By Sentinel Staff
With large schools of herring located by sonar and desired quantities of mature roe detected in two test sets, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game opened the 2023 Sitka Sound sac roe fishery at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday in designated areas south of town in Leesoffskaia and Aleutkina bays and Deep Inlet.
Fishing was closed by field order at 2:32 p.m. No figures were immediately available on the total catch in the hour and 17-minute opening.
All told, 30 vessels are registered to fish this year.
The guideline harvest level for the season is 30,124 tons.
Prior to sending the seiners into action, a test set in Leesoffskaia at 9:16 a.m. Tuesday pulled up fish with 10.2 percent mature roe and 1.2 percent immature roe, 43.5 percent female, and 126 gram average weight, Fish and Game fishery managers said.
An hour and a half later a test set at Deep Inlet netted herring with 11.2 percent mature roe, 1.4 percent immature roe, 49.5 percent female, and averaging 128 grams. In a pre-season meeting earlier this month, Fish and Game estimated an average weight of 134 grams in this year’s catch.
In Tuesday’s survey of the fishing grounds department reported numerous herring in schools around Inner Point, with smaller schools around Harbor Point and Halibut Point.
