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Sept 4th- Deep Inlet Update - We continue to assess chum recruitment into Bear Cove and are getting closer to our fall chum brood stock goal. Recruitment is steady but has slowed with the recent shift back to sunny weather. NSRAA will attempt to collect chum brood from the head of Deep Inlet this weekend in order to assure we have […]
August 27th-Deep Inlet Closure - The Deep Inlet THA will close to common property fishing on August 31st due to fall chum brood shortages at Medvejie Hatchery. Currently there is an estimated 40,000 chum brood in Bear Cove. To complete fall chum egg takes an additional 50,000 brood are needed. There has not been a meaningful increase in chum brood […]
August 21st-Return Update - Fall chum returns to Sitka Sound and the Deep Inlet THA have remained strong since reopening the THA this past Saturday. In the past two weeks over a million fall chum have been harvested between the Sitka Sound common property troll/seine fisheries and the Deep Inlet openings. This week the total Deep Inlet chum return […]
August 13 – Deep Inlet Re-Opening Announcement - Deep Inlet has met the Cost Recovery goal this season. Deep Inlet will reopen Saturday, August 15th, with Troll and will continue with the standard rotation. An ADFG announcement will be posted shortly.
August 11-Deep Inlet Cost Recovery Progress - Cost recovery in Deep Inlet on Saturday and Sunday made significant progress on cost recovery and currently 81% of the goal has been harvested. Cost recovery will resume Wednesday, August 12th. Due to the increase in cost recovery harvest it is likely that our goal will be achieved over the next two days. A reopening […]August 6-Deep Inlet Cost Recovery Update
Cost recovery in Deep Inlet has continued to progress and between Monday and Wednesday this week 10% of the goal was achieved and is currently at 60% of total. Cost recovery will resume Saturday August 8th. Although cost recovery progress appears to be increasing a reopening next week (stat wk 33) is unlikely. Recent harvest in the Sitka Sound area indicates a continued build of the fall summer chum return moving into the sound with trollers harvesting 23,000 last week and improved success this week with a harvest already over 10,000. Troll harvest samples this week indicate 100% of the sound chum harvest is the fall return with an 8.6lb average and a 68% male sex ratio. The age component breakdown is 12% age-3, 80% age-4 and 8% age-5. It is anticipated the cost recovery harvest rates will continue to increase as the chum begin to move into the Deep Inlet THA. Once cost recovery is complete a reopening announcement will be made with a minimum of 48 hour notice.
July 31-Deep Inlet Cost Recovery Update
Cost recovery at Deep Inlet this past week has continued to progress at a slow steady pace. As of today we are 50% complete and a Deep Inlet reopening next week (Stat Wk 32) will not occur. There are strong indications that the fall chum run is entering the sound but we have not seen a large harvestable volume entering the Deep Inlet THA. Thursday’s July 30th Sitka Sound common property seine opening harvested approximately 90,000 chum salmon. Otolith sample information this week indicates over 90% of chum harvested Thursday were NSRAA production, with the fall chum return making up 63% of total. This is the first sample of the season showing more than 50% of the chum harvest being the fall run component. Reminder, the Deep Inlet cost recovery progress bar on the NSRAA home page is updated daily when cost recovery occurs.
July 23-Return Update
Since closing for cost recovery Deep Inlet summer chum returns have continued at a steady yet slow pace and the summer run will likely come in at 200,000 adults, the lower range of our pre-season forecast. Through July 23rd we have harvested 40% of our cost recovery goal and have seen a small uptick in harvest volume the last few days. There are early indications that the fall chum returns are beginning to enter the Deep Inlet area. We were able to sample the chum bycatch in the Redoubt Bay common property seine harvest on July 20th. Of the marked hatchery fish 63% were summer chum, with the fall run chum making up the remainder. Based upon current progress, and our preseason forecast for the fall chum return to Deep Inlet, it is anticipated that our cost recovery goal will be met in stat week 32. We will continue to update our cost recovery progress bar on our home page daily.
Similar to Deep Inlet, summer chum returns to east Baranof locations have remained relatively slow yet steady. Chum harvest in Thomas Bay has just passed the 50,000 fish mark for the year and our last sample on July 19th indicated a 39% male ratio and a 6.6lb avg weight. We are currently tracking with our preseason forecast of 115,000 total return and historically harvest peaks this week (Stat wk 30). Chum cost recovery has continued at SE Cove and we will achieve our preseason harvest goal. Returns to SE Cove appear to be winding down and the overall return will likely be slightly below our forecast of 105,000.
Hidden Falls remains closed to common property harvest for chum brood stock collection. Egg takes are underway and we are approximately one-third of the way through our goal of 180 million eggs. Based upon current brood estimates in Kasnyku Bay an additional 50,000 chum are needed to complete egg takes and future openings this season are unlikely. Interestingly for the Hidden Falls chum return this year the peak harvest occurred the first week and there has been a slow weekly return decline since then, with no typical mid-return peak. Currently Hidden Falls is tracking just below our total return estimate of 409,000 adults.
Return Update-July 8th
NSRAA chum returns last week (stat week 27) seemed to flatline. There was minimal cost recovery completed in Deep Inlet and a moderate amount in SE Cove. The Hidden Falls chum weekly return last week took a slight dip to 50,000 from the previous stat week 26 return of 62,000. So far this week there seems to be an uptick in chum returns at Hidden Falls and SE Cove. Typically, stat week 28 and 29 are the peak weeks for summer chum stock returns.
Hidden Falls now has a cumulative chum return of 153,000 and is tracking slightly ahead of our preseason forecast of 409,000. This past Sunday, July 5th, Hidden Falls had the largest daily harvest of the season at 41,000 chum, 56% male ratio and will likely peak over the next week. Currently we estimate there are 30-40,000 chum brood stock inside Kasnyku Bay, our total brood stock need this year is 200,000. There have been additional area restrictions for Thursdays seine opening and area restrictions will remain in place until more brood stock has been secured. The closed area may expand or contract depending on how the return shapes up over the next two weeks.
Test fishing at Hawk Inlet, Point Gardner and Kingsmill are all tracking well below the recent 10-year average for chum harvest. We have found very few Hidden Falls or other NSRAA otolith marks in the samples and the majority are DIPAC bound chum salmon. The test fishing sample data can be found on our website at: NSRAA 2026 Test Fishing Data. Particularly concerning for the seine fleet is the near total absence of pink salmon in the test fisheries with total number of pinks to date one or less per set.
Cost Recovery at SE Cove began on June 29th with approximately 20,000 chum harvested. This week at SE Cove we have harvested over 20,000 chum and overall, the return is trending slightly above the 105,000 forecast. Deep Inlet cost recovery is ongoing with a total harvest in stat week 27 of 17,000 chum. This week we have harvested approximately 10,000 chum and will likely harvest a similar amount as we did last week. Reminder, Deep Inlet will remain closed to common property harvest until cost recovery is complete.
The Spring Troll fisheries completed for the season at the end of June and the NSRAA share was our largest contribution since 2015 of just over 4,000 chinook. Initial estimates have NSRAA chinook making up 65% of the Alaska Hatchery component in the Spring Troll fisheries. Currently there are reports of a very slow summer troll chinook opening and to date minimal chum salmon targeting or interception in the Summer Troll opening.
Return Update-June 25th
NSRAA chinook returns have been picking up the past several weeks with a total estimated harvest in Stat Week 25 of 1,341 adults. The spring chinook fisheries in the Sitka area have harvested over 2,000 Medvejie chinook making up 47% of the Sitka Sound area commercial troll harvest. Currently the return is looking like it will come in over our our pre-season forecast of 13,900 and is pointing toward a 20,000 total chinook return. This year a larger portion of the return are 3 ocean chinook, more than we have seen in the past 3 years with those making up over 60% of the return to date.
Since the beginning of June the Deep Inlet chum fisheries have harvested a little over 18,000 fish through stat week 26. The early summer run chum is tracking just below our forecast for this date. The total early summer chum run forecast is 376,000. We have seen an over 9lb average weight since the start of the fisheries with only our most recent seine sample on the 21st coming in below 9lbs. Interestingly we are seeing very large 4-year-old chum compared to the 5-year-olds with some samples having larger 4s than 5s. Five year olds have made up approximately 70% of the harvest to date with the remainder as 4-year-olds and most recent sample was 63% male. Reminder Deep Inlet will close to common property fishing at the end of the troll day this Saturday (June 27th) to begin cost recovery operations, which will begin on Monday June 29th. Deep Inlet will remain closed until our cost recovery goal is met.
Hidden Falls had its first opening this past Sunday with a harvest of 32,000 chum. This first opening was an encouraging harvest as we have a relatively small chum return forecast of 409,000. Similar to Deep Inlet we are seeing large fish at Hidden Falls, while not over 9lb like Deep Inlet, we did see a first opening average size of 8.7lbs. Surprisingly this large size was driven by the 4-year-old component coming in larger than the 5-year-olds. What is most confusing is that last year the 3-year-olds were some of if not the smallest on record for the site and this year based upon our first sample, the 4-year-old component from the same brood year is the largest 4-year-olds ever for Hidden Falls. First sample had a 60% 5-year-old component with the remaining 40% age four and 71% male. It will be interesting to see how this return progresses over the next few weeks.
The Point Agusta common property harvest from this past Sunday was sampled and no Hidden Falls otoliths were detected. The harvest was relatively small for the opening but was primarily DIPAC chum with a few Thomas Bay and SE Cove mixed in. NSRAA will be sampling the Friday Hawk Inlet and Saturday Point Gardner test fisheries and that information will be available early next week.
Cost Recovery at SE Cove will begin on June 29th. Our initial plan was to begin harvest on July 1st, but there are reports of chum beginning to build in the Special Harvest Area. A total chum return to SE Cove of 105,000 was forecast.
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