FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sac Roe Herring Fishery Going on 2-Hour Notice
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery will go on two-hour notice 8 a.m. Friday, the Department of Fish and Game announced Wednesday.
Fishery managers held their first meeting with the sac roe permit holders and processors at 1 p.m. today to go over the ground rules for the annual fishery. Biologists also reviewed the 2016 stock assessment sampling and surveys, and the 2017 forecast.
Effective 8 a.m. Friday, an opening may be called with as little as two hours’ advance notice.
A half-ton test sample taken Wednesday at Kamano Point off Kruzof Island showed mature roe content at 8.9 percent, Fish and Game said. Immature roe in that sample came in at 2.7 percent, with an average weight of 133 grams.
“Although this set size is not very large, we believe it is representative of the fish observed along the Kruzof Island shoreline today,” the department said Wednesday afternoon in a news release.
Fish and Game said today 48 seine boats and seven processors are registered in the fishery.
Area Management Biologist Eric Coonradt was out conducting an aerial survey this morning, the first since March 10 because of poor weather.
The guideline harvest level announced in December for this year’s fishery is 14,649 tons based on a 20 percent harvest rate of a forecast mature biomass of 73,245 tons. That’s slightly down from the 14,941-ton quota last year.
The estimated mature biomass for the 2017 fishery is of 6 percent age-3, 6 percent age-4, 73 percent age-5, 2 percent age-6, 6 percent age-7, and 7 percent age-8 and older.
The 2016 harvest was 9,833 tons, which seiners took in four openings March 17, 19 and 23 (two openings were held in one day) in the upper areas of Sitka Sound. The fishery closed on March 28.
Fish and Game said processors, fishing vessels, and tenders must be registered with the department before participating in the fishery.
The department’s research vessel Kestrel is scheduled to arrive on the fishing grounds Friday morning.
Officials said Eastern Channel south of Jamestown Bay will be open until further notice for boats wanting to make test sets or stretch nets.
The website for fishery updates is http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=cfnews.main.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....