Our Blog
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
Economic Benefits of Hatcheries
Alaska’s PNP hatchery associations contracted with McKinley Research Group
to update previous research on the economic impact of hatcheries. This update
covers 2018-2023. See link below for details!
NSRAA Scholarship Reminder
Each year NSRAA awards three $2500 scholarships.
Applications are due soon – check it out!
Deep Inlet to Re-open Saturday August 26th to Troll
NSRAA has moved sufficient chum salmon brood stock to Bear Cove/Medvejie hatchery, to allow the reopening of Deep Inlet on Saturday August 26th to troll. The regular 2023 Deep Inlet weekly net rotation will begin with seine on Sunday August 27th. On Wednesday August 23 NSRAA moved approximately 22,000 chum from the Deep Inlet THA to Bear Cove. An additional 10,000 fish were secured in net pens at the head of Deep Inlet. Thursday August 24th NSRAA is continuing to move fish to Bear Cove and secure additional fish in net pens at the head of Deep Inlet. Be aware that the net pens at the head of Deep Inlet will remain in place with fish in them for up to a week. Please exercise caution around the net pens at the head of the bay.
Cost Recovery is ongoing at Crawfish Inlet and West Crawfish. By end of Thursday we should be approximately 40% complete and have taken nearly 1 million pounds in the past 5 days. We anticipate this pace will continue for several days and are monitoring fish build in both West and Crawfish Inlet. A common property seine opening in West Crawfish may be warranted if numbers of fish maintain their current level during ongoing cost recovery. Last West Crawfish troll sample indicated 70% male, 82% 4-year old’s and 6.3lb average weight.
On the east side of Baranof Island this past week we have collected approximately 70k lbs of coho cost recovery between Mist Cove and Hidden Falls.
Deep Inlet Chum Brood Stock Closure Beginning August 19th.
NSRAA has requested that ADFG close the Deep Inlet THA to commercial fishing beginning on Aug 19th (Troll day) until further notice. It is our intention to complete brood stock collection by Aug 25th and reopen to Troll gear in the THA on Saturday Aug 26th. If brood collection proceeds quicker than anticipated NSRAA will reopen as soon as possible beginning with a troll day. If brood collection is slower than anticipated the closure will be extended until brood goals met. We will provide web updates daily on Deep Inlet chum brood collection progress.
As forecast, NSRAA continues to see very few Bear Cove bound fall chum salmon. For last week (wk 32), the total age 4 component of the Deep Inlet THA and Sitka Sound troll harvest was only 2%. Additionally we are estimating there are only 5k fall chum at Bear Cove currently. Our total pre-season brood stock goal is 110,000 fall chum and egg takes typically begin on Aug 21st. Fall chum returns to Deep Inlet have yet to show a build up towards the peak of the run. This is likely due to lower harvest effort in the THA as well as lack of chum volume in the sound. Charts below track difference in returns vs projections for Bear Cove and Deep Inlet 4 year olds.
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