Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association
With headquarters in Sitka, Alaska, NSRAA conducts salmon enhancement projects throughout northern southeast Alaska - from Petersburg to Haines.
NSRAA has been serving the southeast Alaskan fishing community since 1978.
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2009 Fishing Season is Underway
June 23, 2009
Chum fishing has begun. Hidden Falls opened for the first time on Sunday, June 21. About 50 seiners participated, landing 83,000 chum and 2,400 kings. A few thousand chum have been caught during the first three weeks of June at Deep Inlet, along with 3,300 kings. Early chum at both sites have been smaller than normal for early fish, with an average weight just under 8 pounds.
Track the chum fisheries with our In-season Chum Update 2009 report.
The Spring Troll Fisheries remain slower than in the past few years, with total harvest numbers running about 72% of the 2008 harvest and 55% of the 2007 harvest through stat week 25 (week ending June 20). Medvejie's contribution of almost 3,700 kings accounts for almost 16% of the 23,400 catch through week 25. Hidden Falls contribution is at about 630 kings, about 2.5% of the total spring catch.
The 2008-09 Winter Troll Fishery ended on April 30, with a total harvest of 24,889 Chinook. The harvest was up a few thousand fish from the 21,664 caught a year ago, but well below the five-year average of 44,156. About 11 percent of the catch were of Alaska Hatchery origin, slight ly above the five-year average of 10.8 percent. Typically there are not a lot of NSRAA Chinook caught in the winter fishery; NSRAA's contribution this season was 260 fish from Medvejie and 234 from Hidden Falls, for a total of 494 - accounting for about 2 percent of the total catch.
2008 - A Record Year - $19.7 M Ex-vessel Value
The 2008 NSRAA contribution to the commercial fleet was 19.7 million dollars in ex-vessel value, a record high number. That is 484 percent higher than the value in 2007, and 230 percent higher than the five-year average.
NSRAA contributed 2.71 million fish to the commercial fleet, which is 110 percent of the five-year average. 74 percent of NSRAA’s returning fish were caught by the fleet; 21 percent went for NSRAA’s cost recovery. The remainder includes sport catch and broodstock.
“There were high prices for all species. So although there were only slightly above average returns, the near-record prices resulted in an extremely high paycheck to the fleet,” said Chip Blair, NSRAA data analyst and cost recovery manager.
Fishermen benefited from improved chum returns in 2008 to all NSRAA sites, which was especially important to the seine fleet in a year of poor pink returns.
“We also saw a strong Chinook return to Medvejie and a strong coho return to Hidden Falls,” Blair said. “And, fish quality was very high for all species. They returned to the terminal area as brighter fish than usual, probably because of the colder water temperatures.”
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