By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game continued searching today for a suitable area to call the first opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery.
“The quality is not there for the fish we want,” said Eric Coonradt, Fish and Game area management biologist, speaking from the R/V Kestrel near Guide Island. “There are good bodies of fish up here but so far the test sampling suggests there’s still smaller fish on average than the market wants.”
Test samples today from the Kruzof Island shoreline were from Inner Point, where samples averaged 8.5 percent mature roe average, and 88 grams (75-ton set); and Mud Bay, where herring averaged 8.9 percent and 109 grams (300-ton set).
Coonradt said the market is looking for average roe percentages of at least 11 percent and fish weighing 115 grams or more.
“There seems to be quite a bit of small fish around,” he said.
Biologists estimated more than 50 percent of the returning herring this year would be 3- and 4-year-old fish, although estimating the amount of 3-year-olds is difficult, Coonradt said. But so far, he said, “It’s almost exactly what we forecast.”
Boats that have volunteered for test fishing were checking waters both north and south of town, and, Coonradt said, spotter pilots were checking the waters in the south at Sentinel press time today.
Samples taken from the Eastern Channel area Tuesday included two sets at Deep Inlet and one at Silver Point, with mature roe percentages averaging 7.5 percent, 9.9 and 10.5 percent.
His report to the fleet after Tuesday’s aerial survey from Cape Burunof to Krestof Sound said herring schools were observed close to the shore from Silver Point to Deep Inlet, and no herring spawn was seen.
“The highest concentration of herring predators was seen south and west of Vitskari Rocks where numerous whales were seen working in deeper water. Approximately 300 sea lions were observed holding off the rock piles between Bieli Rock and Inner Point,” said the Fish and Game report.
Fish and Game’s vessel survey Tuesday on the north side of the sound showed multiple schools of herring along the Kruzof Island shoreline and a large biomass of fish in the deeper waters near Vitskari Rocks. South of Sitka, Coonradt said, multiple schools of fish were identified between Silver Point and the head of Deep Inlet and from Entry Point to Indian River. Industry pilots reported visible schools of herring in the Redoubt Bay area.
The fishery has been on two-hour notice since Sunday morning.
This year’s guideline harvest level is 12,869 tons based on a 20-percent harvest rate of a forecasted mature biomass of 64,343 tons.
