By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
To prevent overfishing, the daily king salmon bag limit for Sitka anglers has been reduced from three fish to two, while nonresidents’ total allowable catch for the season will decline from three kings to only one over the summer, the Department of Fish and Game has announced.
Assistant area manager Jake Wieliczkiewicz outlined the rationale for the change on Thursday.
“There’s a treaty with Canada where we divide up the lot and if we exceed the allocation there are payback provisions… we would be held liable to pay those back next year,” he said.
He noted that while the Sitka sport fish landings are higher than expected, the total allocation hasn’t been exceeded.
“We did exceed our anticipation… We haven’t exceeded it yet, we’ve just seen higher catch rates than usual; we’re not in excess yet,” Wieliczkiewicz said.
On June 17, Fish and Game said that, to avoid having to reduce the harvest ceiling next year, “the Southeast Alaska king salmon sport fishery is being conservatively managed for a total king salmon treaty harvest of 37,120 fish.”
Although the sport fishing effort in Southeast Alaska is lower than expected, the harvest rate in the sport fishery is double what was anticipated, the department said.
With the above-average harvest rates under current regulations, the sport fishery was expected to exceed its allocation by 3,460 to 12,650 fish. Under the new regs, it’s expected to stay within its allocation.
The new rules went into effect on June 21.
Prior to June 30, the nonresident season bag limit was three kings. From July 1 and July 7 it will be two, and after that it will be one through December 31. Fish caught earlier in the summer will count against the total, the revised regulation reads.
In a fishery governed by emergency and advisory announcements, Wieliczkiewicz stressed that catch regulations could change as conditions warrant.
“We’re continuing to manage king salmon through the season, making management decisions as data becomes available,” he said.
