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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
Deep Inlet Closure Likely
The Deep Inlet Terminal Harvest Area (THA) is expected to close to all gear groups in mid-August for the purpose of chum brood stock preservation.
NSRAA is forecasting exceptionally weak four-year-old chum returns to Medvejie Hatchery this season, making fishery brood stock closures in Bear Cove and Deep Inlet a near certainty. The NSRAA Board approved brood stock management actions that will close the Deep Inlet rotational fisheries during stat week 34. Unless otherwise indicated by in-season run evaluation, the inlet will close beginning Sunday August 20th, through Saturday August 26th, by ADFG Advisory Announcement. Closure may be extended if adequate brood stock preservation has not been achieved by weeks end.
Re-opening will be done in a manner that ensures pre-season harvest rotation splits are maintained.
NSRAA will also request that ADF&G close the Sitka Sound chum Troll fishery during the coho troll closure in the Sitka Sound subdistrict (113-41). Such a request is at the discretion of ADF&G, however every effort must be made to ensure the viability of our brood stock. In light of the recent court ruling closing the Chinook troll season, the NSRAA Executive Committee met on June 10th and reaffirmed the full board decision made in March to make this request.
Regular in-season updates will be available on the NSRAA website.
New Seafood Donation Inquiry Form via ALFA / ASFT
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are inviting community and tribal leaders, organizations, fishermen, and others to share via a new Seafood Donation Network Inquiry online form, whether they are struggling with access to local seafood or have seafood that they would be willing to contribute to families in need. Their invitation is part of ALFA and ASFT’s Seafood Donation Network, which was created in March 2020 as a program of ALFA but has since evolved into a statewide network of communities, organizations, businesses, and fishermen concerned about seafood insecurity in Alaska.
Deep Inlet/Bear Cove Closure
The Deep Inlet terminal harvest area will close to common property fishing at end of day Saturday (9/10) for chum and coho brood stock concerns at Medvejie Hatchery, and a likely shortfall of chum cost recovery from Crawfish Inlet. We are just over 50% complete on the fall chum egg take goal of 92 million at Medvejie and estimate that we may need an additional 5-10k fish for brood, depending upon additional recruitment, and final sex ratio. Additionally, the coho return to Bear Cove and Deep Inlet continue to perform below forecast. Bear Cove will close to retention of coho salmon at midnight Wednesday (9/7) for both commercial troll and sport fish. The Deep Inlet coho return has been especially poor, with less than 6% of forecast returning to date, indicating additional closures to protect coho brood are necessary at this time.
Cost recovery at Crawfish Inlet has dramatically dropped off over the past several days, and as of Wednesday afternoon (9/7), are currently at 85% of goal. Only 150k lbs have been harvested in Crawfish Inlet since the last fishing effort that ended on Saturday (9/3). We have an estimated 400k lbs left of our pre-season goal and based upon run trajectory will unlikely meet goal. Any chum salmon in Deep Inlet, surplus to brood stock needs, will be utilized to make up any cost recovery short fall from Crawfish Inlet. We will continue to monitor returns to both Deep Inlet and Crawfish Inlet but additional common property openings this season are not anticipated.
Sept 2-Return Update
Fall chum returns continue to taper after peaking over the past 2 weeks. Deep Inlet and Bear Cove returns are now a combined 112% of forecast and this week topped a total return of 2 million chum. The trollers continue on their record setting harvest and are now tantalizingly close to one million troll caught chum, between Deep Inlet and Crawfish Inlet returns, with a total of 970k chum harvested (820k DI & 150k CI). While the trollers have been in record setting territory for several weeks, breaking the million mark would be a historic milestone. Based upon the dwindling numbers of trollers participating in the fishery, breaking the million mark is seeming less likely with each passing day. Total commercial value of chum to the troll fleet is now over $8m. The total NSRAA commercial value to all gear in 2022 is going to be the 2nd highest on record. This year will top $20 million for the second time in the history of NSRAA. Only behind the 2018 record return to the Crawfish Inlet project. This years value is being driven by decent returns, but also more importantly, an increase in the price per pound being paid, primarily on chum, to the fishing fleet.
This past week we have wrapped up our chinook egg takes, those are now compete and all of our program goals have been met. The fall chum salmon egg take at Medvejie continues and we are currently at 25% of the 90m goal and are seeing a 50/50 male/female ratio at the hatchery. We are closely watching the Bear Cove recruitment and based upon current numbers still need an additional 20-30k additional brood stock chum. The numbers in Bear Cove continue to build and this rainy forecast will likely bring in additional recruitment from those Bear Cove bound fish still milling in Eastern Channel and Sitka Sound. We will assess chum numbers early next week in Bear Cove to determine if there is an adequate amount. IF there appears to be a shortfall, back up options will be developed. Most likely that would entail setting some fish aside in net pens in Crawfish Inlet as an insurance policy against any shortfall.
Over the last several weeks we have watched the Bear Cove chum numbers SLOWLY climb. Looking deeper into our otolith information it appears that this year there has been an interception rate of Bear Cove bound fish of~90%. This compares to the recent long-term average of 67%, with last year coming in at 77%. The high interception rate this year is what is currently driving our challenges with sufficient brood stock as 600k+ Bear Cove fish have been harvested. While it is still early, we are also becoming concerned if we will see this higher interception rate on our coho return. Very few have been seen in Bear Cove and the Deep Inlet coho return is looking extremely weak this year. Often when we have coho shortfalls at Bear Cove we will utilize Deep Inlet as a backup. With such a weak return to Deep Inlet there will likely be few available there.
Coho cost recovery has begun at Mist Cove and a little over 100k lbs has been harvested with a current sex ratio at 65% male in the cove. It appears we will have the best coho return in quite a few years to Deer Lake. A little over 20k have been harvested by the troll fleet and the catch is continuing. There are also early indications that the Hidden Falls coho return may see a similar uptick in survival and returns.
Aug 29th-Return Update
Cost recovery continues at Crawfish Inlet and we have approximately 42% left to harvest. We made good progress over Friday and Saturday at CI and harvested nearly 20% of the goal. The male sex ratio is holding high in the cost recovery samples and last sample taken from Saturdays harvest was 65% male. We have been seeing a high 3-year old percentage at CI and that is maintaining at 35% of the harvest in recent samples. We will continue cost recovery fishing at CI Monday (8/29) through Wednesday (8/31). It is very unlikely that there will be a Thursday seine opening for CI as the announcement would need to come out Tuesday morning. Daily progress is posted to our home page under the 2022 Fishing section.
Chum harvest at Deep Inlet is beginning to taper off and those sex ratios are now trending heavier female with the Friday (8/26) seine sample at 60% female. The troll effort for Sitka Sound has also tapered off substantially over the last few days. Though the troll effort has lessened, their catch this season is a historic record high in number of fish and total value. The total chum troll harvest for both Sitka Sound and Crawfish Inlet currently stands at 932k fish with a value of approximately 8.2 million. Of the 932k chum caught only about 140k have come from the Crawfish area. Unless the last of the die hard chum fisherman stick it out one more week, they will likely end the season just shy of 1m total catch.
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