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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 […]July 17th Weekly Return Update
Summer chum returns to the Sitka Area this past week have declined since the gillnet closure. The gillnet fleet ended last week (St Wk 28) with their best weekly harvest this season of just over 48k chum salmon and a total weekly Deep Inlet combined harvest of 200k chum harvest between seine, gillnet and cost recovery. This is a 90k weekly drop from prior week. Returns to Hidden Falls last week of summer chum plateaued with the previous week and a weekly harvest of 228k chum. Of note for Hidden Falls is that the male ratio went up from 51% male to 66% male from previous week. We confirmed this with processors as this is an unusual shift in ratio for this point of the return. Next several openings at Hidden Falls will indicate what this shift means in overall return numbers. Seine opening line restrictions around Kasnyku Bay have begun at Hidden Falls and will continue until brood stock is secured and cost recovery fishing is completed. To date we have secured approximately 1/3 of brood needs and chum are recruiting volitionally through the barrier net in increasing numbers.
Chum returns to SE Cove and Thomas Bay continued to increase last week with a weekly harvest of 65k and 90k respectively. Both Thomas Bay and SE Cove continue to have male sex ratios in excess of 50% with SE Cove sample from July 14th showing 70% male.
Samples of Point Augusta fisheries, along with Point Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries continue to indicate a significant presence of Hidden Falls and SE Cove bound chum. Though the most recent samples indicate a drop to less than 50% male in those fisheries. Test Fishing otolith data is available on our website under the 2024 Fishing tab. Link here https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=5485
Deep Inlet closed to commercial fishing on Thursday July 11th to allow completion of cost recovery. Since the closure approximately 165k chum salmon have been harvested putting cost recovery progress near 50% complete. Harvest for cost recovery significantly declined in the last two days and the reopening of Deep Inlet will be delayed until next Wednesday July 24th as the potential earliest reopening date. The reopening will depend on cost recovery progress. It appears that we are on the tail end of the summer chum run with recent sex ratios in cost recovery harvest of only 38% male. To date the fall run chum have yet to make much of an appearance only making up 2% of the last sample from July 12th.
SE Cove will close to common property fisheries after this Thursday’s (July 18th) seine opening to facilitate cost recovery. To date we have only harvested 16% of the combined cost recovery goal between SE Cove and Gunnuk Creek. This is mainly due to the Gunnuk Creek return coming in significantly below forecast.
NSRAA will work to harvest the remaining cost recovery volume as quickly as possible and the front page of our website will show our progress on the Sitka Area and SE Cove cost recovery progress bars. These progress bars are updated daily as cost recovery occurs.
July 8th Weekly Return Update-Deep Inlet Closure
Summer chum returns this past week have appeared to plateau to both Deep Inlet and Hidden Falls. This may be in part due the current dry and sunny weather, but we have also seen a continued decline in male sex ratios with both Deep Inlet and Hidden Falls summer chum returns approaching 60% male. This leveling off on the return to Deep Inlet has slowed our cost recovery harvest and to date we have only managed to harvest 20% of our goal. Due to this slower pace, management actions are necessary to ensure we meet our cost recovery goal for the Sitka area.
Deep Inlet will close to common property fishing at the end of the gillnet rotation Wednesday, July 10th, and remain closed until the Sitka area cost recovery is mostly complete. This may be as short as a week but will be determined by harvestable volume available to the cost recovery boats in the Deep Inlet THA and the Eastern Channel/Silver Bay SHA. Progress towards our goal is available on the homepage of our website under the header In-Season Harvest Data-Cost Recovery. Deep Inlet will likely reopen on a Wednesday for troll then roll into the normal rotation with a Thursday/Friday seine day.
NSRAA obtained a chum sample from the Friday July 5th Kingsmill test fishery. The chum harvest in this test fishery was a record for the stat week and was comprised of 25% Hidden Falls, 15% DIPAC, 28% SE Cove, 10% Thomas Bay and 6% Gunnuk Creek. The second Kingsmill test fishery is occurring today with once again a strong chum component, the next Point Garnder test fishery will occur on Tuesday July 9th. The second Hawk Inlet test fishery occurred on July 5th and the chum portion of the harvest was 147% of the 10-year average. A breakdown of the composition of the chum catch in the Hawk Inlet test fishery should be available Tuesday. Reminder all test fishery chum otolith information can be found at https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=5485 .
SE Cove and Thomas Bay returns continue to build and harvest to date is continuing to increase with an estimated cumulative harvest at SE Cove of 100k and a cumulative harvest to date of 50k in Thomas Bay. These returns appear to be tracking more on the historical return timing with the peak week towards the end of July.
June 29th Weekly Return Update
Summer chum returns to Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet continue to be strong and continue to track at or above the high range of our forecast for both sites. Harvest this past week (stat wk 26) for Hidden Falls was 220k fish with Deep Inlet coming in at an estimated 285k. Hidden Falls chum returns this past week have been 70% male and a 6.5lb avg with 60% 4-year-olds and 30% 5-year-olds. Deep Inlet chum returns this past week have been coming in 60% male and also a 6.5lb avg with more than 90% 4-year-olds. Common property opening lines will continue to be the same for both sites for Sunday. Hidden Falls lines may be moved away from Kasnyku for the Thursday opener depending on volume remaining in Kasnyku after Sunday. Will begin to accumulate brood stock behind the barrier net next week at Hidden Falls with a total brood stock need of 215k fish.
SE Cove and Thomas Bay returns continue to increase but still on the slow side compared to Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet. SE Cove has an estimated common property harvest of 20k chum to date. Typically SE Cove chum returns will begin to ramp up toward the end of the coming week. Thomas Bay harvest has been minimal with little effort. As with SE Cove the Thomas Bay site returns should begin to build towards the end of next week.
NSRAA obtained a chum sample from the Wednesday June 25th Point Gardner test fishery. The chum harvest in this test fishery was a record for the stat week and was comprised of 71% Hidden Falls, 8% DIPAC, 8% SE Cove, 4% Thomas Bay and 2% Gunnuk Creek. The next Point Garnder test fishery will occur on Monday July 1st with the first Kingsmill test fishery on Tuesday July 2nd. The first Hawk Inlet test fishery occurred on June 28th and the chum portion of the harvest was 225% of the 10-year average. A breakdown of the composition of the chum catch in the Hawk Inlet test fishery should be available Monday.
Cost recovery continues at all sites and will continue without common property closures through next week as the returns continue to build and cost recovery volume is trending the right direction. Cost recovery for the Sitka area will begin in the outer Eastern Channel/Silver Bay Special Harvest Area this week beginning on Monday July 1st.
June 21st, Weekly Return Update
This past week summer chum returns to Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet continue to be strong and the first reported harvest at SE Cove which is tracking on the historical high side of return numbers for current stat week. Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet continue to be majority 4-year-olds making up over 79% of harvest at Hidden Falls and over 90% for Deep Inlet. Hidden Falls will have an estimated 75K total adult chum harvest this week and Deep Inlet will come in around 100k after today’s seine harvest is complete. The chum harvest at Hidden Falls this stat week will be the third highest on record since the beginning of the program.
Sunday’s Pt Augusta chum harvest otolith information indicated 52% Hidden Falls bound chum and 30% DIPAC chum. The remaining sample was 12% Thomas Bay, 4% SE Cove and 1% for Gunnuk Creek. As with most sites Augusta harvest was heavy on the 4-year-olds which made up 74% of catch and a 68% male ratio.
Cost recovery harvest is beginning today (Fri 6/21) at Hidden Falls and will begin Saturday at Bear Cove and head of Deep Inlet. Hidden Falls cost recovery will be in inner Kasnyku Bay behind our barrier net as well in outer Kasnyku. Lines for common property seine Sunday at Hidden Falls will be the same as Thursday’s opener. Deep Inlet proper will remain closed until cost recovery is completed which will likely be mid-July.
Deep Inlet Cost Recovery Closure Reminder-June 19th
Reminder that Deep Inlet proper from the neck to the head is currently closed to common property fishing to allow for cost recovery harvest. The line coordinates are covered in the April 25th ADFG Advisory Announcement. Excerpt below of the relevant coordinates and Full Advisory Announcement may be found here- ADFG Terminal Harvest Area AA 4/25/24
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