Search Under Way For Herring in Sound

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 18 March 2025 15:18

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GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Staff Writer

Working from boats and planes, Fish and Game biologists have started their annual search of Sitka Sound for signs of herring for the annual commercial sac roe herring fishery.

In aerial surveys conducted Saturday, Sunday and Monday, "no herring or herring spawn were observed; herring predators were seen throughout the surveyed area," Fish and Game reported. "Humpback whales were observed between Vitskari Rocks and Hayward Strait, with the largest concentrations located near Inner Point."

But on the water Sunday and Monday, a department vessel located large schools of herring along the eastern shore of Kruzof Island and in Hayward Strait, west of Sitka. The agency's larger vessel, R/V Kestrel, was to arrive in Sitka today, and begin surveys Wednesday, the agency said.

The guideline harvest level for the fishery this year is 36,720 tons, which is 20 percent of the estimated 183,599 tons of returning fish. Last year, the level was 81,246 tons, but after a two-week period the seine fleet caught only 12,678 tons. The forecast that year had been for a biomass of 406,228 tons, which ADF&G later acknowledged was far above the actual 2024 herring return.

The agency will hold a public Zoom meeting 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday at Centennial Hall to provide further details in the sac roe fishery.