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Deep Inlet Notice
To Deep Inlet THA Fishery User Groups:
A reminder about boat traffic and anchoring near island homes in the Deep Inlet area.
Please review our plan:
Berry Island Resident Impact and Noise Reduction Plan
Aug 2 Weekly Return Update-Deep Inlet Tentative Re-Opening schedule
The NSRAA Executive Committee met on Friday Aug 2 to discuss current Deep Inlet cost recovery progress and to develop a tentative Deep Inlet re-opening schedule. Barring unforeseen lack of progress on cost recovery this coming week Deep Inlet will re-open on Saturday Aug 10th to Troll. In order to equalize the 1:1 required net ratio for the Deep Inlet gillnet/seine rotation the following fishing schedule will occur for Stat Week 32 into Stat Week 33.
Sat Aug 10th Troll, Sun-Mon Aug 11th-12th Seine, Tue-Wed Aug 13th-14th gillnet. After August 14th the weekly Deep Inlet rotation will return to the pre-closure daily schedule.
The fall chum salmon return to Deep Inlet continues to have record troll harvest and combined with the Thursday Aug 1 seine pink salmon opening in Sitka Sound indicates a large abundance of chum have moved into Eastern Channel and the near shore Sitka Sound Area. The troll fleet has now harvested nearly 200k chum in the last 12 days. Two record weeks for troll harvest in a row for the stat weeks. Last weeks total has been revised upward to 77k and the total for this stat week is already at 100k with several days to go. It appears the main body of chum have moved further into the outer Deep Inlet THA area and into Eastern Channel. The seine harvest for yesterdays pink opening in the sound was 100k pink salmon and 70k chum salmon. Based upon this large body of fish moving in we anticipate being able to make substantial cost recovery progress over the next week.
The fall chum return to Crawfish Inlet has also recently moved in and cost recovery has begun in Crawfish Inlet. There are also some chum in West Crawfish at this point in time but there has been little troll effort in West Crawfish due to better fishing in the Sitka Sound area. It is anticipated that most of the return to Crawfish Inlet will go to cost recovery if the return comes in at our pre-season forecast of 1.3 million chum salmon. There may be seine opportunity late in the season if return comes in at or above our pre-season forecast.
Yesterday we completed our summer chum egg take goals at Hidden Falls and Medvejie. Hidden Falls will be closed to common property seine fishing for the remainder of the season. The few remaining summer chum to return to Hidden Falls will be taken for cost recovery to reduce the deficit of the cost recovery goal at SE Cove/Gunnuk Creek. We had anticipated a majority of the SE Cove/Gunnuk Creek cost recovery would come from Gunnuk Creek and that is the only location to come in significantly under forecast and will likely end up less than half of forecast.
Total chum returns to date has now topped 3.5 million.
July 25th Weekly Return Update
This past week summer chum returns continue to decline and it appears most, if not all, summer chum sites are experiencing an earlier than typical end to the run. While we are in the final week to 10 days until the last of the summer chum make it home we have just passed the 3 million fish mark for the season. This number includes common property, brood stock and cost recovery. It is anticipated that we will likely end up near our preseason forecast of 3.5 million summer stock chum. SE Cove is the only site to surpass their preseason forecast so far.
Hidden Falls egg take is proceeding smoothly and will likely be wrapped up mid-next week. One of the earliest chum egg take completion dates at Hidden Falls. We have secured sufficient brood stock and plan on finishing up the Hidden Falls cost recovery Friday (7/25). Once cost recovery is complete we will open Kasnyku Bay for common property seine harvest for the rest of the season. This will most likely be this coming Sunday (7/28).
We were unable to obtain a sample from the Point Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries this week but the chum portion of those catches continue to be above the long term average particularly at Point Gardner which was significantly above the average. Both sites indicated a 42% male ratio.
Deep Inlet cost recovery continues but at a diminished rate as we are at the tail end of the summer return and the fall chums have yet to move into Deep Inlet in large numbers. Cost recovery effort will continue tomorrow and early next week. Currently we are at 54% complete. Deep Inlet will continue to be closed through next week and reopening options will be considered for stat week 32.
Otolith samples this week indicate 10-15% of the chum in Deep Inlet and Bear Cove are fall chum. A sample from the Sitka Sound chum troll effort on Tuesday (7/23) and indicated 80% of the Sitka Sound chum are fall stock. The male ratio was 78% and a 6.5lb average. This week the Sitka Sound chum troll effort and harvest increased dramatically and they may harvest 40-50k fish this week. This indicates a good volume of chum in the sound but they do not appear to be in a hurry to move into Deep Inlet. Interestingly a sample from the Redoubt seine fishery collected on the same day indicated 90% summer stock chum still present, so there are still some summer chum moving north on the beach into Deep Inlet.
While there are signs of fall chum in Sitka Sound and Deep Inlet we have yet to see any Crawfish fall chum arrive. They typically arrive slightly later than the Deep Inlet release site and expect them to begin to make an appearance next week.
July 17th Weekly Return Update
Summer chum returns to the Sitka Area this past week have declined since the gillnet closure. The gillnet fleet ended last week (St Wk 28) with their best weekly harvest this season of just over 48k chum salmon and a total weekly Deep Inlet combined harvest of 200k chum harvest between seine, gillnet and cost recovery. This is a 90k weekly drop from prior week. Returns to Hidden Falls last week of summer chum plateaued with the previous week and a weekly harvest of 228k chum. Of note for Hidden Falls is that the male ratio went up from 51% male to 66% male from previous week. We confirmed this with processors as this is an unusual shift in ratio for this point of the return. Next several openings at Hidden Falls will indicate what this shift means in overall return numbers. Seine opening line restrictions around Kasnyku Bay have begun at Hidden Falls and will continue until brood stock is secured and cost recovery fishing is completed. To date we have secured approximately 1/3 of brood needs and chum are recruiting volitionally through the barrier net in increasing numbers.
Chum returns to SE Cove and Thomas Bay continued to increase last week with a weekly harvest of 65k and 90k respectively. Both Thomas Bay and SE Cove continue to have male sex ratios in excess of 50% with SE Cove sample from July 14th showing 70% male.
Samples of Point Augusta fisheries, along with Point Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries continue to indicate a significant presence of Hidden Falls and SE Cove bound chum. Though the most recent samples indicate a drop to less than 50% male in those fisheries. Test Fishing otolith data is available on our website under the 2024 Fishing tab. Link here https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=5485
Deep Inlet closed to commercial fishing on Thursday July 11th to allow completion of cost recovery. Since the closure approximately 165k chum salmon have been harvested putting cost recovery progress near 50% complete. Harvest for cost recovery significantly declined in the last two days and the reopening of Deep Inlet will be delayed until next Wednesday July 24th as the potential earliest reopening date. The reopening will depend on cost recovery progress. It appears that we are on the tail end of the summer chum run with recent sex ratios in cost recovery harvest of only 38% male. To date the fall run chum have yet to make much of an appearance only making up 2% of the last sample from July 12th.
SE Cove will close to common property fisheries after this Thursday’s (July 18th) seine opening to facilitate cost recovery. To date we have only harvested 16% of the combined cost recovery goal between SE Cove and Gunnuk Creek. This is mainly due to the Gunnuk Creek return coming in significantly below forecast.
NSRAA will work to harvest the remaining cost recovery volume as quickly as possible and the front page of our website will show our progress on the Sitka Area and SE Cove cost recovery progress bars. These progress bars are updated daily as cost recovery occurs.
July 8th Weekly Return Update-Deep Inlet Closure
Summer chum returns this past week have appeared to plateau to both Deep Inlet and Hidden Falls. This may be in part due the current dry and sunny weather, but we have also seen a continued decline in male sex ratios with both Deep Inlet and Hidden Falls summer chum returns approaching 60% male. This leveling off on the return to Deep Inlet has slowed our cost recovery harvest and to date we have only managed to harvest 20% of our goal. Due to this slower pace, management actions are necessary to ensure we meet our cost recovery goal for the Sitka area.
Deep Inlet will close to common property fishing at the end of the gillnet rotation Wednesday, July 10th, and remain closed until the Sitka area cost recovery is mostly complete. This may be as short as a week but will be determined by harvestable volume available to the cost recovery boats in the Deep Inlet THA and the Eastern Channel/Silver Bay SHA. Progress towards our goal is available on the homepage of our website under the header In-Season Harvest Data-Cost Recovery. Deep Inlet will likely reopen on a Wednesday for troll then roll into the normal rotation with a Thursday/Friday seine day.
NSRAA obtained a chum sample from the Friday July 5th Kingsmill test fishery. The chum harvest in this test fishery was a record for the stat week and was comprised of 25% Hidden Falls, 15% DIPAC, 28% SE Cove, 10% Thomas Bay and 6% Gunnuk Creek. The second Kingsmill test fishery is occurring today with once again a strong chum component, the next Point Garnder test fishery will occur on Tuesday July 9th. The second Hawk Inlet test fishery occurred on July 5th and the chum portion of the harvest was 147% of the 10-year average. A breakdown of the composition of the chum catch in the Hawk Inlet test fishery should be available Tuesday. Reminder all test fishery chum otolith information can be found at https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=5485 .
SE Cove and Thomas Bay returns continue to build and harvest to date is continuing to increase with an estimated cumulative harvest at SE Cove of 100k and a cumulative harvest to date of 50k in Thomas Bay. These returns appear to be tracking more on the historical return timing with the peak week towards the end of July.
June 29th Weekly Return Update
Summer chum returns to Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet continue to be strong and continue to track at or above the high range of our forecast for both sites. Harvest this past week (stat wk 26) for Hidden Falls was 220k fish with Deep Inlet coming in at an estimated 285k. Hidden Falls chum returns this past week have been 70% male and a 6.5lb avg with 60% 4-year-olds and 30% 5-year-olds. Deep Inlet chum returns this past week have been coming in 60% male and also a 6.5lb avg with more than 90% 4-year-olds. Common property opening lines will continue to be the same for both sites for Sunday. Hidden Falls lines may be moved away from Kasnyku for the Thursday opener depending on volume remaining in Kasnyku after Sunday. Will begin to accumulate brood stock behind the barrier net next week at Hidden Falls with a total brood stock need of 215k fish.
SE Cove and Thomas Bay returns continue to increase but still on the slow side compared to Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet. SE Cove has an estimated common property harvest of 20k chum to date. Typically SE Cove chum returns will begin to ramp up toward the end of the coming week. Thomas Bay harvest has been minimal with little effort. As with SE Cove the Thomas Bay site returns should begin to build towards the end of next week.
NSRAA obtained a chum sample from the Wednesday June 25th Point Gardner test fishery. The chum harvest in this test fishery was a record for the stat week and was comprised of 71% Hidden Falls, 8% DIPAC, 8% SE Cove, 4% Thomas Bay and 2% Gunnuk Creek. The next Point Garnder test fishery will occur on Monday July 1st with the first Kingsmill test fishery on Tuesday July 2nd. The first Hawk Inlet test fishery occurred on June 28th and the chum portion of the harvest was 225% of the 10-year average. A breakdown of the composition of the chum catch in the Hawk Inlet test fishery should be available Monday.
Cost recovery continues at all sites and will continue without common property closures through next week as the returns continue to build and cost recovery volume is trending the right direction. Cost recovery for the Sitka area will begin in the outer Eastern Channel/Silver Bay Special Harvest Area this week beginning on Monday July 1st.
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