Fishing Alaska transpot back to lower 48

Dry ice is available at a lot of groceries listed on this site as well as Canadian stores.
http://www.dryicedirectory.com/usa.htm
Also , it helps to get a vacuum bagger and vacuum pack your fish before freezing. Keeps longer and is a fast way to pack fish.

When I went to Kodiak in 2000, with 9 friends, we brought back 1400 lbs of frozen fillets, a mix of salmon and halibut. 2 boxes each of 70 lbs. that was back when the airlines let you check 3 bags per person. In 2008, mDW and I shipped a couple of hundred pounds of fish back from Valdez, two days limit each of salmon and one day limit of halibut and assorted bottom fish. Expensive, but worth it. This year, I plan to take one of my big "Yeti" coolers off my boat, and hopefully fill my freezer and that cooler for the trip home. I doubt you will have any problem with customs if the fish are processed.

We been bringing fish back from Alaska every year from 2001 until present. I mostly fish the Kenai area, both salmon and halibut. Normally you can have two times the daily limit in your possession until it's in a state of permanent preservation. Fish in a cooler on ice count as in possession. Frozen vacuumed pack fish in a cooler do not count but must remain frozen. I would not think once you get out of Alaska it would be a problem regulation wise. We used to bring out fish on dry ice from Anchorage to California in a cooler, and did it in six days and kept the fish frozen ok with only the dry ice I put with it in Alaska.

Two years ago the Alaska Fish and Game wanted to know how much fish I had in my freezer (freezer in pickup behind motor home) I said about a thousand pounds, he said ok. They were looking for much larger amounts being smuggled out of the Yukon River System. If you don't have a freezer handy there are plenty of packing houses in the Kenai and Homer area that can pack and freeze for you.

I have never had anyone in Canada ask about fish.

Good luck, catch lots
Larry

Verify that you can get dry ice through Alaska, Yukon, BC, and other points along your trip home. It is a looong way.

Thank you everyone for your input. We are avid fishers here in FL, and have read much about AK regulations for fishing, and understand they can change in a day. We are taking two big coolers, 150 qt and a 120 qt. We will be fishing for about 15 days with outfitters, targeting about 6 differenct species while there. We are just trying to get in as much fishing as possible while in AK and are staying the entire time on the Kenai. We have done the dry ice thing many times with game, once driving to FL from Newfoundland with moose in our coolers. We usually figure stoppes ahead for dry ice, I reserch availablity, it is so easy to use and keeps things frozen solid for days even in the southern heat. We will keep all of our documents, licenses and paperwork from the outfitters and processors and hopefully will not have any serious problems. Shipping this much fish is not an option, we will be fishing halibut several days.

Every year the State of Alaska has a auction of confiscated items. Fish and game violations are usually the main culprets in getting items conficated. The sale will normally include boats, cars, trucks, ATVs, airplanes and yes, motorhomes. However much fish you plan to take back, if it exceeds what the border agent considers reasonable, you may have problems. You don't want to appear to cross over the line between what a couple or family can eat in a year to what might be going home to be sold to help pay for the trip to Alaska. The sale would put a person into the category of commercial fishing without a license. A major violation in Alaska.

One of the better stories I ever heard was of a guy standing in a stream up by Eagle River, north of Anchorage toward Palmer, wearing a tux. Late in the evening, not in fishing season for that stream. So a state officer stops to question the man. A woman was setting in their car, behind the wheeel. The man explained he wasn't fishing, just practicing his casting. When asked to reel in his line. the Trooper found only a lead weight on the end. The man was obviously over the alcohol limit for driving, but for casting he was fine. The trooper got back in his cruiser and headed down the road leaving the formally dressed man to his casting. The woman in the car was apparently sober and doing the driving.

Frozen fish is normally thought to stay "good" for about a year, so more than a year's supply is probably going to raise eye brows at the border going back into the US. Also make sure you can prove the species of the fish you have with you. You may not have a question raised about your load of fish, but the penalities for messing up are very harsh.

Plus there should be a law against private pilots painting their planes in the color scheme of the Alaska Fish and Game planes. LOL :)

I have heard it said, that on a busy a day of combat fishing at the Russian River, if all the Alaska F&G officers would leave, about a third of the crowd would be gone. LOL What a great job, getting paid while fishing on the Russian.

As Joe stated, Alaska has incredibly complicated regulations AND an increasingly well-funded and active enforcement apparatus (Alaska Wildlife Troopers).

It would be prudent to know the regulations thoroughly.

One of the advantages of flying a cobalt blue/juneau white airplane is that it when viewed ground-to-air, looks just like the troopers aircraft. Tends to scare the slob fishers and hunters away when I circle the ol cabin landing strip.

Possession limit include all fish that are not processed. They are normally around a two day limit.

Once the fish are processed (cleaned and frozen, canned, or cooked) they no longer counts towards your possession limit.

We have brought back fish in freezers with no problems. Once, while clearing customs at a small crossing east of Sweetgrass, I was talking with the senior agent about similiar military connections while the junior agent was asking questions. He asked about eggs and I replied that we had some fish eggs. He needed to see them. Took hin to the freezer in the TT and he kept looking, then asked where they were. I showed him a bag of fish eggs, and we all laughed about it.

I have thought about dry ice in the event that we ended up with a few fish that would not fit in the freezers, but I don't know about its availibilty in the Yukon and Northern BC.

Most states, including Alaska, have both a daily limit and an in possession limit of the different fish species. The in possession limit is going to be the max, this is per adult fishing license in most cases.

Get a copy of the Alaska fishing regulation, which you will need anyway and check the limits of fish you want to take home. Alaska has the most complicated fishing regulations I have ever run into in my fishing. When you change locations, the regs often change as well.

The rules and regs usually are different in some fisheries for residents and non-residents. Since the federal government is very involved in Alaska fishing, especially commercial fishing , and sports fishing as it relates, then the US Border agents can have a real interest in fish being transported out of Alaska.

They will pack & ship it for you,give them a call they sure can answer your questions.