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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 […]
Aug 30th Weekly Update
Cost recovery at Crawfish Inlet and Deep Inlet is currently ongoing. Based up progress this week at both Crawfish Inlet and post closure at Deep Inlet it is extremely unlikely there will be additional common property opportunity at Crawfish Inlet or Deep Inlet this season. Cost recovery progress is currently at 38% for Crawfish Inlet and 79% for Deep Inlet. We will continue to update our web page with daily cost recovery progress until completion.
Total return to date now approximately 6.1 million fish.
Aug 22nd-Deep Inlet THA Closure
The Deep Inlet THA will close to common property fishing beginning on Sunday August 25th to facilitate fall chum brood stock collection and completion of remaining cost recovery. Cost recovery efforts this morning resulted in a harvest of less than 100k lbs., clearly indicating there is insufficient numbers of fish in the the Deep Inlet THA and the Eastern Channel/Silver Bay SHA to make meaningful progress towards our remaining cost recovery goal and allow continued common property opportunity. Additionally, we are closely monitoring chum brood stock numbers at Bear Cove and require the recruitment of an additional 60k fish to meet our brood stock goal of 100k fall chum.
Deep Inlet will remain closed until cost recovery is complete and brood stock needs are secured. Deep Inlet cost recovery progress will be updated daily on our home page.
August 21st Weekly Return Update
Fall chum returns to Deep Inlet this week have been exceptionally strong and current harvest estimates for Stat WK 33 has total chum harvest of just over 1 million fish. This is a record weekly harvest of chum for Deep Inlet with the vast majority of harvest occurring with the seine fisheries in Deep Inlet and Sitka Sound of approximately 890k fish for the week. Troll effort has lessened in the past week for Sitka Sound but good numbers of chum are still being caught by those trollers still participating in the Sitka Sound chum fishery. Troll chum harvest this past week in Sitka Sound was over 100k and trollers have now harvested over 600k chum. With total chum return to Deep Inlet now sitting at approximately 3 million fish there is strong indication this will be a record total return to Deep Inlet. Previous record return year was 1999 when 3.6 million chum returned.
Despite record chum harvest occurring in the Deep Inlet THA and outer Sitka Sound area there has been minimal recruitment to the head of Deep Inlet for cost recovery and Bear Cove for brood stock. Our current estimate of brood at Bear Cove is 30k of the 100k total brood stock goal. This has been driven by greater than 90% interception by the combined gear harvest in the Deep Inlet THA and outer Sitka Sound area. Additionally, the lack of precipitation to move fish towards their release sites has hindered fish movement.
The Deep Inlet THA will be closed Thursday and Friday for cost recovery harvest and we will also begin harvest to acquire brood stock for Bear Cove Friday and Saturday. Harvest is expected to occur in the Silver Bay/Eastern channel SHA beginning as early as Thursday. Harvest will be targeted to minimize impacts to trollers in the area open to both cost recovery and troll in the Eastern Channel/Silver Bay SHA.
Deep Inlet openings next week are dependent on success of cost recovery and brood stock progress the next two days. Unfortunately, a decision to leave Deep Inlet open will have to be made after initial cost recovery/ brood harvest estimates are available mid-morning Friday. A decision will be made by noon Friday at the latest and will be posted here to our website.
Total chum return to date for all NSRAA projects is now approaching 6 million fish.
August 16th Weekly Return Update
Deep Inlet re-opened this week and it has been quite a week with fall chum salmon harvest approaching 700k combined total between the gear groups. With several days left to go in the week and an ongoing Sitka Sound seine pink opening, this weeks chum harvest is approaching record territory and will definitely end up somewhere in the top 3 for all time weekly total. There continues to be a strong chum troll harvest in Sitka Sound this week and will once again top 100k for the third week in a row with total chum troll harvest is approaching 600k for the season. Seine chum harvest this week for Deep Inlet/Sitka Sound is already over 500k and more will be harvested today in Deep Inlet/Sitka Sound and tomorrow in the Sitka Sound seine pink opening. Overall, quite a week for the Deep Inlet project.
Samples from recent Deep Inlet chum harvest indicates we are likely near or at the peak of the return with a 52% male sex ratio. Age of returning is also beginning to shift with more age 3 chum salmon showing up in the catch. Most recent samples from Deep Inlet harvest indicate approximately 2%-5’s, 70%-4’s and 25% 3’s. Size has also dropped to approximately 6.3lbs average.
Current weather patterns of calm winds and sunny skies will likely minimize the movement of chum into Bear Cove for brood stock as well as into the Deep Inlet THA. We will attempt to maximize cost recovery effort next week at the head of Deep Inlet as well as the Eastern Channel/Silver Bay SHA. The Eastern Channel SHA reopens for cost recovery harvest on August 20th and the Deep Inlet THA will be closed Thursday and Friday next week to facilitate cost recovery efforts.
Chum returns to Crawfish Inlet continue with ongoing cost recovery in the inlet and today is the second seine pink salmon opening in West Crawfish. The first seine opening earlier this week in West Crawfish resulted in the harvest of 123k chum salmon.
Total return to date has now topped 5 million chum salmon.
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