The chum return to Hidden Falls continues to progress well and we are likely nearing the end of the return and through yesterday the seine fleet have harvested an estimated 800k chum salmon and including brood stock number we have topped a 1 million fish return. This is the largest return since 2013, and if we top 1.38 million by the end, unlikely, this would be the largest Hidden Falls return since 2009. Last sex ratio sample from Sunday (7/23) had a 35% male ratio and fish behavior in the THA definitely feels like we are nearing the end. Fish are not lingering outside of Kasnyku Bay and not venturing very far off of the barrier net. Currently we believe we have sufficient brood inside of the barrier net to complete our egg take and will leave closed unless we appear to be short in the next few days. Staff at Hidden Falls have been working extremely hard and fast through the fish this year and by early to mid next week chum egg take should be complete. The next seine opening at Hidden Falls will be Monday, not Sunday, as the seine fishing day rotation has started and moving the opening to Monday will align with other open areas nearby. We will be moving the line in closer to the barrier net in an effort to provide as much opportunity as possible without jeopardizing site infrastructure.
SE Cove Cost recovery continues and we had the largest weekly harvest to date of approximately 600k lbs earlier this week. Sample from earlier this week showed 42% male indicating nearing the end and we are currently at 49% of goal. CR effort will continue Saturday and Sunday but it is clear we will be short of our goal for SE Cove. Knowing we were looking at a shortage at SE Cove and having a strong return to Hidden Falls I reached out to processors to potentially offer additional CR opportunity at Hidden Falls. For over a week I have attempted to find a processor interested in those fish. Not a single processor has had interest in any surplus at Hidden Falls at any price. Not only are they not interested in any HF surplus there appears to be no interest in additional CR opportunity at Crawfish Inlet to make up the shortfall. Since I have been the GM this has never occurred and is a very troubling development. I will continue to look for interest in CR opportunity at HF, Medvejie and Crawfish Inlet but the potential to make up for the shortfall at SE Cove appears to be slim to none. It is now imperative that the fall chum Crawfish Inlet return come in, at or above forecast, so we can at least make our west Baranof cost recovery $4.1m goal.
This lack of interest in our fish is not likely news for commercial fishermen as recently several processors have lowered their in-season chum price for seine fish. My concern looking forward to the fall return just starting is that this price lowering will begin to be felt by the gillnet and troll fleet, especially if the return to Deep Inlet and Crawfish Inlet is larger than forecast. We are just beginning to see indications of the fall chum return showing up to Deep Inlet, and the 7/25 Sitka Sound chum troll sample indicates the strong 3-year old component we saw in the summer chum return, may be occurring in the fall stock also. The samples from the Deep Inlet seine harvest over this coming weekend will be an indicator on return volume and early return age composition of the fall chum stock.
Recent Comments