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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 […]
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 […]
Gulf of Alaska Chinook Salmon do not warrant listing under Endangered Species Act - NOAA has concluded its 12-month scientific review to not list Chinook salmon in the Gulf of Alaska as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Action (ESA). PRESS RELEASE NMFS ESA Ruling
NSRAA Salmon Bake & Hatchery Tour - NSRAA will be offering hatchery tours and a BBQ lunch at Medvejie Hatchery on Saturday, June 27th. Lunch will consist of barbecued King Salmon, baked potato, green salad, rolls, watermelon and non-alcoholic drinks. Tickets are $15.00 per person- CASH ONLY and can be purchased during office hours at NSRAA- 1308 Sawmill Creek Road. (8-5 Mon-Fri) […]
Support Alaska Hatcheries at Board of Fisheries - Alaska Board of Fisheries Proposals. Your voice is needed. The board of fisheries will take up three hatchery proposals at the statewide meeting. Proposals 170, 171, and 172 seek to impose broad, preemptive reductions or moratoria on Alaska’s private nonprofit (PNP) salmon hatchery program without demonstrating a causal link between hatchery production and the specific […]Crawfish & Deep Inlet Update – August 21 2019
The summer run chum at Deep Inlet came in well below forecast (30%) but close to the 25 year historical average of 320,000 chum. The fall run (Medvejie stock) appears to be doing comparatively better, although a later run timing than normal, with 203,000 chum harvested last week (Week 33). The gillnet catch has improved considerably this week and there are signs of chum throughout Eastern Channel, Silver Bay, and the Eckholm Island group. Today was the first day we’ve seen large schools along Camp Coogan to Sugarloaf making their way to Medvejie Hatchery. Based on the Deep Inlet fall run harvest of 370,000 chum so far, the run should go over a million fish.
Crawfish Inlet has mostly been a troll show with 125,000 chum harvested, but that is likely to change dramatically with the Sunday seine opening. Like 2018, most of the chum have entered the area via West Crawfish Inlet and have remained outside of Crawfish Inlet THA, although there have been small seine harvests to date. A strong weather front with high winds and rain on Thursday night should send a large biomass of chum into Crawfish Inlet by Friday and Saturday. In fact, chum are beginning to move down Cedar Pass and turning east as of this morning. Based on the troll catch, pilot observations, sex ratio, and run timing the Crawfish run will likely surpass 1.3 million fish. The seine harvest on Sunday will tell us a lot about run strength. The full seine THA will open on Sunday in anticipation of large push of fish and over a hundred seiners. After the fish are cleaned up at the head of the inlet, I would like to know what the boats are catching per hour at the two hook offs at the mouth of Crawfish Inlet. This information will be important to know when deciding on a mid week opening.
Last night and this morning we harvested about 400,000 pounds of chum (50,000 fish) at the head inlet of West Crawfish, by request of the department. Most of the remaining fish in the inlet and in Shamrock Bay will move to Crawfish once the storm winds and rain arrive.
July 24 2019 Update Chum Projects
The summer run chum programs are beginning to wind down, with terminal areas showing predominantly females now.
Hidden Falls – We are in broodstock collection mode now at Hidden Falls with an eye for an opening once we have secured the majority of the 200,000 chum we need for broodstock. Aerial reports and hatchery operations suggest there are sufficient chum in the SHA for brood but not enough we can risk an opening at this time. Hidden Falls hatchery has collected 30 million of the 190 million eggs needed but chum are not committing to Kasnyku Bay. Rather they are moving in and out and sometimes disappearing for a day. Staff is actively counting chum into the inner bay behind the barrier, but we currently have only 28,000 (an additional 30,000 have been killed for eggs/milt). Just 2,800 fish moved past the barrier net July 23. If the fish begin to push harder there could be a chance for an August 1 opening, although each day that the chum won’t commit to the inner bay that date moves later in the calendar. Reports of 250,000 to 300,000 have been reported in the SHA from Takatz to South Point.
Deep Inlet – The summer run harvest is nearly 230,000 which is inline with the historical average but behind the 2019 forecast. It appears the summer run is diminishing and we are seeing the beginning of the fall stock (Medvejie). In a troll sample from July 15 chum harvested outside Sitka Sound showed 56% Medvejie stock with Crawfish origin being the largest proportion, Deep Inlet and Bear Cove, Medvejie were also present in good proportions. Deep Inlet chum have been harvested in the Redoubt Lake seine area particularly along the outer line near Kanga Bay. One promising sign is that small schools of chum have been reported at West Crawfish Inlet this week. In 2018, troll effort began in Week 31 (next week) in West Crawfish. Currently, there is no information to suggest whether the fall run will share the same fate as the summer run chum. It will take a couple of weeks of harvest data to get our first picture of abundance or lack thereof.
Southeast Cove – SE Cove is on track for 600,000 to 650,000 adult return or slightly less than half of the forecast, although given chum returns in the remainder of SE Alaska this is one of the better returns. To date Trident has harvested about 4 million pounds of chum at the SE Cove SHA. It appears the run still has legs as we have harvested over a million pounds in less than three full days. We expect this run to continue until August 7.
NSRAA Coho Returns – Coho are showing up in the troll catch in modest numbers from all projects, with the Medvejie and Sawmill Creek coho showing the highest marine survival.
Fishery Update July 9, 2019
Medvejie Chinook – the initial tags show that Medvejie chinook were well represented in the summer troll fishery. We have seen good catches in the Deep Inlet seine/gillnet fisheries (2,800) and decent numbers back to the hatchery (6,000).
NSRAA Chum/SE Chum – What we know – the run is late; late & small or late & moderate? It will take another week to know the answer. The chum harvested at SE Cove and Deep Inlet are bright, 85% good meat color, robust, 65 to 70% male, and >8 pound average. These parameters all suggest early in the run curve. The chum returns in SE Alaska are all behind the historical run curve and there is some reasoning or wishful thinking that a moderate run could still materialize.
In addition to sample parameters, the roe percentage is at the low end of the scale – 3%. At the end of the run the roe percent is usually 8 or 9%. During the summer Chinook troll fishery, the Chinook were far off shore in 70 fathoms of water, an environment where there was abundant feed. Trollers caught fair numbers of chum while king fishing at the 70 fathom mark. Other indicators that some chum are still on the march – July 7th Pt. Augusta seine opening had decent numbers of chum, fishermen are reporting chum at the Fairweather grounds and Icy Strait, and best of all for the SE Cove SHA is that the Kings Mill test fishery maxed-out in 6 sets and 98% were chum salmon. The return at SE Cove is roughly 6 times the volume of 2018 at this date. This may be the brightest spot for chum in southeast Alaska.
Hidden Falls Chum – Aerial observations put the number of chum within the THA at >100,000 fish. Broodstock requirement is 200,000 chum which is used to fulfill program objectives at SE Cove, Gunnuk Creek, Thomas Bay, Deep Inlet, and Hidden Falls/Takatz. In order to get more information on sex ratio, stock performance, abundance by area, and age structure NSRAA has contracted with North Pacific Seafoods to troll harvest one or two thousand chum in the HF THA on July 11-13. Historically, broodstock fish begin pushing the barrier net and the inner bay about mid-July. With some good fortune we could have a fair portion of our broodstock secure by July 20 wdhich would allow NSRAA to open a portion of the THA.
Deep Inlet Chum – The summer run chum are performing quite poorly at Deep Inlet. There was a small bump in the catch on July 9 and a few hundred chum caught in the Redoubt seine opening on July 7th.
Fishery Update June 28, 2019
Hidden Falls will not open Sunday June 30. Chum runs throughout SE Alaska are late or weak, or both and Hidden Falls is no exception. We have had 4 openings, two each week and the catch has been poor, about 10,500 total chum. The sex ratio is 69% male, 9.5 lb average weight, and 82% four year olds, all of which suggest we are early in the run but it doesn’t provide a guide to the magnitude of the run. Given the chum program needs 200,000 brood fish to perpetuate the on-site and off-site chum programs, the only prudent action is to cease fishing until we have high certainty of attaining that goal.
In 2018, I provided a 5th opening based on a stronger than expected return and relatively high male ratio, but that one opening was a mistake as it was instrumental in not having sufficient chum for broodstock. Last year was the first time the egg goal was not attained at Hidden Falls. The NSRAA board was informed that harvest management would necessarily need to be more conservative in 2019.
Deep Inlet is seeing even worse chum returns this year. Only chinook are performing well on the Sitka side of Baranof Island.
Next week is the make or break week for Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet. In ’98, ’99, & ’00 less than 10,000 chum had been harvested by the end of the current stat week. However, in week 27 the run took a dramatic turn each year and finished with 2.2M, 2.7M, and 3.1M respectively. Not expecting that to happen, but it is to say in short order things can change dramatically .
We expect to keep SE Cove open through Thursday July 4 for common property openings, at which time it will be closed for cost recovery.
Chum Return Update June 25, 2019
The summer run chum are off to a slow start from Ketchikan to Juneau to Sitka, although the Lynn Canal gillnet catch picked up on Monday after a slow start on Sunday. Seine and gillnet catches elsewhere were poor to non-existent on Sunday. DIPAC often has the earliest chums of the year in southeast so perhaps this is the beginning.
The runs at Southeast Cove and Hidden Falls will be evaluated for sex ratio and age on Friday, but in all likelihood both sites will be open on Sunday June 30. If the Hidden Falls run does not develop by next Sunday, it will need to be closed to protect broodstock. SE Cove on the other hand might remain open, and will be decided in consultation with Trident Seafoods who have the cost recovery contract for SE Cove SHA.
Some analysis and speculation: Prince William Sound is seeing good chum returns to all three of their sites. This is not usual as two of the release locations have under-performed for several years. Each of the PWS sites are ahead of their run curve, although fish are small (<6 lbs./average). Sometimes PWS is predictive of SE chum which are several weeks later in run timing, although 2019 doesn’t seem to be one of those years. So far in SE Alaska we are seeing normal size and healthy chum, just not many of them. Last week, the Homeshore troll fishery was the first indication of chum coming through the Icy Strait cooridor, although they didn’t show up in Lynn Canal until Monday.
Are the fish late, under forecast, or did they die at sea this past year? Given the new information in Lynn Canal, I’ll say late. If late, and DIPAC is any indication there should see a small uptick in harvest on Thursday at all the NSRAA sites.
Final thought: Some may have read that Dr. Dick Beamish, Department of Fisheries & Oceans Canada (DFO) organized an international effort this past winter to sample salmon in the vast areas of the North Pacific Ocean. Preliminary results were an abundance of skinny chum and sparse but robust sockeye in their sampling at multiple sample locations. Based on PWS chum return so far, it appears this Russian research cruise vessel got into the PWS chum at sea, but maybe not the SE chum. Much more information is pending as they conduct otolith and genetic analysis to determine origin of stocks.
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