By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the end of winter near, the herring season is only weeks away, and a public meeting is scheduled Friday, March 12, to discuss details.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in January set the commercial herring catch at 33,304 tons, and today Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis confirmed that nothing has changed on that front.
“Things are looking pretty good,” Dupuis said over the phone.
He noted that the fish are projected to be older as well – he said 86 percent of them are expected to be 5 years old.
The fishery generally takes place in more than one opening in late March, depending on sample results among other factors.
No herring fishery was held in 2020 due to the smaller size of herring and market conditions, and none was held in 2019 after marketable herring couldn’t be found.
Also in January, a Superior Court judge in Juneau heard arguments relating to a subsistence herring lawsuit filed by Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
STA filed its original lawsuit in 2018, claiming that Fish and Game is not ensuring there is a “reasonable opportunity” for subsistence harvest of herring roe on branches, and whether it’s complying with its constitutional requirement to provide the best available information to the board.
While the judge heard arguments on Jan. 14, no decision has yet been made, and Dupuis did not comment on the lawsuit or its potential impacts on the commercial fishery.
One of the next steps for the fishery will be observation flights.
“Our first (observation) flight is scheduled for the 12th,” Dupuis said. “When we’re up in the air, right now we’re basically just looking for herring predators, whales, birds, sea lions. That gives us a good indication of where the herring are. When we’re in season, in fishery mode, we’re looking for the whales to see if they’re moving around, and that gives us an indication of where we should be looking to find commercial harvest opportunity.”
In addition, for only the second year, ADFG will release maps from these flights so that Sitkans can find herring more easily.
“Once the fish start spawning, then we’re documenting where the spawn is occurring… Last year we piloted the program, all of our aerial survey information will be up on an interactive map,” he said. “We got a lot of really positive feedback from the subsistence community last year.”
The maps will be available within a couple of hours of the flights, he said, at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareasoutheast.herring#maps.
The meeting – Friday, March 12, between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. – will be an overview of the commercial season forecast, Dupuis said.
“It’ll be a comprehensive overview of our herring assessment program, from data collection through forecasting, and then into how the subsistence harvest survey is done and presenting some preliminary harvest data,” he said.
While the meeting traditionally is held in person, the ongoing pandemic forced it online this year. The link to the Zoom meeting is https://zoom.us/j/92173872232?pwd=Z0YxT0hvK0plU2hMbjlhUVZtVm4zQT09.
