News and Events

NSRAA Fall 2019 Board of Directors Meeting

Posted by Chip Blair on Nov 1, 2019 in news, schedule | 0 comments

NSRAA’s 2019 Fall Board of Directors Meeting will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, November 12-14, 2019 in Sitka in the NSRAA Board Room. Meetings begin at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, and at 9 am Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the Tuesday session will be devoted to  board training, with the main meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. The public is invited to attend.

Topics will include a review of the 2019 season, program updates, discussion of Crawfish Inlet management, presentations on McDowell Group studies on the PST and on Mass Marking Chinook, and planning for the 2020 season. Click here for the meeting agenda.

Crawfish Inlet SHA Anadromous streams

Posted by Chip Blair on Aug 28, 2019 in news, schedule | 0 comments

We are posting maps showing anadromous streams in the Crawfish Inlet SHA and in West Crawfish Inlet. It has been brought to our attention that some seiners have had to release sets because they were fishing too close to an anadromous stream. Please refer to ADF&G News Releases regarding restricted fishing near these streams. Links are shown below. Maps can also be accessed from the NSRAA Home page and Maps page.

Crawfish Inlet SHA Anadromous Streams

West Crawfish Inlet Anadromous Streams

Crawfish & Deep Inlet Update – August 21 2019

Posted by Steve Reifenstuhl on Aug 21, 2019 in news | 0 comments

The summer run chum at Deep Inlet came in well below forecast (30%) but close to the 25 year historical average of 320,000 chum. The fall run (Medvejie stock) appears to be doing comparatively better, although a later run timing than normal, with 203,000 chum harvested last week (Week 33). The gillnet catch has improved considerably this week and there are signs of chum throughout Eastern Channel, Silver Bay, and the Eckholm Island group. Today was the first day we’ve seen large schools along Camp Coogan to Sugarloaf making their way to Medvejie Hatchery. Based on the Deep Inlet fall run harvest of 370,000 chum so far, the run should go over a million fish.

Crawfish Inlet has mostly been a troll show with 125,000 chum harvested, but that is likely to change dramatically with the Sunday seine opening. Like 2018, most of the chum have entered the area via West Crawfish Inlet and have remained outside of Crawfish Inlet THA, although there have been small seine harvests to date. A strong weather front with high winds and rain on Thursday night should send a large biomass of chum into Crawfish Inlet by Friday and Saturday. In fact, chum are beginning to move down Cedar Pass and turning east as of this morning. Based on the troll catch, pilot observations, sex ratio, and run timing the Crawfish run will likely surpass 1.3 million fish. The seine harvest on Sunday will tell us a lot about run strength. The full seine THA will open on Sunday in anticipation of large push of fish and over a hundred seiners.  After the fish are cleaned up at the head of the inlet, I would like to know what the boats are catching per hour at the two hook offs at the mouth of Crawfish Inlet. This information will be important to know when deciding on a mid week opening.

Last night and this morning we harvested about 400,000 pounds of chum (50,000 fish) at the head inlet of West Crawfish, by request of the department. Most of the remaining fish in the inlet and in Shamrock Bay will move to Crawfish once the storm winds and rain arrive.

July 24 2019 Update Chum Projects

Posted by Steve Reifenstuhl on Jul 24, 2019 in news | 0 comments

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.

Fishery Update July 9, 2019

Posted by Steve Reifenstuhl on Jul 9, 2019 in news | 0 comments

Medvejie Chinook – the initial tags show that Medvejie chinook were well represented in the summer troll fishery. We have seen good catches in the Deep Inlet seine/gillnet fisheries (2,800) and decent numbers back to the hatchery (6,000).

NSRAA Chum/SE Chum – What we know – the run is late; late & small or late & moderate? It will take another week to know the answer. The chum harvested at SE Cove and Deep Inlet are bright, 85% good meat color, robust, 65 to 70% male, and >8 pound average. These parameters all suggest early in the run curve. The chum returns in SE Alaska are all behind the historical run curve and there is some reasoning or wishful thinking that a moderate run could still materialize.

In addition to sample parameters, the roe percentage is at the low end of the scale – 3%. At the end of the run the roe percent is usually 8 or 9%. During the summer Chinook troll fishery, the Chinook were far off shore in 70 fathoms of water, an environment where there was abundant feed. Trollers caught fair numbers of chum while king fishing at the 70 fathom mark. Other indicators that some chum are still on the march – July 7th Pt. Augusta seine opening had decent numbers of chum, fishermen are reporting chum at the Fairweather grounds and Icy Strait, and best of all for the SE Cove SHA is that the Kings Mill test fishery maxed-out in 6 sets and 98% were chum salmon. The return at SE Cove is roughly 6 times the volume of 2018 at this date. This may be the brightest spot for chum in southeast Alaska.

Hidden Falls Chum – Aerial observations put the number of chum within the THA at >100,000 fish. Broodstock requirement is 200,000 chum which is used to fulfill program objectives at SE Cove, Gunnuk Creek, Thomas Bay, Deep Inlet, and Hidden Falls/Takatz. In order to get more information on sex ratio, stock performance, abundance by area, and age structure NSRAA has contracted with North Pacific Seafoods to troll harvest one or two thousand chum in the HF THA on July 11-13. Historically, broodstock fish begin pushing the barrier net and the inner bay about mid-July. With some good fortune we could have a fair portion of our broodstock secure by July 20 wdhich would allow NSRAA to open a portion of the THA.

Deep Inlet Chum – The summer run chum are performing quite poorly at Deep Inlet. There was a small bump in the catch on July 9 and a few hundred chum caught in the Redoubt seine opening on July 7th.