July 30 Weekly Update
This past week we have seen continued improvement in brood stock numbers at Hidden Falls. To date we have gone through 75,000 chum brood and taken 70 million chum eggs. We have secured the 56 million portion for release at Hidden Falls and by Friday we should have the 20 million for release from Bear Cove secured and will be working on the 20 million brood stock release for Gunnuk Creek Hatchery over the weekend. The next priority of projects in order is 24 million Deep Inlet, 45 million SE Cove and 25 million Thomas Bay. While we still have a long ways to go there has been a steady but...
Read MoreJuly 23 Weekly Update
Returns across the board continue to under perform forecasts and this past week it has become clear Hidden Falls will not make brood stock goals. At Hidden Falls we are seeing less than 20k chum at the weir and barrier net with little activity in Kasnyku Bay. There continue to be reports of chum between Round Island and Takatz but their behavior is indicative of early fish staying offshore and not congregating into larger schools. A total of 16m eggs have been taken to date. In order to preserve the best opportunity for additional chum brood stock for Hidden Falls the Thursday seine...
Read MoreJuly 15 Weekly update
While returns to SE Cove and Deep Inlet continue near or on forecast, Hidden Falls chum broodstock remains our primary concern at this time. Few fish have pushed into the inner bay and what spotty information we have received does not indicate a large volume outside of Kasnyku Bay. While we continue to monitor the numbers returning to Hidden Falls it is becoming clear we need to begin implementing back up brood stock options for Hidden Falls chum. Our first two options utilizing DIPAC or Port Armstrong brood stock look to be marginal options at best. DIPAC is already looking at moving...
Read MoreJuly 8 Weekly Update
A gradual improvement has occurred at all of NSRAA return sites since last week. This past week we have seen an increase in chum catch at both SE Cove and Deep Inlet with a total Deep Inlet catch of 37k for stat week 27. The increases have put us back on track with our forecast curve for this point in the season. While that is great news, my optimism is tempered with the state and region wide return failures, male chum sex ratio lower than would be anticipated for this point in the run, and average chum size dropping to 6.2 lbs at Deep Inlet. There are reports of new chum moving into the...
Read MoreJuly 1 Weekly Update
Across the board returns continue to be slow and coming in at, or below, the lower range of our forecasts. At Medvejie we have secured approximately 30% of our Chinook broodstock needs and are evaluating a Bear Cove closure to sport and commercial fishing next week if conditions do not improve. Deep Inlet chum catch continues to tick up in numbers. We are ahead of the 2019 Deep Inlet chum catch to date but tracking right on the lower range of our point forecast of 1.48 million. Hidden Falls continues to disappoint with less than 10,000 fish caught to date and will be closed until further...
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