By Sentinel Staff
The first herring spawn of the season in Sitka Sound was observed over the weekend at Shoals Point on the south end of Kruzof Island. Seine boats conducted a number of test sets, but the waiting continued for the first opening in this year’s sac roe fishery. The seine fleet has been on two-hour notice since last Thursday.
Fish and Game said an aerial survey revealed about two nautical miles of spawn at Shoals Point Saturday, and on Sunday the vivid aquamarine water at the southeastern tip of Kruzof was visible from mountaintops around town.
On Saturday, herring were present along the eastern shore of Kruzof, near the Siginaka Islands and in waters closed to commercial seining from Harbor Point to Makhnati Island and in Crow Pass, the agency said.
On Sunday, Fish and Game spotted large schools of herring around Inner Point, St. Lazaria Island and from Makhnati Island to Jamestown Bay. Other herring were noted within waters closed for subsistence use in Crow Pass.
The fishery managers said test sets conducted Saturday pulled up herring with about 10 percent mature roe near Indian River, Kamenoi Point and Rockwell Island. Sunday’s sets caught fish with slightly lower proportions of mature roe in Jamestown Bay and near Inner Point.
The department looks for at least 10 percent mature roe to be present before opening the commercial fishery, ADF&G management biologist Aaron Dupuis told the Sentinel today. He said no opening was called over the weekend because a large proportion in the test sets were male, and among the females there was a high count of immature roe. In the nine test sets conducted Saturday and Sunday, females made up between 40 and 50 percent of the fish in seven and constituted a majority in only one. Immature roe counts hovered between 1.4 and 3.3 percent, the department said.
