By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Seiners, continuing their hunt for herring in the Sitka Sound sac roe fishery, had a nine-hour opening Tuesday and went out again today, at 10:45 a.m.
The Tuesday opening followed a test set in Hayward Strait that yielded 10.3 percent mature roe, just above the threshold for marketability.
The Department of Fish and Game also conducted sets near Indian River and in Deep Inlet, though there was no commercial fishing in those areas.
Harvest data for Monday indicated that the fleet caught about 1,500 tons of herring, bringing the total for the season to roughly 5,050 tons since the first opener on Saturday.
In January, the department set a guideline harvest level at 33,304 tons, though Fish and Game initially anticipated the total harvest wouldn’t exceed 20,000 tons. The forecast was for 210,453 tons of returning herring this year.
The seiner Shadowfax pulls in a herring set near the mouth of Jamestown Bay this morning. Today was the fifth opening in as many days for the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. Boats started fishing at 10 a.m. This year’s guideline harvest level is 33,304 tons. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
A Fish and Game observation flight spotted small amounts of herring spawn on Brent’s Beach, on the eastern side of Kruzof Island.
With rain, wind, and low visibility prevailing, one herring fisherman said the weather is the worst he’s seen.
“I’ve been coming here for 30 years and it’s like March is always beautiful… This is the worst March Sitka Sound herring season weather I’ve ever seen,” Jamie Ross told the Sentinel. Ross, from Homer, has helmed the F/V Shadowfax for three decades in herring fisheries across the state.
The small, speedy seiner bears the name of the wizard Gandalf’s horse from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. An inveterate Tolkein fan, Ross owns other boats with fantasy names. One, Anduril, is named for the sword of Aragorn, King of Gondor, while another of Ross’ boats is the Orcrist, for the blade of Thorin Oakenshield.
Fitting to the namesake, he said that the Shadowfax is the fastest seiner in the state.
“It’s the fastest seiner in Alaska, always has been, still is… Back in the old days it was all about, ‘he who gets there first wins,’” Ross said.
Regardless of his speedy vessel, Ross sees a decline in the herring market.
“The market is just terrible for herring, it’s been steadily going downhill for 20 years. You have a single group of people, the Japanese, who buy the herring for the roe,” he said.
Decreased market demand, the seiner said, led to a less competitive fishery focused on quality over quantity this year.
“That’s why the harvest is slow. The processors said we’re going to do inter-company co-ops… because market demand is so low the processors are trying to maximize quality, not just in roe size but also in freshness,” he said.
After so many years of fishing for herring, Ross said the sense of adventure keeps him coming back to herring fisheries from Sitka to Togiak.
“I enjoy the adventure, the traveling. For me it’s like the coming of the seasons, you come to Sitka in March... It used to be more high stakes and super competitive. I used to compare it to a sporting event,” he recalled.
This year, only four processors and about 20 permit holders are involved in the Sitka fishery. The Sitka Sound commercial fishery did not occur in 2019 or 2020 due to a preponderance of young fish and poor market demand.
Ross spoke of the changes in the fishery over time.
“The high stakes gamble isn’t so much there anymore. Fishing is a challenge nowadays as we’ve all seen with changing climate, changing markets and the advent of farmed fish. It’s not where you can make one herring set and make a fortune, or make the home run for your whole career, everything adds up to make a sum total of a decent living,” he said.
The herring fleet remains on two-hour notice this week.
