Have We Turned a Corner on Chinook Salmon: Yukon Escapement Up; Harvests Statewide Above Average  For the third year in a row, Chinook escapement into Canada has met US treaty obligations, and the 73,000 chinook that have now passed the Eagle Counting Station represent the best return in a decade. The improvements come as Alaska has taken a number of very strict conservation actions. This very conservative management has helped the commercial chinook harvest state wide reach levels well above the five year average for the past two years writes John Sackton. An upcoming court hearing at the Alaskan Supreme Court in late August will address an initiative to ban salmon setnet fishing in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Last month the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance submitted 43,000 signatures to the Alaska Division of Elections to pass a ban on using setnets in the state's urban waters. According to those operating in Kenai’s commercial setnet salmon industry, if approved by voters in 2016, the initiative could put an end to their fishery altogether. In other news Tropical Aquaculture’s Ocean Farm operation in Ecuador has reported a successful first cobia stocking and expects to sell the fish to the US market by the fall. "It is projected that the fast growth rate of the cobia will enable Ocean Farm to harvest the first fish by mid-October and begin exports of fresh cobia fillets to the U.S. market by end of October," Tropical said. Finally, the Boston Fisheries Foundation named Dr. Brian J. Rothschild as its 2015 inductee into the Boston Seafood Hall of Fame during the fourth annual Boston Seafood Festival held on the city’s Fish Pier this past Sunday. “Brian’s global reach and local, grass roots efforts have help revolutionize our understanding of marine science and fisheries management,” said Richard Stavis, CEO of Stavis of Seafoods. “ He is not only a leading scientist and author but a teacher and activist who is focused on bettering the future of our oceans and environment.”