Interesting Note from Alaska

[Derby]

RETENTION OF KING SALMON IS PROHIBITED IN ALL SOUTHEAST ALASKA SALT WATERS

Juneau - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the retention of king salmon is prohibited in all Southeast Alaska salt waters, king salmon may not be retained or possessed; any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday, August 10 through 11:59 p.m. Saturday, September 30, 2017.

The Southeast Alaska king salmon sport fishery is managed under the directives of the Southeast Alaska King Salmon Management Plan (5 AAC 47.055). This plan prescribes management measures based upon the preseason abundance index determined by the Chinook Technical Committee of the Pacific Salmon Commission. The plan also directs the department to eliminate inseason regulatory changes, except those necessary for conservation purposes.

Many of the king salmon stocks that contribute to the Southeast Alaska commercial and recreational fisheries are experiencing record-low production. These stocks originate in Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. To comply with the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy and the Pacific Salmon Treaty, extreme management measures are necessary to curtail harvests of these stocks. Retention of king salmon will be prohibited at 12:01 a.m. August 10, 2017 in the Southeast Alaska recreational fisheries and extend through September 30. Additional management actions beyond September 30 are also being discussed.

Most of the king salmon stocks that contribute to Southeast Alaska fisheries are exhibiting extremely poor production and will not meet escapement goals or management objectives in 2017. The stocks which are exhibiting low productivity would contribute roughly half of the remaining 2017 allowable catch (per the Pacific Salmon Treaty) in Southeast Alaska waters.

Inseason information received from a variety of agency and academic sources all indicate that poor production conditions are currently occurring and will persist through at least 2018. Therefore it is imperative that Alaska take action to reduce harvest and conserve king salmon stocks with a focus on future production.

Please note that the regional king salmon resident and nonresident regulations announced on April 10, 2017 and the Ketchikan area king salmon regulations announced on March 6, 2017 have been rescinded and the above announced regulations apply.

The following king salmon regulations implemented by emergency order are still in effect:

Haines/Skagway Area

The retention of king salmon is prohibited in the waters of Section 15-A, Lynn Canal north of the ADF&G regulatory marker at Sherman Rock, including Chilkat Inlet, Chilkoot Inlet, Lutak Inlet, and Taiya Inlet through Sunday, December 31, 2017.

Juneau Area

The waters of Gastineau within a 300-yard radius of the Wayside Park Fishing Dock (Channel Wayside fishing dock) remain closed to snagging and sport fishing for king salmon through Thursday, August 31, 2017.

Sitka Area

Kasnyku Bay remains closed to sport fishing for king salmon through Friday, September 1, 2017

Bear Cove remains closed to sport fishing through Thursday, August 31, 2017:

For further information regarding sport fisheries in Southeast Alaska, contact the nearest ADF&G office or visit:

 

[Barnacle Bill]

RETENTION OF KING SALMON IS PROHIBITED IN ALL SOUTHEAST ALASKA SALT WATERS

Juneau - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the retention of king salmon is prohibited in all Southeast Alaska salt waters, king salmon may not be retained or possessed; any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Thursday, August 10 through 11:59 p.m. Saturday, September 30, 2017.

The Southeast Alaska king salmon sport fishery is managed under the directives of the Southeast Alaska King Salmon Management Plan (5 AAC 47.055). This plan prescribes management measures based upon the preseason abundance index determined by the Chinook Technical Committee of the Pacific Salmon Commission. The plan also directs the department to eliminate inseason regulatory changes, except those necessary for conservation purposes.

Many of the king salmon stocks that contribute to the Southeast Alaska commercial and recreational fisheries are experiencing record-low production. These stocks originate in Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. To comply with the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy and the Pacific Salmon Treaty, extreme management measures are necessary to curtail harvests of these stocks. Retention of king salmon will be prohibited at 12:01 a.m. August 10, 2017 in the Southeast Alaska recreational fisheries and extend through September 30. Additional management actions beyond September 30 are also being discussed.

Most of the king salmon stocks that contribute to Southeast Alaska fisheries are exhibiting extremely poor production and will not meet escapement goals or management objectives in 2017. The stocks which are exhibiting low productivity would contribute roughly half of the remaining 2017 allowable catch (per the Pacific Salmon Treaty) in Southeast Alaska waters.

Inseason information received from a variety of agency and academic sources all indicate that poor production conditions are currently occurring and will persist through at least 2018. Therefore it is imperative that Alaska take action to reduce harvest and conserve king salmon stocks with a focus on future production.

Please note that the regional king salmon resident and nonresident regulations announced on April 10, 2017 and the Ketchikan area king salmon regulations announced on March 6, 2017 have been rescinded and the above announced regulations apply.

The following king salmon regulations implemented by emergency order are still in effect:

Haines/Skagway Area

The retention of king salmon is prohibited in the waters of Section 15-A, Lynn Canal north of the ADF&G regulatory marker at Sherman Rock, including Chilkat Inlet, Chilkoot Inlet, Lutak Inlet, and Taiya Inlet through Sunday, December 31, 2017.

Juneau Area

The waters of Gastineau within a 300-yard radius of the Wayside Park Fishing Dock (Channel Wayside fishing dock) remain closed to snagging and sport fishing for king salmon through Thursday, August 31, 2017.

Sitka Area

Kasnyku Bay remains closed to sport fishing for king salmon through Friday, September 1, 2017

Bear Cove remains closed to sport fishing through Thursday, August 31, 2017:

For further information regarding sport fisheries in Southeast Alaska, contact the nearest ADF&G office or visit:

I thought this applied to commercial fishers also, but I read this that it is just the rec fishers ?
Regardless, this does not look good! .........BB

 

[cuttlefish]

It does apply to commercial as well.
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/dcfnewsrelease/844659742.pdf
No, not good at all.

 

[Derby]

I believe that its showing that there commercial fishery has over harvested there local fish.. the Alalska have a very heavy and powerful commercial fleet.. and its not good

 

[ericl]

Read this please:
http://wildfishconservancy.org/abou...d-fishery-chinook-catch-composition-1999-2010

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

The raw data for the picture comes from the International Pacific Salmon Commissions (PSC) Chinook Technical Committee & was put together by the wildfishconservatory, who advocate changing the way Salmon are harvested - dunno if "harvested' means just commercial or everything.

Only 3% of Chinook caught in SE Alaska (SEAK) are of Alaska origin. I believe that for the most part they have all but destroyed their wild runs and rely on hatchery raised spring run Chinook for this 3%. The Alaskans supposedly target their fish by commercial troll seasons from Oct - May. Their hatchery fish are marked by heating a bone in their head when they are young. The heads are examined post-harvest, and when the fleet catches 50K "treaty fish" (a fish w/o this thermal mark) they are shut-down until the summer fishery. During this Oct-May season "outside waters" are closed to reduce the catch of treaty fish & avoid a season closure.
DFO fisheries notices for catch update on the Northern BC (NBC) commercial troll fleet show upper Thompson river Chinook being the most common run being caught, and this fishery closed in early Aug.

Given this, it might be that is appropriate that only Alaska be shut-down.

So I believe that all BC commercial troll fisheries are now closed unrelated to the Alaska closure. It is normal for these BC troll fisheries to re-open; I wonder if not re-opening these fisheries will be sufficient to satisfy the PSC.

Also note that the Pacific Salmon Treaty only applies to "outside" waters; ECVI & Puget Sound are not part of this but Puget Should is shut-down now after a 2 weeks or so season.

There is another thread on this subject that has gone "nuclear".

Best regards, Eric

 

[ziggy]

This article is somewhat suspect given this caveat is included in it;

"Note that Figure 1 does not include pie charts for Puget Sound, Columbia River (in-river fisheries), Oregon state waters, and California waters. Data for those areas were not readily available, sufficiently comprehensive, or comparable to the available data at the time these analyses were conducted. Wild Fish Conservancy intends to publish a comprehensive report on Pacific salmon harvest in 2012".

Also it's the Fraser River, Frasier was a sitcom set in Seattle

 

[cuttlefish]

Here's some more recent info about the commercial troll chinook numners. It is pre-season allocation numbers;http://www.petersburgpilot.com/stor...t-alaska-troll-chinook-salmon-quota/5909.html
I can't vouch for the source. Might be fake news.
Thanks for the jeads up. I'll go find the other thread.

 

[ericl]

Hi ziggy. Given your signature don't you find everything you didn't come-up with suspect?

Thanks for reading it. The way I look at this is the title & main theme are "Caught Far From Home", so maybe data from Oregon & California was not critical, given that the vast majority of Chinook turn right (north) or go straight out as in Spring run Chinook. Puget Sound waters inside of Cape Flattery are not Pacific Salmon Treaty waters. Sadly, I have never been able to locate their promised follow-on report. Waters off JDS & ECVI are also not treaty waters; pretty sure the BC Central Coast is non-treaty as well.

When I look at their data if I were able to pick a single "problem" it would be SEAK (South East Alaska). It appears they have fished their native runs to extinction & now want the lion's share of our's & feel quite entitled to it BTW. I am a retired Computer Consultant, am used to doing a lot of research & have spent much time on this SEAK issue. I have also followed the Pacific Salmon Treaty issues since it's inception in 1985.

In a nutshell SEAK get's BC fish & BC gets WA fish for return. Government/treaty sanctioned. It just slowed-down the issues we are seeing now.

Hi cuttlefish. I have seen the full version of that article. It comes from the US & the only real fake news down here comes from a certain well-known tweeter.
It's a great read especially when some of their commies whine about such a low quota because all the fish they are catching are healthy hatchery runs.

Here is the full article:

https://www.kcaw.org/2017/04/11/southeast-troll-harvest-cut-100000-kings-2017/

Note that the fishery that just got shut-down opened July 1 & they expected to catch their quota in 5 days - it took them until early August to get 70% of their quota.

 

[ziggy]

No I don't ericl. How about you, do you put much stock into info that is self admittedly incomplete. Go back and read why the missing data wasn't included. Nothing to do with migration patterns according to the article.Thank goodness we have an ignore option on this site.

 

[ericl]

I take everything on a case-by-case basis.
Other than that i really can't make any sense out of what you are trying to say. It might take more than a "1 liner" on your part. Perhaps you could spent as much effort furnishing your own info as you do bashing others info.

I will repeat:

The title of the article is "Caught Far From Home" A Pie chart for Chinook caught in Puget Sound and Columbia in-river fisheries would only include Chinook from very close-by rivers of origin. That is certainly not"Caught Far From Home" - agree?

A driving concept of the Pacific Salmon Treaty is that ownership of the fish runs has been assigned to the place that contains their river of origin. For others to catch these fish is interception.
For California, interception would be minimal. For Oregon slightly more than minimal. Columbia interception would be Idaho Chinook. We killed all the BC Chinook on the Columbia when Grand Coulee dam was built in the 1940's.

In conclusion I see the pie charts as being somewhere over 90% complete & accurate - good enough for a retired scientist like me.