The summer run chum programs are beginning to wind down, with terminal areas showing predominantly females now.
Hidden Falls – We are in broodstock collection mode now at Hidden Falls with an eye for an opening once we have secured the majority of the 200,000 chum we need for broodstock. Aerial reports and hatchery operations suggest there are sufficient chum in the SHA for brood but not enough we can risk an opening at this time. Hidden Falls hatchery has collected 30 million of the 190 million eggs needed but chum are not committing to Kasnyku Bay. Rather they are moving in and out and sometimes disappearing for a day. Staff is actively counting chum into the inner bay behind the barrier, but we currently have only 28,000 (an additional 30,000 have been killed for eggs/milt). Just 2,800 fish moved past the barrier net July 23. If the fish begin to push harder there could be a chance for an August 1 opening, although each day that the chum won’t commit to the inner bay that date moves later in the calendar. Reports of 250,000 to 300,000 have been reported in the SHA from Takatz to South Point.
Deep Inlet – The summer run harvest is nearly 230,000 which is inline with the historical average but behind the 2019 forecast. It appears the summer run is diminishing and we are seeing the beginning of the fall stock (Medvejie). In a troll sample from July 15 chum harvested outside Sitka Sound showed 56% Medvejie stock with Crawfish origin being the largest proportion, Deep Inlet and Bear Cove, Medvejie were also present in good proportions. Deep Inlet chum have been harvested in the Redoubt Lake seine area particularly along the outer line near Kanga Bay. One promising sign is that small schools of chum have been reported at West Crawfish Inlet this week. In 2018, troll effort began in Week 31 (next week) in West Crawfish. Currently, there is no information to suggest whether the fall run will share the same fate as the summer run chum. It will take a couple of weeks of harvest data to get our first picture of abundance or lack thereof.
Southeast Cove – SE Cove is on track for 600,000 to 650,000 adult return or slightly less than half of the forecast, although given chum returns in the remainder of SE Alaska this is one of the better returns. To date Trident has harvested about 4 million pounds of chum at the SE Cove SHA. It appears the run still has legs as we have harvested over a million pounds in less than three full days. We expect this run to continue until August 7.
NSRAA Coho Returns – Coho are showing up in the troll catch in modest numbers from all projects, with the Medvejie and Sawmill Creek coho showing the highest marine survival.
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