of fishermen working together, and the challenges of raising salmon. It is probably safe to say that I have sat through more NSRAA Board meetings than any non board or staff member.

So, it will be wonderful to once again join the Board as an elected member. I understand that this election was not personal. The incumbent, Rafe Allensworth, is a respected troller who has put in good service on the board. To me this election was about chum trollers wanting a voice and investing a good bit of work helping to elect their candidate. It was also about the majority of the trollers who do not chum troll voting for change.

While I was encouraged to run by our chum trollers organization, this seat is not a chum troll seat, it is a power troll seat and I will be doing my best to represent the whole troll fleet. Any troller reading this can send me a personal or public message if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them. And I love ideas to improve trolling. My phone is 738-chum.

The challenges for trollers at NSRAA are daunting. We harvested only 11% of the value of the gear group harvest of NSRAA salmon last season. There are challenges with predators at Hidden Falls, ocean survival in general, and for NSRAA Chinook and coho in particular. Our chum trollers association has been meeting every week to learn how we can improve the troll harvest share both in terms of what is projected to return starting in 2010, and what we can do to develop hatchery returns for the future that will assure trollers their share. Serving on the NSRAA Board also involves responsibility for preserving the Association and working to understand and where possible facilitate the needs of the other interest groups.


Thanks again to all of you who voted.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

Here is some good news for the troll fleet.

1. Our chum troll Hidden Falls coho subcommittee, chaired by Carl Peterson, developed an idea this winter to leave the Hidden Falls Special harvest area or a portion thereof open to coho trolling during the August coho closure. The sub-committee developed the idea into a written proposal, brought it to our Chum Trollers Board, which approved it unanimously, and then proposed it to the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association Board of Directors which unanimously endorsed it. Then we brought it to the Regional Planning Team and ADF&G. It was announced at the Sitka Troll Port meeting that ADF&G has endorsed the proposal and trollers will be allowed to fish a portion of the Hidden Falls Special Harvest Area for coho during the August Troll closure.

There is other Chum Troller News but we have developed a careful policy about vetting any publication of news through the Board of Directors before sharing. Thus the dearth of news lately. I call it a muzzle but others see it as discretion. Anyway, since this Hidden Falls coho fishing was announced at a public meeting attended by many trollers I feel it can be shared.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by salmon4u »

That's great !!! Thanks for all the work you guys are doing
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

Here is a Round Chum Troll quality guideline paper and a summarizing bullet point one page sheet that the Chum Trollers Association Board approved for sharing with our members, processors, and posting on this forum.


Chum Troller Association Guidelines for harvesting, handling, and delivering high quality round troll caught wild Alaska chum salmon.

Some notes on the history of the round chum troll fishery and the qualifications or lack thereof of the authors.

The first deliveries of round troll caught chums that we know about were in 1990 to Sitka Sound Seafoods. The round chum troll fishery developed after the round pink troll fishery at Sitka Sound Seafoods in 1989 and 1990. A Sitka troller proposed delivering round pinks after observing and experiencing the effects on his and his crews’ hands of trying to dress 500-1000 pinks a day. In 1989 the round pinks were layer iced. The first trip to Sitka Sound Seafoods was a layer of ice, a layer of salt, a layer of pinks, a layer of salt, a layer of ice, etc. Legend has it that the first load of round troll pinks to Sitka Sound Seafoods was removed via pick axes as the pinks, salt, and ice had frozen into solid blocks in the bins.
Future round pinks were carefully layer iced as the trollers were not equipped with slush tanks. That worked fairly well in preserving the pinks without belly burns and did not freeze the eggs if the icing was monitored carefully. The fishery developed and soon there were over a dozen trollers fishing round pinks for Sitka Sound Seafoods. Trollers figured out how to get Deep Inlet chums to bite in Eastern Channel in 1989 but this was a dressed fishery.
In the winter of 1989-90 some trollers tanked their vessels and ordered brailer bags. Since 1990 some trollers have fished round chums every year and the evolution of how to handle and slush ice the round chums to produce the highest quality flesh without freezing the eggs has advanced every year. In 2010 there were 70 trollers who delivered round troll caught chum in SE Alaska.
Processors have reported a great deal of difference in the quality of round troll chums delivered from the troll fleet over the years. One year Seafood Producers Cooperative actually billed a good percentage of their round chum troll deliveries for freezing the eggs. Processors have reported high rates of bruising in some troll deliveries. Some of the deliveries, particularly from layer iced chums, have a high incidence of “red bellies”. Some of the deliveries, particularly from slush bags, have been reported to not “smell good”, an indication of high bacteria counts. Processors usually pay more for round troll chums so they expect well bled, unbruised, high quality, properly chilled fish. Several processors have asked experienced chum trollers to prepare an information sheet they can use to develop guidelines for trollers delivering round chums.

Here is what we have learned on how to produce the best quality troll caught round chums. (This also applies in good part to round troll pinks.)



Handling troll chums.

1. From the bite to the deck.

A) Run the gear regularly so the chums are still alive as you come to the leaders with the fish. Dragging chums till they die and for an hour or so after they are dead negates the advantage we have over gillnet fish in dealing with troll caught fish while they are alive and getting them chilled immediately. A dead chum in the 60 degree water is already deteriorating.

B) Slip the chums aboard with the gaff or by gently lifting them aboard. Chums are the most docile of the salmon and do not scale readily so you do not need to conk them in the water as we do with coho and Chinook. Do not gaff and sling the chums over your shoulder, over the pit, and down into the landing checker with a thump. This bruises the flesh and compromises quality. It is also hard on your shoulders and your deck.

C) Immediately stick the chums with your gaff or knife in the gills before removing the hook. This begins the bleeding immediately upon landing.

2. From the deck to the slush.

A) Stick the fish in the throat with your bleeding knife (serious chum trollers have specially honed knifes sharpened on both sides similar to oyster shucking blades for this task) as soon as you have run a line.

B) Rinse the blood off your fish after you have run your side and immediately slip all the bled chums into your slush iced tanks. (We will not be discussing layer icing round chums here as we believe you need to slush ice round troll salmon for the best quality.) Some chum trollers have developed creative systems so that they minimize handling from checker to slush tank.

C) Thoroughly rinse your landing checker area with good water pressure before running the lines again. (Some serious chum trollers use 2 inch pacer pump hoses for a thorough rinsing.) Without rinsing the slime and blood build up quickly in the landing area and will contaminate the next batch of fish.

3. Managing the brailer bags, slush tanks.

A) Make sure you don’t make the slush mixture so thick that you freeze the eggs of the first chums. If you freeze them initially then they are ruined forever even if you deliver them at 33-35 degrees. If you are new to slush icing round troll fish then we recommend a temperature gauge to check flesh temps to keep them above 31 degrees. Most chum trollers who have been doing this a long time keep the slush mixture relatively thin, with a layer of slush of a couple of inches or so over cool water. This keeps the fish cool without freezing and makes it easy to slip the fish through the slush area into the tank.

B) Build or manage your slush tanks as individually as your boat will allow for 800 pound brailer bags. Keeping the tanks small minimizes the possibility of hot spots, fish sliding around, and squishing when the brailer bags are lifted out of the hold. Many chum trollers use custom made or standard NoMar Brailer Bags that hold about 800 pounds.

C) Add ice as needed to your slush tanks. You can not produce the optimum quality chums by loading your tank with a slush mixture you anticipate will allow you to load it with chums and keep them at optimum temperature until you unload. If you do this you will freeze the eggs of the first ones loaded. This is not like slushing dressed salmon where it does not matter if the first ones get colder than the last ones loaded. Most experienced chum trollers have developed a system of totes or brailer bags of ice so they can add ice to their slush tanks as they load them with chums. It also works great for optimum slushing of dressed salmon.

D) Segregate the species if possible into separate brailer bags and always keep the dressed fish and round fish in separate tanks.

4. Unloading

A) There are usually two different unloading scenarios and it is important to manage your slush ice/brailer bag system to best facilitate whether you will be unloading to a tender who will be weighing your round chums in your brailer bags or to a plant which will be sorting the fish into totes and then weighing them. When you know your fish will be weighed in the bag it is essential that you minimize the ice in the bags. If you have been carefully adding ice only as needed then this is easily accomplished by shoveling any surplus ice off the top of the bags on the way to or at the tender. Train your crew or yourself to make sure you do not have ice in the bottom of your bags. This will freeze your eggs, compromise the volume of your bags, and lead you to think you have more fish than you do.

B) Chum trolling is a volume fishery with unloading every day or at the most every other day. (Most processors allow 36 hours from coming on deck to unloading.) There is no “0” day in round chum trolling. The clock starts when the first fish bites.) Unloading efficiency and ergonomics becomes a good part of producing a quality product day after day. Quick turn around is good for you, the processor, and the rest of the fleet. Be ready to have your bags lifted when you arrive at the tender or plant. Do not tie up and then start getting your stays, holds, etc. arranged. Be ready to have the hook connected as soon as the ropes are secure. Efficient chum trollers regularly unload 5,000 or so pounds, clean up, ice up, and are ready to go within half an hour. Here are some tips on how to do that, but the most important one is to be ready and have a plan.

C) Have straps pre-attached to all your brailer bags so you don’t have to snap or tie up straps for every lift. This includes bottom straps to hook up for unloading the bags.

D) Evacuate your slush tanks as you approach and during unloading so when the bag of fish goes out you can quickly finish pumping out the rest of the slimy bloody water.

E) Ask for a hose from the tender or plant immediately upon tying up. Have that hose and a couple of your own hoses going to help rinse out the tanks as quickly as possible.

F) Scrub and rinse your tank with your bactericide formula as soon as it is empty.

G) Have a clean, dry, previously sterilized brailer bag or slush bag ready to go in your tank as soon as it is cleaned. Do not replace a brailer bag with one you just unloaded fish from. You do not have time to adequately hose it off, bactericide rinse it, clean water rinse it, and return it to your tank if you are trying to optimize your quality and turn around time. Brailer bags and slush bags need to be sterilized regularly. The chum troll fishery goes on day after day without break and unless you build in a system to sterilize your bags after every delivery you will end up with bags with high bacteria counts. (Some chum trollers have three sets of brailer bags, up to 33 bags on one experienced chum troller, on board to facilitate quality and speedy turn around.)

H) Develop a regular system and order for unloading your tanks so both your crew and the tender crew learns your system and can anticipate where to go next.

I) Ice up immediately if you can. Ask for cold water and ice if both are available. Most plants and all the tenders will facilitate your icing up immediately after unloading if you are ready. Over time they will come to appreciate your efficiency and hustle and will bend over backward to accommodate you.
J) Almost all the companies have their particular rules. Learn them and follow them scrupulously. If you become efficient your peers will be watching you carefully and will quickly notice if you bend or break the company rules.

K) Express your appreciation for the tender and plant service to every helpful person. It takes teamwork to handle large volumes of troll salmon day after day and these people can make a big difference to you. Unloading high volumes of chums and turning around immediately is a different animal than unloading a troll trip of dressed kings or coho once a week. An attitude of gratitude is greatly appreciated.


Handling Procedures and Quality Control Recommendations
From the gear to the landing checker:
1. Run the gear regularly.
2. Slip the salmon over the rail either with a gaff or by gently lifting them aboard to avoid bruising the flesh. Avoid slamming the fish into the landing checker.
3. Immediately stick the gills with a gaff to begin bleeding.
From the landing checking to the fish hold:
1. Gill bleed each fish with a knife.
2. Rinse the blood off each fish.
3. Slip the fish into your slush ice tanks as soon as possible preferably within 15 minutes of landing.
4. Thoroughly rinse your landing checker.
Managing brailer bags, slush bags and slush tanks:
1. Do not pre-load your slush tanks to the top with a thick slush ice mixture. Add water and ice as you add fish in such a way as to not cause the core temperature of the fish to drop below 32 degrees which freezes the eggs.
2. Strive for an optimum fish core temperature of 34 degrees.
3. If you are new to slush icing, use a temperature gauge and check fish core temperatures throughout the day until you get a feel for the proper slush ice ratio for the slush tanks on your boat.
4. Build your slush tanks to allow a brailer bag capacity of between 500 to 800 pounds per bag. Any larger then 800 pounds results in increased bruising and lower quality.
Unloading: Unload and turn around your boat around as fast as possible. Don’t stand on the talk chatting or wasting time if there’s a list of boats waiting to offload. Strive to unload, wash down, and ice up your boat in 30 minutes or less.
1. Almost all fish buyers have their particular rules. Learn them and follow them.
2. Develop a regular system and order for unloading your boat.
3. Try to have 2 or 3 sets of brailer bags for your slush tanks.
4. Have straps pre-attached to you brailer bags for lifting and dumping.
5. Evacuate you slush tanks as you approach and during unloading.
6. If you have multiple species of fish, segregate them into separate bags.
7. Ask for a hose from the tender or plant immediately upon tying up.
8. Scrub, disinfect and rinse your slush tank as soon as it’s empty.
9. Have a clean, dry, previously sterilized brailer bag or slush bag ready to go into your tank as soon as it is clean.
10. Ice up immediately if you can.
11. Express you appreciation for the tender and plant service to every helpful person.


To promote and improve Alaska chum salmon harvest for all trollers.
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Salty
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

Chum Trollers and others. Obviously our board and members have been busy trolling. I imagine we will have a board meeting later this month, prepare a season recap, identify challenges and opportunities for the meeting season, and go to work. Some things we know are coming up......

Alaska Board of Fishery proposals due in early April 2010. Lots of coordinating with ATA, and other groups before proposal submission.

Neets Bay troll plan is going to be revisited. Tom Sims, Ssraa Board Chair, has asked for chum troll input.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

As a troll representative on the NSRAA board I would love to hear your ideas on how Nsraa can improve your fishing.

Anyway, lots of work ahead.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

First fall Board meeting/potluck scheduled for 6:30 pm Friday, Oct 22 at 103 Gibson Place.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Salty »

Chum Trollers Association News flash.

Successful Board meeting last night with a great deal of work accomplished, more on that in later posts.

The news that the Board wanted posted and e-mailed as soon as possible is that two of our Chum Trollers Association members, Matt Stroemer and Bert Bergman, are running for the Seafood Co-operative Board of Directors. If you have not cast your ballot yet then we recommend you vote for these outstanding young leaders who are participants in the chum troll fishery.
The Chum Trollers Association Board elected Matt Stroemer to our board last night.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Hooker »

As a board member ot the Chum Association, I would ask that all CTA post on this website please be passed by the board.
This will be discussed at the next board metting.
Also I would ask that each board member be notified proir to his or her name being posted or be asked at the next board meeting to give their permission that their name be used in future.
Thanks Hooker
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by JYDPDX »

Who is this annonymous "hooker" person? And why is it so important that his identity be secret? Why would he not want anyone to write his name without special permission?
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by tomic »

As a board member of CTA I would ask as well that all things posted on this forum related to CTA and its meeting please be passed by the board for their approval prior to posting on this site.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Hans2 »

If it's simply passing on existing information, what is the issue? These requests for "prior approval" seem very Gustapo-esque...

Any governing body should be expected to have, and be happy for it, a bright light shone on them at all times.

I thank those that are willing to share public information with other folks on this board.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by tomic »

Its a simple matter of informing the board that this is happening so that all members of the board are aware.
Nothing more nothing less.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Hans2 »

tomic wrote:As a board member of CTA I would ask as well that all things posted on this forum related to CTA and its meeting please be passed by the board for their approval prior to posting on this site.
I suspect it certainly is something more. If it is simply a matter of informing the board "this is happening", then prior approval as previously requested is not necessary then, correct? Or are you taking the position that the board might have the desire to prevent someone from factually representing public information prior to them posting it? If that be the case, please sir, be very specific with your reply to this question - to what purpose would the board want to prevent an open discourse relative to the goings-on in the CTA?

As members of a public board, surely both you, tomic, and you, Hooker, understand you serve the membership first. If any of the membership feel this is the forum in which they decide to discuss or diseminate information, that is outside of the province of the CTA board to regulate. Do a great job and you'll have no worries about what is said.

"Paranoia will destroy ya"
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by tomic »

Hans2. I can see your searching for the next conspiracy theory or the underbelly of CTA. Sorry to inform you there is none, but you are welcome to attend any meetings and share with us. Please bring a dish, it's usually a potluck.
I am simply asking that the board be aware that the minutes are being posted on the site. Full disclosure to all members of the board and to the members of CTA that this is happening, just so we are informed. As a board member I was suprises to see these post and unaware that this was happening.
The board is made up of a group of poeple. So when one person makes decisions for the group the process is flawed. It's a matter of respect for the process and the board.
I would encourage you to attend and bring up your concerns. Bring a dish, chicken wings are a favorite.
See you there.
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by Hans2 »

Truthfully, I'm not searching for anything - just responding to what has historically been a big red flag of less-than-honest dealings. If there is nothing to hide, there shouldn't be a worry about posting public info on this board. I don't see anybody here making decisions for the group, just posting decisions the group has made. See, I'm here to learn as much as I can about the fishery, the markets, the lifestyle, the history, the future, the politics, etc. When there is an attempt to limit the information flow for whatever reason, it starts looking to us outsiders like some suspicious goings-on. Although admittedly I'm primarily a lurker, I consider myself a member of this site as a donor, and feel as though these requests to "approve comments prior to posting" affect the total value of the site for myself and the many other lurkers on the board. If there is a good reason to not post minutes of meetings (ie., the gillnetters/seiners/charters will use the info agianst us in future negotiations), then I get that - but it should probably be pretty specifically noted that it is a closed-door meeting, yes?
I do appreciate the offer to attend a meeting, and I fully intend to when I get to that stage in my transition from wanna-be to actually fishing for a living. And you can count on me for the wings! But until then, due to my current location (Puget Sound) and occupation (desk jockey), I'll just have to rely on the open and free information sharing this great site and others like it have offered.

Best regards,
Hans2
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by kalitan97828 »

Time to reup on your dues fellows. Your $50 goes a long way to create new fishing opportunites for those trollers who target chums. Recently we have had a number of representatives at DIPAC, NSRAA and SERAA board meetings. It looks good for the upcomming season both in the number of fish and in the price. Dues can be sent to Chum Trollers Association % Carl Peterson Box 593 Sitka,Ak 99835
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Re: Chum Trollers Association News

Post by kalitan97828 »

At the last chum trollers association meeting the following guidlines for handling chums was adopted. Last season in Icy Straits a problem developed with a lot of pinks being good only for cat food. With the price of pinks approaching 50 cents per pound we need to produce a very good quality product as pinks can become an important part of our income.

Below is an abbreviated best practices protocol for handling the pinks caught
incidental to your chum. For more in-depth information, please contact a Chum
Trollers Association Board member below. They will be monitoring VHS channels 16
and 7.

Run gear regularly. Dead pinks begin to belly-burn immediately.

Don't allow pinks to accumulate on deck! Slush immediately. They have
already started to deteriorate.

Gently bring your fish on board. Slamming your fish on deck produces
significant bruising and an inferior product.

Immediately stab your fish in the gills with your gaff /knife as it comes aboard.

Rinse blood off your fish after running your side and immediately slip all bled pinks into your slush tanks.

If the processor is utilizing eggs, water temperature should be 34 degrees. If not, colder temperatures are appropriate.

Thoroughly rinse landing checker area with good water pressure before running your lines again. Without rinsing, slime and blood build up quickly
and will contaminate the next batch of fish.

Remember, Pinks don't just pay for your fuel. They help keep the fishery viable!

Linda Danner f/v Amberjack Ryan Wilson f/v Rochelle
Eric Jordan f/v I Gotta Carl Peterson f/v Last Dance
Jim Moore. f/v Aljack Matt Stomer, f/v Acumen


IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO JOIN THE CHUM TROLLERS ASSOC.
P.O. BOX 593 SITKA, AK 99835el
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