By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Due to extremely poor pink and chum salmon harvests and escapement in Southeast, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed the pink and chum purse seine fisheries by emergency order Tuesday.
Pink and chum salmon runs have hit historic lows this summer, an ADFG official told the Sentinel.
Certain fishing areas in the Sitka area will reopen for 15 hours on Thursday.
“We are looking at a pink salmon harvest right now of just over 4 million in the purse seine fishery. And so if we compare that to past history... that is going to be the worst pink salmon run in Southeast Alaska since 1976 and the fifth lowest since statehood,” ADFG Region I Management Coordinator Troy Thynes said.
He noted that the forecasted pink salmon harvest in Southeast this year was 12 million, triple what has been caught. Thynes said that even 12 million pink salmon would still constitute “a poor harvest.”
Thynes cited several causes for the closure, from poor return and escapement to a high proportion of females being caught. Escapement is the measure of fish that make it past the fishing fleet and return to their home streams to spawn.
“We monitor pink salmon escapement whenever we can, this year was challenging due to all the poor weather we’ve been having. But what we were seeing is that we were getting escapement, but there wasn’t a whole lot left for harvest,” he said. Thynes noted that pink salmon harvest starts by bringing in between 70 and 80 percent male fish, but that number declines until only about half of the fish are male.
“We are in the 40 percent (male) range and near the end of the run,” he said.
A Fish and Game press release said that, at least in southern Southeast, there is unlikely to be another pink salmon fishery this year.
“The department does not anticipate any further directed pink salmon fisheries in southern Southeast Alaska. Continued poor harvest, below average escapements, and a high female component in the harvest necessitate a closure. The department will continue to monitor pink salmon escapements in middle and late run systems,” ADFG said.
Thynes said that in a more normal year pink fisheries sometimes continue into September.
He added that this year’s poor harvest can be traced back to 2018.
“We can first look at the 2018 brood year, the pink salmon from 2020 came from the pink salmon that spawned in 2018, which was a dry year especially in August and September, when the pink salmon spawned,” he said. Thynes said this places stress on the fish, leading to low survival rates for eggs and fry.
However, Thynes noted, this year there’s a silver lining.
“On the plus side, generally what we are seeing is an improvement in escapements from 2018, the parent year for this year. And with all this rain and cold weather it’s great for the fish, not so great for us… these colder weather conditions should be good for the salmon,” he said.
In certain parts of ADFG District 13, which encompasses Sitka Sound and some outlying waters, higher fish escapement and a higher proportion of males being caught will allow the fishery to remain open for one more day, Thynes said.
Certain parts of District 13 will open to the purse seine fleet from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.
Thynes added that the pink salmon fishery is not the only one having difficulties this year.
“The chum harvest is largely driven by hatchery production throughout Southeast. The chum salmon return to hatcheries and also what we have seen with wild chum salmon has been very poor as well,” he said. “The total chum harvest by the purse seine and gillnet fleets both… is about 770,000 fish. This would be the lowest harvest since hatchery production began in 1984.”
He said that low prices have compounded issues for fishermen.
“Fish prices are a lot less than last year, in some cases half, and so there are not many fish and they’re not getting paid much for them,” he said.
Thynes concluded that the 2020 pink and chum salmon harvest has been a low point.
“It’s been one of the worst years we’ve had in decades,” he said.
