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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 […]
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August 25th-Deep Inlet to reopen Tuesday August 26th - Cost recovery has been completed for Deep Inlet. The Deep Inlet THA will reopen starting Tuesday with the following rotation for this week(stat wk 35)-Tuesday-Troll, Wednesday-seine, Thur/Fri-gillnet, Saturday seine. Next week the Deep Inlet rotation will revert to the regular schedule of Sunday-seine, Mon-Wed-gillnet, Thur/Fri-seine and Saturday-troll. The ADFG announcement should be out shortly.
August 22-Deep Inlet Cost Recovery Progress Update - Based upon Friday morning Deep Inlet cost recovery progress, a Deep Inlet reopening announcement will not be issued at this time. At current harvest rates it is unlikely our cost recovery goal will be met by end of day Saturday. The next potential reopening announcement has been pushed back to Monday, August 25th and will […]
Return Update-August 19th - Deep Inlet Last week a total of 276,000 chum salmon returned to Deep Inlet. The majority of the harvest, 156,000, occurred in the pink salmon seine fishery in Eastern Channel. Troll harvest in Sitka Sounds also increased last week with approximately 60,000 chum harvested by 67 troll permit holders. An additional 35,000 chum were harvested […]Hidden Falls Down, Deep Inlet Up
Hidden Falls chum continue to show nearly 90% five year olds in a weaker than expected return, at least so far . That translates to less than 20,000 four year old chum caught. Without a better showing of fours in the next opening, meeting the broodstock goal of 170,000 may be difficult. Therefore, the Sunday July 6 opening hangs in the balance. DIPAC is seeing similar high numbers with some 80% of the return five year olds. However, the DIPAC chum return is 3 to 4 times as large, and therefore broodstock is less of a concern.
Deep Inlet by contrast is performing much better. The total return to date is 140,000 with 5 more fishing days to go this week, which is already double the twenty year average. Deep Inlet continues to have higher than normal fives 70% to 80% but there are reasonable numbers of fours and like DIPAC a larger return overall.
Hidden Falls & Deep Inlet Chum Return Out of the Blocks
It is too early to predict what will happen with the chum return at either Hidden Falls or Deep Inlet. There have been years at Hidden Falls when there were only 8,000 fish caught by the week ending June 28 which ended up with total returns for those years at 2.7 m (’99) and 3.1 million (’00) chum salmon. There have also been years when catches have been in excess of 350,000 by June 28 and the run ended up at 1.3 million (2013). Total catch to date at Hidden Falls is 43,000 chum with one opening to go for the week. Therefore, it is likely the week will end behind the twenty year average of 150,000.
Deep Inlet is starting off strong with the total chum harvest at 65,000 with several gillnet and seine openings to go before the week closes out. This compares to the twenty year average of 27,000 through statistical week 26. Both the historical average and this year’s catch to date are far behind the 2013 cumulative catch of 192,000 (the largest cumulative catch by week 26 on record, although not the highest total return by a long measure). Chum size is large at both Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet, about 10 lbs and 9 lbs respectively. Scales have not been read yet but these early fish most likely have a high proportion of 5 year olds.
Given the poor performance of two of the three chum runs in PWS and slow start at Kendrick, I am nervous about what the next week will bring. The anxiety is right at historic average, which is a poor indicator of anything.
Hidden Falls Chum Schedule Update
Hidden Falls opens for the season on Sunday, June 15, 2014, NOT June 22 as previously reported on our website. Seiners please take note of this and pass the word. The 2014 assessment rate has been set at 20%. This is a preliminary figure and should be finalized by late May. More details can be found here: Hidden Falls 2014 Schedule & Tax Assessment Area Map.
Deep Inlet Schedule Set for 2014
The Deep Inlet 2014 schedule was finalized at the spring Board of Directors Meeting. Fishing begins on June 1. Once again this year we will be conducting no cost recovery harvest in the THA – thanks to DIPAC’s financial contribution. Schedules are below, and can also be found on our Home page and FrontPage.
2014 Deep Inlet schedule – Calendar and additional information
2014 Deep Inlet schedule – Single page calendar only – for printing
2014 ADF&G News Release – Deep Inlet – Official Schedule
Petersburg Meeting – NSRAA Board of Directors
NSRAA’s Spring 2014 Board of Directors Meeting will be held in Petersburg this year!
The meeting will be held March 4-5, 2014 in the Lutheran Church, beginning at 9 a.m. each day.
Topics will include planning for the 2014 fishing season, FY15 budget, chum expansion plans, Board of Fish Proposals, project reviews and more. See the agenda for more details.
Proceedings are open to the public. Please come join us and meet NSRAA’s board members and staff.
Poster: click to enlarge:
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