By Sentinel Staff
With a herring run estimated at 150,617 tons expected in Sitka Sound this month the Department of Fish and Game said today that the upcoming sac roe fishery will probably be non-competitive for the third year in a row.
“It is likely that the fishery will be structured similarly to the previous two seasons as non-competitive,” the department said in an announcement today. “Limitations on processing and tending capacity will require multiple openings to harvest this season’s (guideline harvest level). The total daily processing capacities for the 2023 season will not be determined until immediately prior to the fishery, though it is expected to be approximately 2,000 tons per day.”
The GHL this year is 30,124 tons, based on 20 percent of the total biomass. The 2022 GHL was about 40,000 tons.
The decline in the 2023 harvest level “represents an anticipated decrease in the population resulting largely from natural mortality and waning of the exceptionally large 2016-year class,” F&G said in the announcement. The forecast is for about two-thirds of the fish returning to the Sound this year to be seven years old and weighing, on average, 134 grams.
As for the subsistence gathering of herring eggs on branches, the department said it intends to direct commercial seiners as far as possible from sites designated for subsistence harvest.
Adjustments will be made as needed “to provide a reasonable opportunity for the subsistence harvest of quality roe on branch, kelp, or seaweed. The department will meet these management directives, in part, by seeking out commercial harvest opportunities that are farthest from the waters closed to the commercial fishery that encompass core subsistence fishing areas,” Fish and Game stated. “For example, if multiple commercial harvest opportunities are identified, the department will prioritize commercial harvest opportunities farthest from the commercial closed waters. Additionally, the department will implement discrete area closures in the vicinity of active herring spawn where it is evident there are subsistence roe on branch sets.”
Fish and Game closes about 16.5 square nautical miles in Sitka Sound to the sac roe seine fishery in order to provide opportunity for subsistence gatherers.
