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Commercial trolling for king salmon in Southeast is back on the desk of the National Marine Fisheries Service, following on judicial rulings this past summer that saw the fishery shut down — and then reinstated — as a case brought by environmentalists wound its way through the courts. NMFS issued notice on Oct. 4 that it is beginning work on an environmental impact statement and review of alternatives to its incidental take permit which allows Southeast trollers to harvest kings, many of which are destined for the Pacific Northwest feeding gro...
Salmon: This fall has presented challenges for coho fishing as the rain has continually swelled the streams, giving the fish the advantage. If you have had the opportunity to fish in a lake, you might have experienced good to great coho fishing as even the heavy rains still allow for effective angling. Typically, freshwater coho fishing opportunities will continue through October for the majority of systems in the area, though the peak fishing occurred in September. One should expect coho to be in their spawning colors, but the occasional...
Commercial salmon fishing in Southeast is mostly finished for the year and the volume of salmon caught far exceeded expectations, but due to low prices, the value of the harvest fell short of recent years. Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) regional management coordinator for commercial fisheries, told the Pilot that this season was “actually a pretty good year” in terms of total number of fish. The preliminary total estimated number of fish currently stands at 65,737,799 salmon for the region, most of that being 47,64...
Local fishing industry representatives met with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in Petersburg last week looking for a Golden King Crab compromise. The department acknowledged frustrations voiced by the fishermen this year regarding management hindering the golden king harvest. King and Tanner Task Force (KTTF) meetings were organized to brainstorm and come to a common understanding. In the latest KTTF meeting held at the Petersburg Public Library on Sept. 28, the industry and the...
WRANGELL — The Stikine Sportsmen Association is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever illegally killed a cow moose and left the carcass to rot in the woods south of Wrangell. A hiker discovered the kill and reported it Sept. 24, said Chadd Yoder, the state wildlife trooper in Wrangell. After inspecting the carcass, he estimated it had been dead five to 10 days. The moose was “human killed,” and all of the meat left at the site, Yoder said Friday, Sept. 29, declining to share too many details about the o...
As of Oct. 3, hunters have harvested a total of 70 moose in the 2023 RM038 moose hunt, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Six of the 70 harvested were illegal, with the remaining 64 considered legal game. The total number of moose harvested at this point falls slightly short of the 77 moose harvested last year by Oct. 5 2022. Hunters have harvested 29 legal moose —and two illegal moose— on Kupreanof Island, more than any other area Fish and Game tracks. The Stikine River has seen 14 legal moose harvested so far. The hig...
The numbers are in from the summer season of the Southeast Alaska commercial Dungeness crab fishery which closed in mid-August. Over the two months that the season was open, 2.58 million pounds of Dungeness crab was harvested in Registration Area A, with 148 permit holders reporting landings. Joseph Stratman of the Department of Fish and Game says the department estimates another 1.3 million pounds will be harvested once the fall season opens Oct. 1. The Department of Fish and Game does not conduct surveys for Dungeness crab stock, instead the...
The state of Alaska, a coalition of business groups and a pair of electric-power organizations have opened a new round in the generation-long fight over environmental protections in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. On Sept. 8, the state and two other groups of plaintiffs filed three separate federal lawsuits to challenge a Biden administration rule restricting new roads in parts of the forest, which is home to some of America’s last stands of old-growth trees. Each lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to ove...
Golden king crabs appear to have returned to Frederick Sound en masse after years of low commercial harvests, but it remains to be seen how much crab will be up for grabs for fishermen next season. The commercial golden king crab fishery in Southeast, which typically opens in mid-February, is regulated by an annual recommended harvest strategy developed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Under the harvest strategy, the department establishes a guideline harvest level (GHL) and a...
The Southeast king salmon troll fishery opened Friday, Sept. 1, for the third time this summer, though relatively few fish remain in this year’s allocation, the Department of Fish and Game announced. With only about 3,200 kings remaining in the season quota, Fish and Game said the 10-day opening will be a rare “limited harvest fishery,” with each permit holder allowed to take only nine chinook. As a limited fishery, it comes with a few additional rules as well. Fish kept for personal use will count toward the commercial harvest limit, and k...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed the commercial red and blue king crab fishery for the 2023-2024 season, the sixth year in a row, citing stock survey numbers that remain well below the regulatory threshold. The survey estimated 119,000 pounds of legal male red king crab are available for harvest, significantly below the 200,000 pounds required to open the commercial fishery, said Adam Messmer, lead king/tanner crab biologist for ADFG. While that’s an improvement from last year, where the survey estimated 95,000 pounds, i...
Oversupply from bumper harvests last year and inflationary pressures squeezing household food budgets have made it a terrible year for Alaska salmon prices. A near-record pink salmon harvest in Russia isn’t helping by adding more fish to the market. “It’s a challenging year for all Alaska seafood,” said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Pollock prices are down, “we’re seeing impacts on crab too, and other whitefish species,” he said Aug. 10. And now, “salmon is getting the microscope.” Th...
Salmon: Coho salmon are now dominating the harvest in saltwater. Trolling for them in Frederick Sound around Beacon Point or Frederick Point might offer a good opportunity to both catch a coho and spot a whale. Sumner Strait has seen increasing catches with Baht Harbor, Vank Island, or the Elephant’s Nose all being good options. Coho marine catch rates will continue to improve over the next few weeks as the coho increase in weight and prepare to enter the streams to spawn. Coho are also being seen in the freshwater systems and it appears t...
Salmon: King salmon fishing in the Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough THA closed on July 31. It is still possible to encounter a king while trolling for coho as we have some king salmon feeding here throughout the year. Remember to purchase a king salmon stamp if you hope to harvest a king. A legal king salmon must be greater than 28 inches from tip of snout to tip of tail (in its natural open position). Also keep in mind that effective July 15 the nonresident anglers annual harvest limit is now one king salmon and any king salmon harvested from...
A few times this summer, Jared Danielson, who fishes for salmon on the Alaska Peninsula, found himself fighting back tears in his bunk. Aboard the F/V Five Star, his boat, Danielson and his deckhand put away as many pounds of fish as they could. They had no breakdowns. But his seafood processor is paying him 70 cents a pound for his salmon - half of last year's price - which means that instead of his usual six-figure haul for a summer of hard work, he might only break even, or go home to his... Full story
NOAA Fisheries whale experts were on the water near Juneau most of Monday, July 17, disentangling a well-known humpback whale calf from a crab pot line. Biologist John Moran, Auke Bay Laboratories, discovered the entanglement while he was out on the water conducting research last Monday morning. Marine mammal experts Suzie Teerlink and David Gann from the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office and Fred Sharpe with the Alaska Whale Foundation were shuttled out by a local whale-watching company to...
The Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishery closed to the retention of chinook salmon at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, July 12. That’s when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game expected that the target of 77,100 chinook for the summer’s first retention period would be reached. The commercial summer troll fishery for chinook opened July 1, after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of a previous court order that would have prevented the fishery from opening. A lawsuit filed by a Washington state-based conservation organization aga...
Salmon: King salmon fishing has slowed down as typical during this time of year. Catch rates have dropped in the Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough THA and the dry hot weather is challenging for the king salmon above Blind River Rapids attempting to return to the hatchery. The Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough THA remains open until July 31 with a bag and possession limit of two king salmon greater than 28” in length and two king salmon less than 28” in length. King salmon caught in this area do not count toward the nonresident annual limit. Sta...
The Department of Fish and Game has announced that 74,800 "treaty" king salmon (non-hatchery fish) will be available for taking in the summer commercial troll season's first opening, which started Saturday. The department released summer king salmon harvest numbers on June 22. In total, 106,800 kings remain on the table following the spring fishery harvest, the agency said, and the troll fleet will be able to target 70% of those in the summer's first opener. The fleet hooked 24,700 fish in the...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week that the length of the 2023-24 commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Southeast would not be reduced, following its calculation of the full season harvest estimate. Based on landing and effort data from the first week of the summer fishery, which opened on June 15, the department is projecting a preliminary full season harvest estimate of 3.39 million pounds of crab. That estimate exceeds the 2.25 million-pound threshold required to have a complete season. “I'm not hearing a lot from fish...
A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll Chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1 — reversing a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water. “It’s a major victory,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a brief phone interview. “We can go fishing.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, in a five-page ruling, said that the entities defending the fishery — the Alaska Trollers Association, th...
Which came first, the magister squid fishery or the magister squid market? A Juneau charter fishing operator was just awarded a $230,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find out, and area fishermen might soon have a chance to diversify in the face of declining stocks and high barriers to entry in other markets. “It’s the chicken and the egg. Do you start researching on how to catch them or if there’s a market?” said Richard Yamada, who’s dedicated the last several years to learning more about magister...
A Washington state-based conservation group whose actions have already caused the closure of the Southeast Alaska king salmon commercial troll fishery is now planning to ask the federal government to list several Alaska king salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act. Last month, the Wild Fish Conservancy formally notified the state of Alaska of its plans to file the ESA petition for multiple populations of king salmon — also known as chinook — in Southeast, Southwest and Cook Inlet, just outside Anchorage. If successful, experts said the...
Between 2019 and 2021, state and federal law enforcement conducted a lengthy investigation into Petersburg area sport fishing charter lodge Rocky Point Resort, according to charging documents filed with Alaska Trial Courts last month. The investigation has resulted in four sport fishing guides being charged with over 50 counts related to halibut sport fishing violations. Current halibut charter bag limits for Southeast Alaska allow guided charter vessel anglers to catch and retain one halibut...
