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Common Property Harvest Update:
September 19, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: The number of trollers fishing this fishery recently went from about 20 boats to 7 or 8 and today no one is trolling in Neets Bay. Troll harvest of fall chum in the Behm and outside portion of the Neets Bay SHA has been up and down the past week, there were several days with excellent harvest last weekend (9/11 and 9/12) and the early part of the week, but recent harvest has been poor. Impending storms, poor fishing, and the troll closure have contributed to boats leaving the fishery. The small area of the SHA now open (Bug Island in to the Sims Line) will remain open after the general closure. When the entire SHA opens to net rotations, later this month, it will also open to troll.
Fall Chum: Fall chum are returning in decent numbers to Nakat and Neets Bay release sites. Please note that decent numbers of fall chum are small numbers related to summer chum returns. The fish are now being caught in Tree Point and District 106 drift fisheries. Some of these fish are now in the Nakat terminal area. Each year something unusual occurs, and 2011 is not an exception. The early return of these fish was through the Dixon Entrance (D101 seine and drift, D104 seine, and Metlakatla) while the latter portion of the return seems to be coming down Clarence Strait (D106 drift). The Neets return is now well beyond the forecast at more than 150% of the forecast. At the moment the daily female percent is still less than 50%. This suggests there are more fish to come. At the same time we have seen this run end abruptly with far less than 50% of the fish female. This does not appear to be the case in 2011, but we won’t know that for certain until the last of these fish are harvested.
Neets Bay Common Property Net Rotational Fisheries: The fish are still predominantly male suggesting 2011 is not an early return, but rather a decent return. This has not happened since 2003, and in fact this return is likely larger than what we experienced in 2003 when there was significant harvest in net rotational fisheries starting on 25 September. In part the size of the return is due to good survival and in part because an additional 10 million fall fry were released in 2007. The fish are small, now about 6 pounds average weight – somewhat dampening the return numbers with small-sized fish. Hold in mind even a decent fall return is just a fraction of the summer chum return, but it can provide opportunity…and we will try to make that happen.
We have already placed the required broodstock over the barrier seine. There is a chance a few more fish will be needed, but the last large egg taking will go on in the next several days. Those of you who have followed SSRAA’s fall chum program know we have had some serious problems getting sufficient fall chum eggs into the hatchery over the past several years. These problems are largely related to severe fall storms during the period of time the brood is behind the barrier seine, but before the fish have moved into the raceways for egg collection. Barring unforeseen events, this should occur on about the 24th of September. The Department will make an announcement about the rotational fishery by Thursday this week. Currently we have good reason to be optimistic about this opportunity…more so than in a number of years.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all release sites continue to contribute to ongoing troll and drift gear harvests; but, again this week, not in the numbers we are used to seeing at this date (attached graphics). These are late-run fish. With the troll closure scheduled for 20 September, tomorrow, the remaining return will be caught by drift gear in the Clarence Strait (D106) corridor, and in the SHA’s at Anita Bay, Nakat, and Neets Bay. Because of the late return this year, it is likely a larger than normal portion of the run will be taken in the terminal area. As is always the case, the last few weeks in all the graphics will increase over time as it takes several weeks to process coded wire tags and expand those numbers to represent harvest.
September 9, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: Troll harvest of fall chum in the Behm and outside portion of the Neets Bay SHA has been slowed the past 4 or 5 days because of weather. Fish seem to be abundant, but catching has not been that good. This fishery should build over the next week or 10 days, but there is no guarantee chum “biting” will improve over what has gone on the past little while. There is some optimism that this will improve as the weather improves and there is less freshwater in Neets Bay.
Net gear rotations will occur later in the month…once broodstock and egg take are secured and cost recovery expectations met.
Summer Chum: The summer chum return is over. The Neets Bay return (as well as returns to other SSRAA sites) was well over forecast. Results are documented in the thread below this entry.
Fall Chum: Fall chum continue returning in decent numbers to Tree Point and Neets Bay. The fish are also now being caught in D106 drift fisheries. Some of these fish are now in the Nakat terminal area. Each year something unusual occurs, and 2011 is not an exception. The early return of these fish was through the Dixon Entrance (D101 seine and drift, D104 seine, and Metlakatla) while the latter portion of the return seems to be coming down Clarence Strait (D106 drift). The Neets return is now at 100% of forecast and only 35% of the catch in the SHA are female fish. This suggests there are more fish to come. At the same time we have seen this run end abruptly with far less than 50% of the fish female. This does not appear to be the case in 2011, but we won’t know that for certain until the last of these fish are harvested.
Neets Bay Common Property Net Rotational Fisheries: The fish are still heavily male (65%) suggesting it is not an early return, but rather a decent return. This has not happened since 2003, and in fact this return may be larger than what we experienced in 2003. In part this is due to good survival and in part because an additional 10 million fall fry were released in 2007. The fish are smaller than usual, currently averaging only 6.5 pounds – somewhat dampening the return numbers with small sized fish. Regardless of this positive situation, hold in mind even a decent fall return is just a fraction of the summer chum return, but it can provide opportunity…and we will try to make that happen.
We have already placed about 40% of the required broodstock over the barrier. Our first egg take took place today. This will mean a few extra males over the barrier, but it will also mean incubation starts sooner and the fry emerge sooner in the spring…which would normally allow more size prior to release and an earlier release…and greater survival, all good if we can do it. We have bet on our assessment and will allow the trollers a little way into the SHA – to the Sims Line. This is not an area where the fish build but it will give trollers a larger area to chase moving schools and help us moderate abundance until we are comfortable with the egg take goals.
Those of you who have followed SSRAA’s fall chum program know we have had some serious problems getting sufficient eggs into the hatchery over the past several years. These problems are largely related to severe fall storms during the period of time the brood is behind the barrier seine, but before the fish have moved into the raceways for egg collection. Once we are past this issue, brood collected and spawned or safe in the raceways, we will open the inner bay to net rotations. Barring unforeseen events, this should occur on about the 25th of September. We saw the same kind of return in 2003 and rotational fisheries during that year provided good harvest of fall chum and coho through three full rotations…at the time longer rotations than the current 1 to 1 ratio of time between the two groups. Currently we have good reason to be optimistic about this opportunity…more so than in a number of years.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): the summer coho run is done. More than 50,000 summer coho were caught by the drift fleet, about 7,500 by trollers and 1,500 by seiners. We generally estimate a 10,000 fish sport harvest in Whale Pass.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all release sites continue to contribute to ongoing troll harvests, but not in the numbers we are used to seeing at this date (attached graphics). We would expect the return to be building at the moment, but it seems more to be on a plateau and lags recent returns. These are late-run fish, so there is still a good chance larger numbers will move into the fishery through the next three weeks to a month. There is always a chance that the larger part of this group has not come inside as yet and that recent weather has dramatically curtailed troll harvest. If that is the case, we would expect to see the catch dramatically increase over the next week…but it is also possible this is simply not a very strong return. Regardless of run size, harvest will build through the next several weeks.
September 2, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: With the reopening of the troll fishery on the 15th, 12 or 13 boats went back to Behm Canal. The group grew from that point to about 30 boats yesterday (1 Sept) A local processor is tendering the fishery. The harvest is more sporadic than what happens with summer chum as the fish don’t tend to linger as long at the mouth of the bay. The current weather is also more conducive to their moving more quickly to the inner bay. The fish are smaller than summer chum, averaging just under7 pounds today. We anticipate this return will provide harvest through the next three weeks – at least.
Over the past several days it appears the run may be slightly stronger than we anticipated. We have asked the Department to open the SHA in to the “Sims Line”. This is about half way into the SHA…at the narrowest part of the bay. You can refer to a map on our web page in the latest addition of the “Spawning News”. The line is marked and lat/lon will be provided with the announcement. While this will not open the innermost portion of the bay (Seal Rocks, Fire Cove or the area around the barrie) it should give trollers a little more area in which to follow these schools.
Net gear rotations will occur later in the month…once broodstock and egg take are secured and cost recovery expectations met.
Summer Chum: Though a few tired summer chum are still mixed with fall chums, this run is over. The Neets Bay return (as well as returns to other SSRAA sites) was well over forecast.
Seiners caught the greatest number of SSRAA summer chum (about 1,200,000 fish to date), the drift fleet next greatest number (about 770,000 fish) with troll following (about 370,000 fish).
Summer chum were smaller than usual in 2011. The long-term average weight of these fish is between 9.6 and 10 pounds. When we are done this year the average will be closer to 8.2 pounds, about 15% lighter than usual. The overall female percentage for the return will be close to 54%. This is usual for a run that is strongly 4-year-old fish.
Fall Chum: Fall chum are currently returning in decent numbers to Tree Point and Neets Bay. The fish are also being caught in D104 seine and D106 drift fisheries. The fish have not yet entered the Nakat terminal area, though we are catching fall chum at the barrier seine in Neets Bay. The Neets return looks to be at least as strong as anticipated, very probably stronger. These fish will provide harvest at Tree Point and in Nakat as well as in the D106 drift fishery and in seine openings in D104 and in D102 should D102 be open. These are Cholmondely Sound fish…that was the donor stock. If the sound is open to common property fishing no doubt some of them may also be harvested in that fishery.
Neets Bay Common Property: In just the last three days we have seen decent numbers of these fish at the barrier seine. This was a surprise – it is pretty early for that. The fish are still heavily male (61%) suggesting it is not an early return, but rather a decent return. This has not happened since 2003. Regardless, hold in mind even a decent fall return is just a fraction of the summer chum return, but it can provide opportunity…and we will try to make that happen.
Despite the low female % we’ll start collecting broodstock in the next several days (50,000 fish required). This will mean a few extra males over the barrier, but it will also mean incubation starts sooner and the fry emerge sooner in the spring…which would normally allow more size prior to release and an earlier release…and greater survival, all good if we can do it. We have bet on our assessment and will allow the trollers a little way into the SHA – to the Sims Line. This is not an area where the fish build but it will give trollers a larger area to chase moving schools and help us moderate abundance until we are comfortable with the egg take goals.
Those of you who have followed SSRAA’s fall chum program know we have had some serious problems getting sufficient eggs into the hatchery over the past several years. These problems are largely related to severe fall storms during the period of time the brood is behind the barrier seine, but before the fish have moved into the raceways for egg collection. Once we are past this issue, brood collected and spawned or safe in the raceways, we will open the inner bay to net rotations. Barring unforeseen events, this should occur on about the 25th of September. We saw the same kind of return in 2003 and rotational fisheries during that year provided good harvest of fall chum and coho through three full rotations…at the time longer rotations than the current 1 to 1 ratio of time between the two groups. Currently we have good reason to be optimistic about this opportunity…more so than in a number of years.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): the summer coho run is done. More than 50,000 summer coho were caught by the drift fleet, about 7,500 by trollers and 1,500 by seiners. We generally estimate a 10,000 fish sport harvest in Whale Pass.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all release sites continue to contribute to ongoing troll harvests, but not in the numbers we are used to seeing at this date (attached graphics). These are late-run fish, so there is still a good chance larger numbers will move into the fishery through the next three weeks to a month. We have read that coho were smaller than usual, but the fish have not yet come into the harvest at Neets Bay where we can comment specifically on their size. Regardless of run size, harvest will build through the next three weeks.
August 17, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: With the reopening of the troll fishery on the 15th, 12 or 13 boats went back to Behm Canal. A local processor resumed tendering the fishery. The harvest was a few more than 100 fish a day per boat (about 26,000 pounds for two days). These appear to be new fish. We have not seen them inside Neets Bay as yet.
Summer Chum: Though a few tired summer chum will be caught in most regional fisheries for the next several weeks, the harvest of these fish will not be significant.
The return to each site exceeded the 2011 forecast, some dramatically. It is important to note that “forecast” is a relative term, some forecasts were better than others. The individual returns are illustrated in the attached graphics.
Seiners caught the greatest number of SSRAA summer chum (about 1,200,000 fish to date), the drift fleet next greatest number (about 870,000 fish) with troll following (about 370,000 fish). Over time a few more fish will continue to show up in the data, but the numbers will not change significantly.
Summer chum were smaller than usual in 2011. The long-term average weight of these fish is between 9.6 and 10 pounds. When we are done this year the average will be closer to 8.2 pounds, about 15% lighter than usual. The overall female percentage for the return will be close to 54%. This is usual for a run that is strongly 4-year-old fish.
Fall Chum: We have seen fall chum from both Nakat and Neets Bay in the regional harvest. These fish have been harvested in D104 and D102 seine, D101 drift, and Behm Canal troll. While this is not exceptionally early for these fish during years of good returns, we have not seen them in these numbers (about 10% of the forecast harvested) at this date for several years. We have not yet processed all the fish from this week’s harvest so the fall chum graphics have not been updated since the tab was added last week. Anecdotal information suggests the harvest has not been that large. We expect these fish to return until at least mid September at Tree Point and pretty much through the month of September in Behm Canal and in Neets Bay.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. For all practical purposes the summer coho run is done. There will be a few of these fish caught in drift and troll fisheries through August, but no longer large numbers. More than 50,000 summer coho were caught by the drift fleet, about 7,200 by trollers and 1,500 by seiners. We generally estimate a 10,000 fish sport harvest in Whale Pass.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all release sites continue to contribute to ongoing troll harvests. Numbers are still what we would expect at this date (graphics)…these are late-run fish. To date we have not seen many of these fish caught by net gear; this is usual and expected as the fish don’t usually come into inside waters until late August or early September. The graphics were updated.
August 14, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: On Wednesday, 10 August, the SE troll fishery was closed for 5 days. There were 12 trollers fishing at the time of the closure and they were catching SSRAA chums in Behm Canal. Trollers have harvested an estimated 368,660 chum salmon in Behm Canal adjacent to the Neets Bay SHA. One processor will return with a tender when the troll fishery restarts to assess participation and harvest.
Summer Chum: Though a few tired fish may still be harvested, the summer chum run is over at all SSRAA sites. The return to each site exceeded the 2011 forecast, some dramatically. Each site has exceeded the 2011 forecast. It is important to note that “forecast” is a relative term, some forecasts were better than others. The individual returns are illustrated in the attached graphics.
Seiners caught the greatest number of SSRAA summer chum (about 1,055,000 fish), the drift fleet next greatest number (about 737,000 fish) with troll following (about 370,000 fish). Over time a few more fish will show up in the data, but the numbers will not change significantly.
Fall Chum: We have already seen fall chum from both Nakat and Neets Bay in the regional harvest. These fish have already been harvested in D104 and D102 seine, D101 drift, and Behm Canal troll. While this is not exceptionally early for these fish during years of good returns, we have not seen them in these numbers (about 10% of the forecast harvested) at this date for several years. A new graphic on the fall chum return is attached. At this time we have not seen any of these fish in cost recovery at Neets Bay.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. For all practical purposes the summer coho run is done. There will be a few of these fish caught going forward through August, but just small numbers. About 50,000 summer coho were caught by the drift fleet, about 7,200 by trollers and 1,500 by seiners. We generally estimate a 10,000 fish sport harvest in Whale Pass.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all releases are contributing to ongoing troll harvests. Numbers are what we would expect at this date (graphics)…these are late-run fish. I updated the graphics this week, though the last two data points on coho graphics underestimate the harvest during those weeks. This is true of every update of coho information. The tag lab takes at least several weeks to process coho tags and do the necessary tag expansions to estimate harvest. The numbers on the final two points represent just part of the information as it is still being processed. All stocks are in harvest and of similar strength at this time, though this is very early in the return of these fish.
August 8, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: On Sunday, 7 August, there were 18 trollers fishing the Behm for chum. They still stretch from the Naha to Nose Point, with most of the effort now near Naha. The harvest through Saturday, 6 August, was 362,500 fish. This fishery is still being tendered by one processor, but it will close during the coho closure. SSRAA will not open the Neets Bay SHA to common property harvest during the troll closure. The run has been more heavily loaded on the back shoulder than it was on the front shoulder…in essence not exactly the usual “bell shaped” curve. Historically SSRAA has had good cost recovery and broodstock harvests through mid August, and it is possible there will be chum salmon in the Behm after the coho closure, though this is not very likely.
Summer Chum: The summer chum run is nearing an end at all SSRAA sites, and the most recent look at data shows that each site has exceeded the 2011 forecast. It is important to note that “forecast” is a relative term, some forecasts were better than others this year and some of the returns exceeded forecast by a greater margin than others. The individual runs are illustrated in the attached graphics, but for the Anita/108 return in the last graphic. It has been difficult to get Anita data that is as current as the other data sets. That information will be added next week.
The return to Nakat (currently 456,675 fish 239% of the 191,000 fish forecast) had the best survival followed by Kendrick (currently 702,782 fish, 138% of the 509,000 fish forecast). These two runs are nearly over with only a small clean up likely. The total Neets run is also above forecast (1,245,310 fish, 111% of the 1,118,000 forecast) while Anita just passed the forecast with data collected today (185,000 fish were forecast). The harvest of Neets and Anita fish should continue in the terminal areas for another week, plus or minus.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 8,000 coho harvested in D106, it is very likely the shift is moving from the summer fish to local fall stocks. The SSRAA fall coho are a late-run fish and we would not expect those fish to be present in D106 for several more weeks at the earliest. We are seeing few fish in Whale Pass and likely doing our final several harvests from the raceway on Neck Creek. The summer coho run, Snow Pass Coho, is all but finished.
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all releases are contributing to ongoing troll harvests. Numbers are what we would expect at this date (graphics)…these are late-run fish. I have not updated the graphics this week as the tag lab information has not changed dramatically since the last update. This does not mean these fish have not been harvested…it means the tags, if any, have not been processed and expanded to represent harvest. All stocks are in harvest and of similar strength at this time, though this is very early in the return of these fish.
August 1, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: On Sunday, 1 August, there were 31 trollers fishing the Behm for chum. They still stretch from the Naha to Nose Point. The harvest is getting close to 350,000 summer chum. There was some confusing this past week…today, 1 August; the Neets Bay SHA shrinks by Board of Fish regulation to the Bug Island Line. The SHA becomes those waters east of the longitude of the easternmost tip of Bug Island to the head of the bay. SSRAA is not opening the Neets Bay SHA to common property harvest on August 1. The waters west of this line are open as part of Behm Canal. A number of trollers have called processors, the Department and SSRAA about this expanding area. It would not be a surprise if participation increased for at least several days. The run itself seems to be more heavily loaded on the back shoulder than it was on the front shoulder…in essence not exactly the usual “bell shaped” curve. Historically SSRAA has had good cost recovery and broodstock harvests through mid August, though that was not the case the past several years…it could again be that way in 2011. If so, this fishery could go another week particularly if coho fishing does not improve elsewhere. This is not gangbusters…but there have been chum to harvest.
Summer Chum: Though the run is nearing an end, summer chums are still being harvested in good numbers in the drift fishery at Tree Point and in the Nakat SHA. If history is an indicator, this harvest should diminish to scratch fishing soon, with perhaps one more “clean up” in Nakat this coming weekend. We flew Nakat last Friday 29 July. There were 25 boats fishing with another 4 delivering to the two tenders in the SHA. The bay was pretty much cleaned up with few if any schools of chums visible from the air. The total of Nakat fish nears 320,000, already 170% of what was forecast.
The summer chum fisheries in D106 and D108 were slightly better last week. For the most part the Neets fish did not use Clarence Strait as a corridor of return in 2011. That has been the case for the past 3 years. There has been more harvest of Anita Bay fish than the graphics indicate. It takes about a week longer for SSRAA to get otoliths from these fisheries so that we can process the information and distribute the fish to the different releases. Whatever is going to be available in the Anita Bay SHA should be now near or entering that area, more than 120,000 Anita fish have been harvested to date. There is a good change the Anita return will meet or exceed the forecast, though it was not a strong forecast.
Though the summer chum run should be in its final days, the seine harvest in D102/Kendrick was also good this past week. There have been more than 700,000 Kendrick fish caught at this point, about 130% of the forecast. Seine fisheries in D101, 103 and 104, when they occur, continue to include SSRAA summer chum.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 4,100 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. These fish have also been harvested by trollers the past three weeks (7,000 total summer chum).
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all releases are starting to contribute to troll harvests. Numbers are what we would expect at this date (graphics)…these are late-run fish.
July 25, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: On Saturday morning there were 79 trollers fishing the Behm…late Sunday afternoon (7/24) the count was 59. It looks like another group of fish hit the fishery this weekend as catches improved over late last week. We have seen a number of 3’s in the data; this is probably the source of fish in addition to the strong 4-year-old group. We estimate that close to 290,000 summer chum were taken by trollers in Behm Canal outside the Neets Bay SHA through Saturday…likely that number has passed 300,000 fish as I am typing this morning. This is fishing, there is no certainly, but it is possible this fishery could continue at some level for another week.
Summer Chum: Summer chums are still being harvested in good numbers in the drift fishery at Tree Point and in the Nakat SHA. This return is likely in its last week or 10 days of good fishing depending in part on the strength of the 3’s. The seine fishery in D102 and the Kendrick SHA should be on the same track, perhaps a week of harvest left with some clean up in the SHA…maybe a little more than that depending on 3’s.
The summer chum fisheries in D106 and D108 seem to be getting better. There has been more harvest of Anita Bay fish than the graphics indicate. It takes about a week longer for SSRAA to get otoliths from these fisheries so that we can process the information and distribute the fish to the different releases.
Seine fisheries in D101, 103 and 104 continue to include SSRAA chum at this point in the season. We have also seen a few SSRAA fall chum in the D104 fishery. The harvest in this fishery could not be listed as it was considered confidential by ADF&G this past week.
Related to the different returns: Nakat has already exceeded forecast and when the latest harvest is included in the data, Kendrick will also have exceeded forecast. Again this past week, stat week 30, and the Neets Bay release was the single largest contributor to common property harvest. Neets is at about 70% of the projection for total return and should meet or pass forecast before the run is over. While harvest of Anita Bay summer chum is at about 41% of the return, the next two weeks in D106, D108 and the SHA should see the peak of that return. The Anita 3’s in harvest have already exceeded the total annual forecast for that year class.
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 4,250 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. Participation was 55 boats in D106. It is hard to know how time constraints related to McDonald sockeye affected this harvest. (Graphics are under the summer coho tab.)
Fall Coho: SSRAA fall coho from all releases are starting to contribute to troll harvests. We will begin including a more comprehensive coho update with next week’s information.
July 18, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: On Thursday and Friday last week there were more than 120 trollers working the Behm for Neets Bay chum salmon. The fishery stretched from north of the bay south to the Naha…and in all the area between. All three processors continue tendering the fishery, usually with two smaller tenders each. The fishery has been taking between 20,000 and 25,000 fish a day and will likely be at about 210,000 fish at the end of the day today (7/18). Since the fishery outside the SHA easily reached 200,000 fish without opening the SHA, we will not be opening the SHA to troll in 2011.
Summer Chum: Something unique happened this past week, Stat week 29; there were more Neets Bay fish in common property harvest during this week than any other SSRAA stock. No doubt that has something to do with the troll fishery directed at these fish, but as usual Neets fish are caught in every other southern SE chum fishery.
Tree Point/Nakat and District 102/Kendrick were both strong last week. There were also decent harvests of chum in District 4 for the few seiners who fished the District. The predominant stocks in that fishery were Kendrick and Neets. Currently 71% of the Kendrick forecast and 73% of the Nakat forecast has been harvested…not including what has been harvested from each stock in the SHA’s. In addition the harvest in D106 has increased over the past two weeks though time in 106 is constrained by concerns about McDonald sockeye.
Anecdotal reports from processors this morning suggest the fishery at Tree Point and in the Nakat SHA had improved through this past weekend and with the opening at Tree Point on Sunday. D102 seine is only scheduled for one day, tomorrow; we would expect a significant seine harvest there as this should be the peak of that return. There were also reports of improved chum harvest in District 106 this morning, though that fishery is still limited in time because of McDonald sockeye.
Anita Bay fish have been harvested in most of the fisheries noted above. While we didn’t anticipate a large return to Anita this summer, we won’t know about this return until the drift fleet gets some time in D108 or until the fish get back into the SHA. Since fishing in the Neets SHA has only just improved the past three days, we would not expect that much to have happened in Anita where the run timing is similar to Neets. (Graphics are under summer chum tab. SHA data lags several weeks and is not current.)
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 7,500 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. Participation was 62 boats in D106. It is hard to know how time constraints related to McDonald sockeye affected this harvest. (Graphics are under the summer coho tab.)
Chinook: The chinook graphics have not been updated this week. We will do a careful update at the end of the July opening as numbers settle. There are still chinook salmon being harvested at Mt. Point by sport and commercial fishermen, though those fish are getting dark.
July 8, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: There were 56 trollers in Behm Canal just outside Neets Bay this morning – the number of boats is quickly increasing. All three processors have been tendering the fishery, Trident, EC Phillips and AGS. Assessment of deliveries: it looks as if average daily harvest at the moment is between 100 and 200 chums a day. We have been asked about pinks, the run to Behm Canal is a later run and we normally don’t harvest many pinks in this fishery, but nothing is certain with the large number of pinks forecast this year. They are not there yet. Through yesterday, 7/7/2011, the troll harvest was approximately 15,000 summer chum salmon.
I was asked about when we would consider opening the THA this summer. We will watch both participation and harvest. It is possible the fleet will be able to harvest the full 200,000 chum without opening the THA. If the fish are there but catching is not what we have seen the past several years, we will consider opening inward to Bug Island some time from July 13 -15. If we open the THA It is likely we will open for one day at a time to see how that changes both participation and harvest. We have reliable reports of fishing picking up in D101 and Metlakatla. These are Neets fish and should be back in the Behm in 3 or so days.
Summer Chum: harvest of summer chum picked up dramatically at Nakat/Tree Point (drift) and in D102/Kendrick (seine). About 21% of the forecast return has been harvested at Kendrick and 33% of the forecast at Nakat. We anticipate this return to build through the next week or 10 days with a sustained fishery over the next three weeks. The D101, 103 and 104 seine fisheries were limited because of weather this past week.
Returns to Neets and Anita Bay are later than those to Nakat and Kendrick. The first decent schools of summer chum have just reached Neets Bay where our cost recovery peak fishery is between 25 July and about 5 August. The peak of the Anita return in the SHA itself should be at that same time with local corridor fisheries peaking about 10 days earlier. (Graphics are under summer chum tab.)
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 10,500 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. Participation was 60 boats in D106, which is still less than we saw last year at this time. The run appears to be similar to the return in 2010, but one week later. The 2010 run was about two weeks earlier than we have seen these fish in the past. The 2011 return is also early but nearer historic timing. (Graphics are under the summer coho tab.)
Chinook: The chinook graphics have not been updated this week. We will do a careful update at the end of the July opening. There are still chinook being harvested at Mt. Point by sport and commercial fishermen, though those fish are getting dark. Chum trollers are also still catching some chinook in front of Neets Bay. All our terminal chinook runs are nearing an end with primarily darker fish being harvested.
July 5, 2011:
Neets Chum Troll Fishery: There were 17 trollers in Behm Canal just outside Neets Bay this morning. The summer chums were early to Neets last year. Common property harvest of the fish suggests the run is more normally timed this year. All three processors have been tendering the fishery, Trident, EC Phillips and AGS. Catches have ranged from 30 to 60 fish a day and seem to be building.
I was asked about when we would consider opening the THA this summer. We will watch both participation and harvest. It is possible the fleet will be able to harvest the full 200,000 chum without opening the THA. If the fish are there but catching is not what we have seen the past several years, we will consider opening inward to Bug Island some time from July 13 -15. If we open the THA it is likely we will open for one day at a time to see how that changes both participation and harvest. We have reliable reports of fishing picking up in D101 and Metlakatla. These are Neets fish and should be back in the Behm in 3 or so days.
Summer Chum: Because of the recent poor weather seine and drift effort has been minimal during the current opening. The weather is giving us a break so we will soon have a better idea of what is out there to harvest on the south end. The summer chums seem to be coming around the south end instead of around the northern end of Prince of Wales again this year. If this holds up, it will be the third year in a row this has been the case. We anticipate harvest in D101 drift and D101 – D104 seine to increase through the next several weeks. There should also be an increase in these numbers in D106 and D108, though the Anita fish are later and will peak near the end of July. Similar to Neets Bay, very few chums have been harvested in Anita Bay – and we wouldn’t normally expect to see that return build for another week. (Graphics are under summer chum tab.)
Summer Coho (Snow Pass Coho): Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 18,000 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. Participation was 56 boats in D106, which is significantly less than we saw last year at this time when there were 90 boats during this period. At this point the run appears to be strong. (Graphics are under the “coho” subheading on this tab.)
Chinook: There are still chinook being harvested by trollers during their summer opening. Some trollers are still fishing Mt. Point and this area may remain open until trollers are no longer interested. There are still good numbers of chinook being caught by net gear in Anita Bay rotational fisheries where some seiners and drift boats have gone to avoid the recent weather. The chinook season for SSRAA fish should end in the next week to ten days…though there may be some sport harvest in the Mt. Point area beyond that time.
June 27, 2011:
Spring “troll hatchery access” fisheries are still underway and effective. There were four trollers in Neets Bay this morning trolling for chum salmon, though there are few chum salmon in the bay as yet. We don’t usually anticipate chum in any numbers in Neets Bay until approximately the 4th of July…or later.
The last common property rotation, seine, starts in Neets bay in a few minutes – at noon. The fishery will end at noon tomorrow, 28 July. We will continue to do cost recovery during this fishery, but will fish away from the barrier and other places where the seiners are working. We have contracts that call for cost recovery beginning on 25 July, and those will be honored.
There were only 6 gill netters during the previous rotation in Neets. Though we don’t have official numbers from the Department, the per boat harvest appeared to be good.
Both Nakat and Kendrick are open, though it is too early to expect many chum in the THA’s. There have been fish harvested in D102 seine outside of Kendrick (10 boats with 500 chum per boat) and at Tree Point, outside of Nakat (50 boats with 200 chum/boat). Catches should build through the next several weeks.
Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 were open this past week. There were 5,500 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. Participation was 56 boats in D106, which is normal for that period. The harvest, 98 coho a boat, was between what was seen in 2009 and 2010. Both 2009 and 2010 summer coho runs were strong; the 2010 run was about 10 days earlier than we had seen before. This year’s return seems more on normal timing. (Graphics are under the “coho” subheading on this tab.)
Going forward, the chum troll fleet has grown to an estimated 100 boats in Icy Straits where they are having success. A core of trollers will remain north until that fishery drops off. Regardless, we anticipate some trollers back in front of Neets fishing chums within a week, though that is very early in the Neets Bay summer chum return. The fishery will be tendered as in previous years when effort warrants tendering. The Neets Bay SHA will close to all commercial harvest at noon on the 28th and dependent on summer chum abundance and the number and effectiveness of the chum troll fleet, may not open again until fall.
June 22, 2011:
This is the third fishery report for the 2011 season. Spring “troll hatchery access” fisheries are still underway and catches seem to be improving. It is difficult to keep track of specific areas, but there have been a number of boats at Mt. Point as well as the area in D102. Reports from local processors suggest the “new” area in D102 has been productive as well as Mt. Point.
The terminal harvest of chinook in both Anita Bay and Neets Bay has increased the past several rotations. For whatever reason there are far more seiners participating than has been historically the case, we had one count of 25 seiners at Neets this past week. The number of chinook is similar to what we have seen the past several years, but the catch per boat is less because of the increased number of participants. There have been chum harvested in these fisheries, but not a large number. We don’t see the first larger schools of chum salmon in Neets or Anita until after the 4th of July. (Chinook graphics are under the “chinook” subheading on this tab.)
Both Nakat and Kendrick opened this past week. Both are reportedly slow at this time; that is expected. It is too early to expect chum from those sites in the terminal area. Catches should pick up through the next several weeks, with the peak of these returns still nearly a month away.
Districts 106 (Clarence Strait) and 108 also opened this past week. There were 3,000 coho harvested in D106, likely almost all of these fish were summer “Snow Pass” coho from releases in Neck Lake and Burnett Inlet Hatchery. This return was about 10 days to two weeks early last season (2010), but timing appears to be normal this year. The number of summer coho will increase through the next three weeks and they will remain in the fishery until mid August. The per boat harvest last week was 46 coho with 65 boats participating in 106. (Graphics are under the “coho” subheading on this tab.)
A number of kings from Whitman Lake and Neets Bay are being harvested in the Ketchikan area sport fishery. The success per rod hour is “normal” for this date at 10 rod hours per retained king salmon.
Local current prices for troll kings range from $4.25 to $4.75 with net caught kings at about $3.25 a pound. Currently posted prices for troll chum are about $0.90 a pound round weight with $0.85 for net fish. Prices can change quickly.
Going forward, the chum troll fleet has grown to an estimated 80 boats in Icy Straits where they are having some success. A core of trollers will remain north until that fishery drops off. Regardless, we anticipate trollers back in front of Neets fishing chums within a week or ten days. The fishery will be tendered as in previous years when effort warrants tendering. We anticipate chum numbers increasing at Tree Point and Kendrick within a week to 10 days. Cost recovery will begin in Neets Bay on Saturday (25th). We will fish the outer bay until net rotations are finished on the 28th.
June 8, 2011:
This is the second fishery report for the 2011 season. Spring “troll hatchery access” fisheries have been underway for the past month and the sport harvest of kings has increased dramatically over the past several weeks. About 4,000 SSRAA chinook have been harvested by trollers in the winter and spring hatchery access fisheries. As best we can tell from the tag information, not complete at this time, is that about 31% of the fish harvested in the spring fisheries have been from Alaska enhancement programs. Most of these fish were harvested in the NE and NW quadrants with the SE quadrant harvest increasing in recent weeks. A great many NSRAA fish entered harvest data this past week. The majority of enhanced chinook in the spring harvest have come from NSRAA (2,771) and SSRAA (1,714) programs.
The percentage of enhanced fish varies dramatically between different areas. It is of interest on the south end that harvest in the new area in D102 has been 62% Alaska hatchery origin. This is pretty much the high mark for these fisheries. Because of treaty constraints; when the higher percentage (of Alaska hatchery kings) fisheries are utilized, the allowable overall troll harvest will be a greater. This can be difficult for trollers as these high percentage areas areas are not always the historic areas fished by the fleet.
It is early in the season and much of what has been harvested the past several weeks has not been processed for tags or expanded to estimate harvest of enhanced stocks. At this date the department lists spring troll harvest at 17,058 fish at 13.8 pounds worth $5.35 a pound (troll dressed).
The sport fishery in Ketchikan has seen a lot of effort the past several weeks, in part because of the ongoing derby. Harvest in the derby is running well above last year in both number (more than 800 fish harvested to date) and size of the fish. Only some of the tags recovered in this fishery have been processed and expanded to estimate the harvest of SSRAA fish. Both Whitman Lake and Neets Bay releases have contributed significantly to the derby.
There is ongoing drift and seine harvest in the Special Harvest Areas at both Neets Bay and Anita Bay. Net harvest of chinook as they reach the terminal areas, as well as effort, will increase dramatically through the next several weeks.
A small number of chums have been harvested by trollers. It is too early to anticipate that large numbers of summer chum have moved into these corridor fisheries; but, this fishery (chum troll) is new enough that we don’t yet well understand “when” and “where”. The Department lists a price greater than $1.00 a round pound for the few chum that have been harvested.
June 3, 2011:
This is the first fishery report for the 2011 season. Spring “troll hatchery access” fisheries have been underway for the past month. Harvest on the south end is building. Local processors suggest the fishery is better than it was in 2010. At this point the harvest of SSRAA chinook is similar to what we saw in 2010, though it is far too early to take much stock in the tag information that has been processed. It is very early in the process and many of the tags recovered the past several weeks have not been either processed or expanded to estimate harvest. The sport fishery in Ketchikan has seen a lot of recent effort, in part because of the ongoing derby, and none of those tags have been expanded to estimate the harvest of SSRAA fish. We can say that SSRAA tags have been recovered, but no more than that.
There has been some drift harvest in the Special Harvest Areas at both Neets Bay and Anita Bay. At this point that harvest has not been significant…or perhaps only significant for the few boats participating. We would expect net gear to take a much larger number of fish in several weeks as the fish enter the terminal areas.
More southern fish (US and Canada) were included in the winter harvest than we have seen in at least several years. SSRAA fish (2,197 chinook) continue to be the most common Alaska hatchery fish in the winter fishery; NSRAA fish also showed well (1,141). Related to spring troll, with only soft preliminary numbers at this time, SSRAA fish are the most common enhanced fish, though there is also a good showing of NSRAA fish and Canadian fish. There are also a fair number of Metlakatla fish in the harvest. Numbers drop off dramatically after those four groups. Currently most of these fish are being caught in the NE and NW quadrants. Harvest on the south has picked up, but because of the lag in recovering and processing tags, is not yet well represented in the data.
We will attempt to update the common property harvest of SSRAA fish on a weekly basis through the 2011 season.
