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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 […]Return Update-July 17th
Return Update-July 17th
Summer chum returns this week continue to mostly track along our pre-season forecasts and progress continues on cost recovery alongside the initiation of chum egg-takes at Hidden Falls and Medvejie. Daily updates to cost recovery progress by harvest site are continuing and there is the anticipation that significant progress will be made on the Hidden Falls and SE Cove in the coming week.
We continue to sample the Point Augusta, Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries. Both Garnder and Kingsmill continue to be significantly above the long-term average for chum salmon with Hidden Falls production making up the majority of the sample for Gardner and SE Cove making up the majority at Kingsmill. For this week’s Kingsmill sample Hidden Falls remained at 14% of sample with SE Cove making up the relative majority at 49% of catch. Gardner will be fished Friday this week. For detailed breakdown see our Test Fisheries page.
Hidden Falls
Chum egg-takes began at Hidden Falls on July 14th and we have taken 28 million eggs so far, averaging nearly 1 million a day. Broodstock movement in the bay and up the ladder remains strong and we estimate that 65% of the brood needed is secured. Cost recovery for Hidden Falls is currently at 33% of goal and we expect a large cost recovery harvest on Friday. As we have secured a majority of the chum brood needed we can be more aggressive with cost recovery efforts closer to the barrier net in Kasnyku Bay and should make quicker progress on the cost recovery volume.
Medvejie
Summer chum egg-takes began at Medvejie on July 15th and egg-takes have been going very smoothly with 25% of the egg-take goal complete. There is more than sufficient chum brood in Bear Cove and so far we have taken 86k chum for cost recovery. We will continue cost recovery in Bear Cove and Deep Inlet Friday and are currently at 41% of goal.
Chinook salmon continue to enter Bear Cove and total return to date on Chinook looks to be the best in a decade with over 15k fish already accounted for. We have secured our brood needed and have sold over 3k adults for cost recovery with more still to come in Bear cove.
Other Sites
Thomas Bay has slowly begun to ramp up with 31k fish harvested to date. It is looking like Thomas Bay return is either going to be late or below forecast. We do continue to see small numbers in the test fisheries so there is still some potential to make our forecast. At SE Cove we expect a large cost recovery harvest over the next week and may quickly meet our total goal. There has been no harvest since Saturday as the processor has had capacity and tender/harvest boat availability issues. We have been assured by the processor that there will be sufficient capacity in place for a strong harvest Friday/Saturday and Mon-Wed next week. Stayed tuned to our home page for progress as potential reopening schedule could be announced next week. To date there has been no effort at Crawfish Inlet.
Return Update-July 8th
This past week common property openings for chum salmon wrapped up at Hidden Falls and SE Cove. These were the last openings until cost recovery is complete at each of the sites. Hidden Falls had a total chum harvest of 156k for stat week 27 and an additional harvest of 75k for Sunday June 6th. SE Cove closed out stat week 27 with a weekly harvest of 52k chum. Returns to Hidden falls is tracking right on our point forecast through stat week 27 with SE Cove beginning to outpace our forecast and is beginning to indicate that it will exceed our point forecast of 587k chum for the season.
Openings for chum at Thomas Bay continue to have minimal effort and minimal harvest though there was a slight uptick in harvest this past Sunday. Thomas Bay is currently lagging behind in our forecast for this date. Crawfish Inlet THA opened for common property this past Sunday but there was no recorded effort. Crawfish Inlet will remain open for common property troll and seine through July 26th at which time it will close for cost recovery.
Cost Recovery
Cost recovery on chum salmon is now ongoing at Deep Inlet, Hidden Falls and SE Cove. Through today, July 8th, Deep Inlet is at 21% of goal and has been progressing steadily with near daily effort and multiple boats participating in harvest. Hidden Falls cost recovery began Monday July 7th and so far is off to a slow start without much additional recruitment following the Sunday seine opening and has only managed to harvest a few percent of the goal so far. SE Cove cost recovery also began on Monday July 7th and is off to a better start and we have harvested 12% of that goal through today. We continue to update daily our homepage cost recovery progress bars and is the quickest way to see progress at all of the sites.
Test Fisheries
NSRAA continues to sample chum harvest in the Point Augusta, Hawk Inlet, Point Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries. Data from our chum samples indicate that the Hidden Falls and Thomas Bay portion is continuing to increase with SE Cove remaining relatively stable. Harvest volume at all locations is significantly above the 10-year average for chum. Link to data is available here: NSRAA Test Fishery Data Page
Return Update-Stat Wk 26
All NSRAA Chinook and chum returns through Friday June 27th appear to be on, or just above, our pre-season forecast. Return timing this year appears to be tracking with the long-term average for each site, in contrast to last year with strong early chum returns. Medvejie Hatchery Chinook returns continue to remain steady after a slow start in the spring troll fishery and it appears we will meet or exceed our pre-season forecast of 24k adults, which would be the largest return in a decade.
Chinook
Spring troll harvest of AK hatchery chinook through stat wk 25 has totaled 2,538 chinook with 1,854 of those NSRAA produced. Of the NSRAA production 70 came from Hidden Falls production and 1,784 from Medvejie. We have made steady progress on securing Chinook brood stock at Medvejie and as of Friday 6/27 have secured approximately 50% of our brood needs. We anticipate by end of next week we will likely have sufficient Chinook brood secured.
Chum
Hidden Falls-Return numbers and timing continue to track our forecast and approximately 61,000 adults were harvested in stat wk 26. Stat wk 26 harvest of 61,000 is 3 times the long-term average harvest for that stat week. Samples from Sunday 6/22 indicate 80% male and 80% age-4 adults and a 7.8lb average. Seine effort on openings continues to increase with 28 boats participating in the Thursday opening this week. Hidden Falls will remain open through the July 6th opening at time it will close in order to complete cost recovery and collect brood.
Deep Inlet-Deep Inlet returns, similar to Hidden Falls, is also tracking with our forecast for this stat week. Harvest at Deep Inlet will likely also end up around 60,000 fish, which is double the long-term average for this stat week. Sex ratio of adults this week is slightly above 80% with 75% age-4 and 25% age-5 and a 6.9lb average. Deep Inlet will close to common property fishing end of day after troll on Saturday 6/28. Deep Inlet cost recovery will begin Sunday or Monday next week and the THA will remain closed until cost recovery is complete. Deep Inlet will reopen for one week, stat week 32, regardless of cost recovery progress. Cost recovery progress is updated daily on our website homepage.
SE Cove/Thomas Bay- Harvest at SE Cove has been above average for this time of year and is tracking ahead of our forecast with a total of 20,000 fish harvested this week. Typically SE Cove returns begin to build a week or so later than Hidden Falls which makes this early harvest encouraging. Additionally, the Thursday harvest this week had a 92% male ratio and a 7.2lb average. Age data is not available yet for yesterday’s harvest but will be posted on the SE Cove in-season fishing page as soon as it is available (SE Cove in-season fishing page ). SE Cove will close for cost recovery after the July 4th gillnet opening. Thomas Bay has had limited effort and harvest to date.
Test fishing at Hawk Inlet and Point Gardner is currently ongoing and that information should be available Monday June 29th.
UPDATE! – Fish Feed Bag Sightings
UPDATE: July 1, 2025:
Following our press release, NSRAA staff have been hard at work both recovering bags and gathering information on their distribution as well as other cleanup efforts. To date over 2,100 bags have been recovered and we are hoping you can help us continue by reporting your sightings using our interactive survey tool linked below!
REPORT YOUR FEED BAG SIGHTINGS HERE
SE Alaska Marine Debris Fish Feed Bag Sightings: On May 20th, 2025, NSRAA was contacted by a good Samaritan vessel that discovered a large quantity of salmon feed bags adrift in the lower Chatham Strait region near entrance to Frederick Sound. NSRAA is a regional private non-profit salmon aquaculture association based in Sitka. NSRAA operates salmon enhancement hatcheries and projects in the northern portion of SE Alaska.
Beginning the following day, May 21st, NSRAA initiated efforts to ascertain location, distribution, and origination of the feed bag debris. This effort was performed by NSRAA staff in vessels and with aerial spotting via float plane. NSRAA observed and recovered numerous feed bags and was able to ascertain by production lot and date numbers on the bags that these were used at our remote Hidden Falls Hatchery in 2021.
After this discovery of origin, NSRAA contacted Lituya Freight Runners based in Petersburg, the contractor who removed this refuse from our facility in 2021. The contractor was notified of our discovery and informed NSRAA that this refuse was not delivered to Petersburg per arrangement, but stored at a remote location, between Hidden Falls and Petersburg, on a barge for the last 4 years. It appears this barge was moved out of the remote location immediately prior to the good Samaritan sighting of feed bag debris on May 20th.
To date the contractor has not made efforts to recover the feed bag debris. NSRAA was informed by the contractor today, June 13th, that they are in the process of beginning those efforts and will be in the Chatham Strait area next week. NSRAA has mobilized all available resources in response and to date has recovered approximately 1,100 individual feed bags since May 20th. Our first priority is to find and remove this unintentional marine debris and to engage the responsible party, the contactor in this effort immediately. NSRAA encourages those who have sightings of this debris to report their location, numbers and disposition (i.e. recovered and disposed of, or left in place) to the Southeast Alaska Commercial Fishermen Marine Debris Clean Up program at the following email address-seakmarinedebris@gmail.com, or directly to NSRAA.
The NSRAA board of directors has determined that recovering as many feed bags as possible is a high priority issue, which has also incurred and will continue to incur expenses. The NSRAA board will be engaging in future discussions concerning the Lituya Freight Runners contract.
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