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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
July 13th Return Update-Hidden Falls produces
The big news this week is today’s Hidden Falls chum opener which, when it is all over today, will be the largest single day harvest in at least the past decade. Early estimates indicate total harvest may top 300k adult chum. This is fabulous news and puts us on a potential path to top a 1 millionchum return this year to Hidden Falls which hasn’t happened since 2013 (1.38m in 2013). Keep in mind we currently release approximately 50% fewer chum fry from Hidden Falls than we did in the brood years that made up the 2013 return. Today Hidden Falls is beginning their chum spawn and we currently estimate that there are in total approximately 100k brood stock, combining numbers immediately off the barrier net and inside the barrier net. There are additional chum further out in Kasnyku and we will evaluate numbers in the bay tomorrow morning in order to determine area and lines for the Sunday (7/16) opener. Link below for those interested in seeing start of the fishery at Hidden Falls this morning. Reminds me of the old days.
The last few days cost recovery has ramped up at SE Cove and we are now 10% toward our $4.1 million dollar goal. Cost recovery is updated daily when harvest occurs. Due to the small size of chum returning this season meeting that goal will necessitate additional numbers of fish from SE Cove. There will likely be little to no common property opportunity at SE Cove this season unless we come in above forecast.
Deep Inlet continues to be dominated by 3-year old summer stock chum with no sign yet of the later fall stock chum in our last GN sample from 7/12. Sex ratio continues to be amazingly high and our GN 7/12 sample was 95% male and 63% 3-year olds with no age 5’s. We now have the largest number of summer Hidden Falls stock chum brood in Bear Cove (est 25k on 7/13), since we instituted releases of that stock from Medvejie Hatchery. Egg takes on the summer chum should begin any day at Medvejie. It is now abundantly clear we are having a tremendous survival event on our 3-year old summer chum at Deep Inlet giving early indication for good returns next year for the early chum return.
July 5th Hidden Falls return update
Chum returns to Hidden Falls continue to improve and it is beginning to look like our forecast of 800k adults may be possible. To date approximately 213k adults have been harvested by the seine fishery. This will certainly be the largest commercial catch in the Hidden Falls THA in over a decade by the time it is over. While I am optimistic that the return is coming in strong and continuing to build, the Thursday July 6th Hidden Falls opener has had further area restrictions to begin to accumulate brood stock in Kasnyku Bay. Currently there is less than 5k adults behind the barrier net with an additional 15-20k in the immediate area outside of the barrier net. Our brood stock goal for Hidden Falls this season is 230k adult chum.
There have been encouraging seine catches of chum at Point Augusta and the seine test fishery at Point Gardner and Kingsmill. Unfortunately all previous week common property Augusta and Gardner test fisheries have had the harvest mixed with other fisheries on the tenders or at the plants. When this occurs it makes spending the time collecting, reading and analyzing the harvest contribution by project mostly pointless. We just received and are currently processing the Sunday Augusta sample, which so far appears to be unmixed. Once that is complete we will jump onto Monday and Tuesday’s Gardner and Kingsmill samples which were unfortunately mixed on the tender. The Gardner harvest volume on 7/3 is particularly encouraging as it is 10 times the long term average. Main questions is are those Hidden Falls fish or SE Cove bound. The information will be interesting but also impossible to compare to previous test fisheries due to the mixing. We have reached out to processors and offered assistance to try and prevent this issue from occurring again.
Our early spring egg take goal for Hidden Falls chum was 160 million. Since then NSRAA and AKI have come to an agreement to allow NSRAA to release up to 40 million additional chum salmon on their behalf in the Hidden Falls THA. We just received the Notice of Permit Alteration for Hidden Falls from ADFG last week to allow this to occur. The 230k adult chum brood stock goal for Hidden Falls mentioned above takes into account this additional egg take need this year. This additional group of chum should be released next spring from Takatz. This will bring the Hidden Falls chum release numbers back up to where they were prior to 2016 when NSRAA moved 40 million chum out of the Hidden Falls THA to Thomas Bay and Bear Cove. It is our hope that this increase in release numbers can take advantage of recent uptick in chum marine survival in the Chatham Strait corridor.
Openings at Hidden Falls will continue to be made based upon the best information we have and also continue to error on the conservative side when information is missing in order to assure brood needs are met. The last year over 200k chum were harvested at Hidden Falls was 2018 when we over harvested and ended up short of brood. This resulted in no Hidden Falls chum stock released at Deep Inlet in 2019 and a short fall of 10 million at both Thomas Bay and SE Cove. Assuring we make our brood needs is the best course to ensure future returns are strong. Tomorrows opening (7/6) at Hidden Falls will be very informative on determining the trajectory of the return this year.
Friday June 30 Return Update
After a slow first 10 days of fishing at Hidden Falls things have begun to pick up. Yesterday (6/29) in the Thursday seine opening approximately 60k chum were harvested compared to a cumulative total of 25k for the previous 10 days. The 6/29 sample had a 6.5lb size avg, 67% male and the age structure of the return so far is relatively “normal” with the majority being age 4. . While this harvest increase gives us confidence that the return is tracking our forecast of 800k total return, the lines have been modified for Sundays (7/2) opener to provide more protection for brood stock chum in Kasnyku Bay. Area open lines will be modified opening by opening to manage for a brood stock need of 230k chum in order to meet our egg take goal. Please monitor the ADFG Advisory Announcements for line changes each opening. Our Hidden Falls in-season data page is updated frequently and can be found here: https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=883
Deep Inlet chum return numbers are still relatively small but tracking on the higher end of the long-term average and our forecast. This is primarily being driven by a large number of 3-year old summer stock chum which are making up approximately 50% of the harvest. This is a very high percentage of 3-year old’s for this stock and this early in the return, as 3-year old’s typically return towards the end of the run. Additionally we do not have any 5-year old summer stock chum returning this year. As the catch is made up of only 3 and 4 year old chum the average size has been very small with a 4.8lb average this week and a high male average of 83%. The Deep Inlet in-season data page is also updated nearly daily with the most current information available to us. Link here: https://www.nsraa.org/?page_id=884
This year our cost recovery is being split 50/50 between SE Cove and Crawfish Inlet. There was an attempt this week to perform cost recovery in SE Cove but the harvest was extremely small. SE Cove chum returns tend to start building this week and next. Our current plan is to have a net in the water next week on Tuesday. The cost recovery progress is tracked on our home page with a progress bar. Once cost recovery needs are met at SE Cove we will open for rotational fisheries.
The Point Gardner and the Hawk Inlet test fisheries both indicate an above long-term average number of chum salmon. Additionally there was a decent harvest of chum salmon in the Point Augusta fishery this past Sunday. Typically this time of year the vast majority of Point Agusta chum harvest is Hidden Falls chum. We were unable to obtain an unmixed otolith sample from this last opening at Augusta but are planning on acquiring one from this upcoming opening on Sunday. We are currently in the process of acquiring samples from the Point Gardner and Hawk Inlet test fisheries. This information should be available early next week.
Let’s hope things continue to build.
UPDATE: “WE CAN GO FISHING” – Federal Court rules in favor of the Wild Fish Conservancy
June 21, 2023 – “We can go fishing”
Following excerpt from ADF&G Advisory Announcement on 6.21.2023:
“Today, June 21, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of the vacatur order and halted the
implementation of a U.S. District Courts decision that would have shut down the Chinook salmon troll fishery in
Southeast Alaska/Yakutat beginning this summer. Further information is provided in the Alaska Department of
Law press release issued earlier today, June 21, at the following address:”
“A summer troll fishery advisory announcement will be issued within the next 24-48 hours providing
information on the general summer troll fishery. This announcement will include an estimate of the
summer troll Chinook salmon allocation and the target harvest for the first summer troll Chinook salmon
retention period, which will open by regulation July 1.”
Ruling here
May 30, 2023 – ADF&G Troll announcement here
May 23, 2023 – Judge Jones denies the State’s request for a stay
“Today, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones denied the State’s request for a stay of his May 2 order that vacates the incidental take statement (ITS) for the Southeast Alaska winter and summer commercial Chinook troll fisheries. The ITS gives these fisheries coverage for the incidental “take” of species listed under the Endangered Species Act which include 4 stocks of Chinook salmon, Southern Resident killer whales, and other marine mammals. This order has the practical effect of closing the directed summer and winter Chinook troll fisheries until a new ITS is in place.”
Statewide press release and further information on this ruling provided below:
Click to access NR-23-1049.pdf
Order denying motion here
May 23, 2023 – U.S. Department of Justice has filed an Intent to Appeal
that the U.S. Department of Justice, representing NOAA, has filed an Intent to Appeal the Jones Decision in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Notice of appeal here
May 10, 2023 – State of Alaska files for Partial Stay of Ruling
Motion for partial stay here
May 6, 2023 – ATA News Bulletin
News Bulletin 5/6/23: ATA received confirmation from ADFG late yesterday that the troll coho and chum fisheries will occur this year as normal, although without Chinook retention.
May 5, 2023 – State of Alaska and ATA file to appeal Ruling
Notice of appeal here
May 3, 2023 – ATA Press Release in Response to Judge Jones May 2nd Decision
On May 2, 2023, Judge Jones ruled on the WFC lawsuit. Attached is the order we received. This order adopts Judge Peterson recommendations, vacating the Incidental Take Statement that governs the SEAK summer and winter fisheries.
The Court’s order will cause irreparable harm to the communities of Southeast Alaska with no measurable benefit to Southern Resident Killer Whales.
Our ATA attorney is working with the State of Alaska and the United States (NMFS) in evaluating potential next steps. The ATA board will be relying on our counsel to advise us of our legal options and more information will be posted to our website as to our next step by the end of this week: www.aktrollers.org
We are prepared to appeal this ruling. The ATA will continue to fight for the way of lives of its members and the communities of Southeast Alaska.
Thanks to all our supporters who contributed to the ATA legal fund as we will be needing it.
************************************
Press Contact: Amy Daugherty, ATA Director (907) 723-2244
Alaska Trollers Association
130 Seward #205
Juneau, AK 99801
(907) 586-9400
alaskatrollers@gmail.com
www.aktrollers.org
State press release here
Judge Jones Order available here
SOLD OUT – Medvejie Hatchery: Salmon Bake and Tours
NSRAA will be offering hatchery tours and a BBQ lunch at Medvejie Hatchery on Saturday, July 1st. Lunch will consist of barbecued King Salmon, baked potato, green salad, rolls, watermelon and non-alcoholic drinks. Tickets are $15.00 per person- CASH or CHECK ONLY and can be purchased during office hours at NSRAA- 1308 Sawmill Creek Road. (8-5 Mon-Fri)
We are providing two tours on Saturday for you to choose from.
Tour 1
9:00am – 12:15pm
Tour 2
12:30pm – 4:00pm.
Transportation to and from Medvejie Hatchery will be provide by Allen Marine. Our port of departure/arrival is Crescent Harbor. Boats depart promptly at 9 and 12:30 so don’t be late! Physical ticket will be needed to board & no refunds.
This will be a great chance to see King Salmon returning to the hatchery, and to hear about our fisheries enhancement program. We hope you can join us!
For more information, call 747-6850.
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