Sea Grant at Pacific Marine Expo and redesigned FishBiz website

What do Alaska Sea Grant and the Space Needle have in common? Not much, really—but Alaska Sea Grant is headed to Seattle and will be at the Pacific Marine Expo!

Every year, Alaska Sea Grant participates in the Pacific Marine Expo (PME) in Seattle, Washington, the largest commercial marine trade show on the West Coast, serving commercial mariners from Alaska to California. This year, fisheries specialist Gabe Dunham, and marine advisory agents Sunny Rice from Petersburg and Tav Ammu from Bristol Bay, will represent Alaska Sea Grant to talk with booth visitors about Alaska Sea Grant’s work and resources supporting commercial fishermen and the industry.

In addition to talking with visitors at the Alaska Sea Grant booth #4321, the team will be there to showcase exciting projects going on in the program to help meet the needs of Alaska’s commercial fishermen.

Dunham and Rice will be available to talk about preliminary findings of an assessment of training needs for new entrants into Alaska’s commercial fisheries. The project was created in response to the Young Fishermen’s Development Act, which aims to support training, education, outreach, and technical assistance initiatives for new entrants to fishing. In advance of this funding, Alaska Sea Grant wants to better understand educational and training needs that could enhance or supplement existing offerings such as crew training, the Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit, and Alaska Sea Grant’s FishBiz website.

Speaking of which, the team will show off the newly redesigned FishBiz website. The site has been a go-to resource for both new and established commercial fishing business owners looking for tools and information on a wide range of topics, from choosing a fishery, to planning finances, to saving fuel and direct marketing. Besides sporting a new look, improvements to the site include the Fisheries Explorer map, an interactive map to help people find detailed information about Alaska’s fisheries quickly and easily.

If you’re planning to attend PME this week, we hope you find your way to our booth in the Alaska Pavillion, right across from the main stage.