SSRAA’s 2007 Return Summary:

This, 2007, was the first season that all the year classes of SSRAA’s returning chum salmon were thermally marked. The experience of tracking these marked fish through port sampling and real-time processing is still new to us, but the information gathering this past summer was much improved over the experience in 2006.  We were pleasantly surprised at both the comprehensive nature of the information as well as its timely assimilation into useful formats.  This was not accomplished without some effort, there is no free lunch; regardless, the benefits were significant in comparison to the cost.

Chum Salmon:  A robust return of SSRAA-produced summer chum was forecast for 2007.  While the return proved decent by recent standards it was well below the forecast.

2007 Summer Chum Forecast and Actual Common Property Harvest in Pounds:

 Survival of summer chums varied with Kendrick and Neets Bay fish predominating in the overall harvest. Fish released at Nakat and Anita Bay did not survive as well in 2007.    

Two primary factors related to the shortfall: the fish were dramatically smaller than anticipated and there were very few three-year-olds.  Through the past three years fish size had increased; we felt this trend would continue.  Generally as the size of SSRAA summer chum increases so does their survival.  The four-year-old fish came back in numbers close to what was anticipated, but they were more than 10% smaller in 2007 (10.4 pound average in 2006 and 9.1 pounds in 2007).  The three-year-olds were the same size in 2006 as the fours from that group were in 2007.  That is unusual. 

The fact that there were very few 3’s in the 2007 return suggests one of two things: the lack of ocean feed that made the 4’s so small in 2007 dramatically limited the growth of fish that were 3 years old in 2007, so much so that they did not reach the size needed to mature and return; or, there was a significant mortality of these fish.  If the former proves true, then the 2004 brood fish will come back as predominantly 4’s and 5’s.  If instead the latter is true, very few of these fish are alive.  The model we use for forecasting suggests, with positive statistical correlation, as fish get smaller as 3’s, some of that group we would normally anticipate returning will return later as 4’s and 5’s.  We will not know which way this has gone – or perhaps the degree of the shift to older fish - until the next two summer harvests are behind us.

There was a fair return of fall chums to Neets Bay this year, though once again it was not what we would have anticipated.  Because of the lateness of the run and a poor return of wild stocks of fall chum, there was little common property harvest of the fall chums outside of Nakat and District 101.  We believe that the return of these fish may be impacted by distant harvests, either elsewhere in Alaska or on the open ocean.   

This season there was anecdotal information about semi-healed net marks on chum salmon captured in SE Alaska.  We do not see evidence of this on summer chum.  We have experienced three consecutive returns of fall chum returns that were not normal in the shape of the harvest curve or in the overall ratio of females to males.  In all of these years it appeared the peak and latter half of this run was removed/harvested elsewhere.  This past year we did see a greater than usual number of net marks on the fall chum, but not to the extent people spoke about seeing in other returns to SE.   

Coho:  Generally speaking the fall coho return to SE was not as good as it has been during most of the past 10 or 12 years.  Anecdotal information characterized fall coho as generally small and the run as “different” in dynamic.  The SSRAA fish were later than usual, maybe 10 days.  Different from other SE coho stocks, SSRAA coho were usual in size, averaging between 10 and 11 pounds at Neets Bay.  SSRAA coho survived at a better rate in 2007 than they had in 2006.  Because of the lateness of the return, interception of the fish by common property fisheries was more in the 70% range than the 90% plus we have experienced in recent years.  Decent numbers of these fish came through some of the traditional fisheries after those fisheries had closed or late-season effort had decreased.

The summer coho return was perhaps the only SSRAA-produced return that started earlier than usual in 2007.  With the early harvest we thought the run was going to be greater than what we have seen the past several years.  Though survival was slightly better in 2007 than what we experienced in 2006, the difference was not large.

2006 and 2007 Summer and Fall SSRAA Coho Returns:

Chinook:  The number of chinook returning from SSRAA releases as well as the ex-vessel value of these fish increased in 2007.  This has been a general trend for at least the past 5 or 6 years.  The increase in numbers was not anticipated, but the increase in price was not a surprise.  Both troll and net-caught chinook have increased in value as these fish are more recognized in the market place.  While the value of troll-caught fish has moved upward for some time, more recently net-caught Anita Bay and Neets fish from District 108 and 106 have gone into the market for Taku and Stikine Chinooks, bringing fishermen considerable value.  With the increase in value, the clean-up fishery associated with the Anita Bay release has become popular – where historically terminal chinook were sometimes ignored - slightly skewing the value of chinook a little more toward the nets than was historically the case where almost all the value was in the troll fishery. 

2006 and 2007 Chinook Returns (Number of Fish) from SSRAA Releases: 

Sockeye:  There was a good return of SSRAA-produced sockeye to Hugh Smith Lake in 2007.  These fish are noted at the weir and on the spawning grounds.  Fisheries are not consistently sampled to find these fish and there is no overall estimate of harvest.  There were some thermal tags recovered from sockeye released at Whale Pass, but the numbers were not large nor were the fisheries adequately sampled to provide a good estimate of this harvest.  Sockeye SSRAA has released in the inside waters at Whale Pass and Burnett Inlet have never done nearly as well as the fish released in Hugh Smith Lake, which is relatively “outside”.  We have not included sockeye in the value estimations for 2007. 

The Value of the 2007 and Allocation Between Gear Groups:

 Commercial Ex-vessel Value of SSRAA-produced Salmon in 2007:

 Commercial Ex-vessel Value of SSRAA-Produced Salmon 2004-2007: 

2007 Numbers of SSRAA-Produced Salmon Harvested in Common Property Fisheries and Harvested in Cost Recovery:

Final Fishery Update, 26 October 2007.  (Note graphics at the bottom of the column)

The last of the SSRAA-produced chinook salmon, summer coho, summer and fall chum, and fall coho 2007 returning adults, have been harvested at this time.  There will be some feeder chinook harvested during later periods of chinook retention and there are generally SSRAA produced fish harvested in the early winter troll fishery.

Fall chum:  The last of the fall chum were taken at Nakat during the last week of September while the primary target for the few fishermen left in that THA was coho.  About 101,000 Nakat fall chum were harvested in total between District 101 and the Nakat THA.

The final fall chums from Neets Bay were harvested during cost recovery that ran through the 15^th of October.  As with Nakat, fall coho were the primary target of harvest in October.

Fall coho:  Throughout the harvest of these fish we suspected the fall coho return was later than usual, and that proved to be the case.  The fish were still being caught in good numbers by trollers when their season ended.  It looks as if the fish passed through net fishing districts as these fisheries diminished to a handful of fishermen, and after the fisheries were over.  Through the last several seasons common property fisheries took more than 90% of the coho returning to Neets Bay and Whitman Lake.  This year they took closer to 75% most likely because the fish passed through traditional net fishing districts after most of the fishermen had stopped fishing.

The Neets Bay THA still produced fall coho for cost recovery through the 15^th of October.  A significant storm just prior to the 15^th took out several sections of the barrier seine and the last of cost recovery was accomplished by emptying a raceway of fish that entered when the barrier seine was breached.  The Neets Bay THA was opened to common property fishing after the 15^th, but there was very little effort – only one seiner that we know about.  It is not possible for SSRAA to restore the barrier under these conditions and news of the barrier being breached likely discouraged several local fishermen.  For all practical purposes the run was down to just a handful of fish at this point.

The graphs below summarize fall coho harvest through ADF&G tag lab expansions completed by the 22^nd of October.  Final numbers for all SSRAA common property harvest and THA fisheries will be compiled over the next several weeks.  These numbers will be available at the Seine and Gill Net Task Force Meetings and through the SSRAA web page and Board of Directors information packets.

2007 SSRAA Fall Coho Harvest by Release Site Other Than Neets Bay: Anita Bay (200,000 smolt), Crystal Lake (150,000 smolt), Herring Cove (300,000 smolt) and Nakat (300,000 smolt):

2007 SSRAA Fall Coho Harvest by Gear Group Other Than Troll: Sport, Gill Net and Purse Seine

2007 Total SSRAA Fall Coho Harvest, Troll Harvest and Harvest of Neets Bay Fall Coho

Fishery Update, 1 October 2007.  (Note graphics at the bottom of the column) 

The last of the SSRAA-produced chinook salmon, summer coho and summer chum, 2007 returning adults, have been harvested at this time.  There will be some feeder chinook harvested during later periods of chinook retention and there are generally SSRAA produced fish harvested in the early winter troll fishery.

Fall chum:  There are still drift fisheries open where SSRAA fall chum are being harvested, District 101 and District 106.  The numbers of these fish are quickly diminishing.  Last week (Stat week 39) in 101 thermal tag recoveries suggest about 2,600 SSRAA fall chum were caught in 101 with about 700 wild fall chums.  There