Tag Archives: Sitka Sound
Herring fishery to go on two-hour notice Thursday
The Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery will go on two-hour notice on Thursday morning (3-23-23). That means at any time after that, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game can announce a fishery opening with two hours warning. Last year, the guideline harvest level for the fishery was 45,000 tons, but fishermen only caught around 25,000. That was still the highest harvest on record. The guideline harvest level for this year’s fishery is set at 30,000 tons. >click to read< 13:58
Record commercial herring harvest wraps up in Sitka Sound
The commercial herring fishery in Sitka Sound wrapped up Sunday, April 10, with its largest harvest on record. The sac roe fishery had daily openings last week, with the last one on Sunday. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates the catch totaled over 26,350 tons, more than half of this year’s guideline harvest level of 45,164 tons. That beats the previous record for the fishery from 2011, when the fleet caught 19,419 tons. Fishing started on March 26. >click to read< 11:37
Sac roe herring fishery opens as first spawn is seen in Sitka Sound
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery opened on Saturday, March 26. Seiners landed an estimated 450 tons of herring in 75 minutes of fishing, in beautiful weather along the eastern shoreline of Kruzof Island. The fishery moved into Hayward Strait on Sunday and was open for eight hours, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. As of press time, the total catch for the day has not been published. Matt Kinney is one of 47 permit holders in the fishery. “We have such a large GHL that we’ll never even come close to scratching the surface of actually processing what we’re allowed to catch,” Kinney said. >click to read< 13:57
Changes to Sitka commercial herring fishery don’t get board support
Several proposals to make changes to the commercial sac roe herring fishery in Sitka Sound failed to win support from Alaska’s Board of Fisheries over the weekend. Two of those would have made a permanent move away from a competitive fishery. Another would have allowed permit holders to opt for an alternative way to harvest herring eggs for market. Two proposals sought to end the competitive purse seine fishery in Sitka Sound for sac roe and replace it with an equal share fishery. >click to read< 10:51
Troll catch for chum salmon in Sitka Sound hits new record
The troll fishery for chum salmon in Sitka Sound has gone from looking pretty dismal to record-setting, almost overnight. A surge of hatchery-produced, fall chum has been pushing catch rates for trollers into numbers normally seen by the net fisheries. The troll catch for chum hit a new record last Friday, with almost half a million fish, about 50,000 more than the old record set in 2013. And the fishing isn’t over yet. Even more extraordinary is the turnaround in chum this year, from zero to hero. June and July were bad, and then August came. >click to read< 08:28
Commercial herring fishery winding down
The Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery is winding down, and state biologists expect to close the fishery soon. In an interview on Thursday (4-8-21), Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis said the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is shifting out of “active management” mode. “We’re still going out there. We’re flying, we’re monitoring the commercial fishery. We’re not leaving it alone to do its thing,” he said. “So we’re definitely on top of this, but it’s for sure winding down. I’d expect it to go another day or two tops.” >click to read< 08:46
Three crew members safe after troller Leona sinks during opener
Three people were rescued when their fishing boat took on water and and sank in Sitka Sound Monday night (7-2-18). The 33-foot troller Leona, owned by Hank Moore, called about 11 p.m. saying it was in trouble near Povorotni Point about 7 miles south of Sitka. A Coast Guard helicopter, a Sitka Fire Department rescue boat, and another fishing vessel, Pacific Pearl, responded to the scene. The helicopter dropped a pump, but after some difficulty starting it, the crew reported that the pump was not controlling the flooding. >click to read<22:31
Following harvest shortfall, Sitka contemplates a herring moratorium
The Sitka Assembly has formed a committee to draft a resolution which may call for a moratorium on herring fishing in Sitka Sound. The move comes after the failure of this spring’s commercial sac roe fishery, which fell over 8,000 tons short of the expected harvest level. The idea of a commercial fishing moratorium has been around for a long time, backed primarily by the Sitka Tribe and other subsistence users concerned over declines in the local harvest of herring eggs. >click to read<16:35
Commercial fleet highlights economic impact of Sitka Sound herring catch
Despite three days of impassioned testimony before the Board of Fisheries in January, not much has changed for the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery, which will ramp up in about a month. Local subsistence harvesters won an increase in the size of their exclusive use area, but failed to persuade the board to reduce the commercial catch. Fishermen and processors from Petersburg joined with other commercial interests to remind the board of the economic importance of the annual springtime export. >click to read< 14:53
Industry tops subsistence on Board of Fisheries herring votes
In a morning of controversial deliberations at the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting Tuesday, subsistence users weren’t successful in herring conservation measures to cut commercial fishing harvests. But a favored backup proposal, No. 106, did pass by a 6-1 vote: 4 square miles in Sitka Sound were added to a 10-square mile protected area reserved for subsistence harvest and barred from commercial fishing. >click here to read< 15:18
Southeast Alaska winter troll season slow
Commercial troll fishing for king salmon in Southeast Alaska this winter is not like it has been the last few years. The troll fleet catch and the number of boats out fishing are both well down from last year and also below the five and ten-year averages. By late January, the catch had neared 8,000 Chinook, with more than half of those kings landed in the waters around Sitka Sound. Eight thousand is just one quarter of what the catch was at this time last year.“I would say that the past three years have been phenomenal for the troll fishery so seeing a decrease now doesn’t necessarily mean that the fishery’s terrible, it just means that we’re going back to lower averages,” said Rhea Ehresmann is assistant troll management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Read the story here 19:07
Fisherman arrested after reportedly trying to ram fishing vessels with his fishing vessel near Sitka
A Klawock man faces a slew of charges, including boating under the influence, after Alaska State Troopers say he ran his fishing vessel over other vessels’ deployed gear near Sitka on Saturday. Troopers said in a Sunday dispatch that 33-year-old Timothy D. Demmert was taken into custody after several calls shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday, reporting “a fishing vessel attempting to ram other vessels” during the Sitka Sound winter salmon troll fishery near Cape Edgecumbe. Read the rest here 18:45
Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery could open today – fishery on a two-hour notice
That means seiners could have their nets in the water as soon as Thursday morning, if the department’s test samples find a high enough percentage of mature roe, or eggs, in the fish. ktuu Read more here Seiners worried by weak herring market kcaw Listen, and Read more here 10:41
