The fall chum catch in Deep Inlet has remained strong since the uptick in gillnet catch Monday morning through the Friday seine rotation. Initial indications are the gillnet catch will surpass 35k fish for M-W and the Th-F seine catch will almost certainly top 100k fish. There have been reports that Friday afternoon the seine catch had slowed but still is an impressive build from the extremely bleak stat week 32. The Tuesday 8/11 gillnet catch was 67% male with a 60% 4-year old component and 39% 3-year olds. We will be sampling the Th-F and Sun seine catch to see if the sex ration and age structure holds and will post that information Monday afternoon. Based upon this recent surge in catch and volume concerns for a brood stock closure have been greatly reduced. While I cannot eliminate the need for a brood stock closure, any potential closure it is anticipated would not happen until after the M-W gillnet opening of stat week 34 (8/25).
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