News and Events

NSRAA Board Meeting Update – Covid-19

Posted by Chip Blair on Nov 16, 2020 in news | Comments Off on NSRAA Board Meeting Update – Covid-19

MEETING NOTICE

Due to rising COVID-19 cases in Sitka, Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA) is canceling in-person public participation at our Fall board meeting Thursday, November 19th. Copies of the agenda and board book materials are available online at nsraa.org. For those wishing to address the NSRAA board during the Public Comment portion of the board meeting email scott_wagner@nsraa.org with those comments and they will be communicated to the board during the Public Comment period.

Thank you and be safe during these difficult times

Posted by Chip Blair on Nov 11, 2020 in news | Comments Off on

NSRAA’s 2020 Fall Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 11, 2020 via a ZOOM Meeting, with limited participation in Sitka in the NSRAA Board Room. The meeting will begin at 9:30 pm. It is anticipated that the board will be able to complete all agenda items on Thursday in a single day. If additional time is needed, the board will reconvene on Friday to complete their agenda. 9:00 a.m. Unfinished business from Thursday November 19, 2020. The public is invited to attend, but, due to COVID-19 concerns, there will be limited public seating available.

Update 11/16/20: In-person public participation is canceled due to rising Covid-19 cases in Sitka. Please see separate post for details.

Please call 907-747-6850 if you have questions.

Topics will include a review of the 2020 season, program updates, and planning for the 2021 season. Click here for the meeting agenda.

September 11 Update – Crawfish continues to surprise

Posted by Scott Wagner on Sep 11, 2020 in news | Comments Off on September 11 Update – Crawfish continues to surprise

The Crawfish Inlet Chum project continues to surprise with decent numbers of chum still moving into the area.  Catch for the Thursday/Friday opening looks to be strong and will likely approach 100k.  We have now exceeded 1 million total return to the project and it looks as it may top out over 1.2 million chum or around 80% of forecast,  which is significantly better than any other NSRAA chum project this year.  While the seine fleet numbers have dwindled, the remaining boats are able to add a little income to what will be the worst year for the seine fleet in decades.  Openings are scheduled to continue Thur/Fri and Sunday through Sept 25th.

Chum returns to Medvejie/Bear Cove continue to look weak.  To date we have gone through 45k chum brood stock and have taken a total of 40 million eggs leaving another 62 million to go.  So far 3 year olds are making up 60% of the hatchery rack return.  Sex ratio at the hatchery rack has averaged 60% male for the first two weeks of the egg take which further slows egg collection efforts.  Starting Monday we will begin capturing and moving chum brood stock from Deep Inlet to Bear Cove.  Current plan is to move approximately 20k adults Monday through Wednesday.  We will then assess remaining brood and egg needs at Bear Cove to determine if additional brood capture is necessary.  By Wednesday of next week we should be 60% complete on our fall chum egg take at our current rate.  As of Thursday chum numbers at the head of Deep Inlet were by no means overwhelming and estimated at 5-10k fish.  There are no plans to reopen Deep Inlet as remaining brood stock needs will likely utilize the remainder of the return.

Finally, it looks like we will have a few days of sunny weather in a row which will hopefully help all of our dispositions in an all around very gloomy year.

September 2nd update-Deep Inlet Closure

Posted by Scott Wagner on Sep 2, 2020 in news | Comments Off on September 2nd update-Deep Inlet Closure

NSRAA has requested that ADFG close Deep Inlet to all common property fisheries beginning end of day Saturday, April 5th, after troll day.  We continue to have concerns that sufficient brood stock has recruited to Bear Cove/Medvejie Hatchery.  This years chum egg goal at Medvejie is 102 million with an estimated brood stock need of 120,000 adults to achieve that goal.  Our brood stock estimate on Wednesday was 90k chum.  We have utilized approximately 20k chum for brood stock and our estimate of remaining chum in Bear Cove using aerial surveys is 70k chum remaining. We have not observed large recruitment over the past week and continue to see age 3 year old chum make up over 70% of the return.  Age 3 chum tend to be smaller, produce fewer eggs, and typically more than 50% are male.  In addition, as per our Brood Stock policy, we are preparing to take an additional 10 million eggs to make up a portion of the 24 million shortfall at Hidden Falls of summer chum brood.  Announcement should be out late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.

It is anticipated that there will not be additional opportunity at Deep Inlet for common property fisheries for the 2020 season.  The Deep Inlet return continues to perform poorly, currently at 41% of forecast.  The return also appears to have peaked a week earlier than most years.  There has been a continued drop off of numbers since reopening on August 27th and the sex ratio has dropped to 46% male.  We will continue to monitor chum brood stock needs and numbers at Bear Cove and Deep Inlet.  Current plan is to begin looking at brood stock capture opportunities late next week in Deep Inlet.

Crawfish and West Crawfish Inlet will remain open.  Crawfish continues to surprise with the best return of any chum enhancement project in SE Alaska this season.  Current projections will put the total return over 1 million fish.  While this is only 65% of the pre-season projected forecast that is a much better return than any other NSRAA project.  To date approximately 391k chum have been caught by seine, 60k by troll and 525k for cost recovery putting the total catch to date at 975k chum.  There has been a high percentage of 3-year old chum in Crawfish (58%) but not as high as we are seeing in Deep Inlet.  Sex ratio is also holding up a little better in Crawfish with the Sunday seine sample at 50% male.  As with Deep Inlet it appears the peak was last week and we are on the downhill side of the bell curve.  Bear in mind Crawfish Inlet is also a last resort for any shortfall of chum brood stock at Medvejie and if necessary may be utilized.  Any potential closure would not occur until Sunday Sept 13th at the earliest.

While this closure is hard to take on a poor year in many regards.  It is imperative for future years that we make our egg take goal.  I have to believe that we will have better survival, prices and a less onerous operating environment in 4 to 5 years when the fish from this years egg take return.

Brood Collection Successful; Deep Inlet to Re-open

Posted by Chip Blair on Aug 24, 2020 in news | Comments Off on Brood Collection Successful; Deep Inlet to Re-open

Operations Manger Adam Olson coordinated broodstock collection over the weekend. The operation was a success, with an estimated 33,000 chum caught and transported  to Medvejie on two tenders, the Debbie Sue and the Grace C.  The seiners Kalliste, Legacy, El Dorado and Reiver caught the fish and did a great job keeping them alive for transport. Thanks to all involved for your hard work.

Numbers of chum swimming into Bear Cove have improved over the past week. At this point we are optimistic that we’ll have enough fish for broodstock needs. Chum eggtakes are set to begin Wednesday.

The ADF&G news release came out this morning, re-opening Deep Inlet with a Troll day on Wednesday, August 26. The normal rotation will resume beginning with a seine opening on Thursday.