ANNA LAFFREY Sentinel Staff Writer
Commercial shrimp pot fishing closed at 4 p.m. today off the west coast of Baranof and Chichagof islands in fishery Sections 13-A/B, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced.
The shrimp pot fishery opened across Southeast on May 15. Section 13-A/B is closing this afternoon as participating fishermen are expected to harvest the entire 12,600-pound quota, or guideline harvest level, for the area. ADF&G reduced the commercial harvest quota for the area this year.
Seventeen fishery areas opened across Southeast this year with a combined guideline harvest level, of 408,600 pounds of whole shrimp. Most areas are now closed, as their GHLs have been met.
As of May 29, fishermen had harvested an estimated 9,000 pounds of shrimp from the 13-A/B area. ADF&G data shows that six boats fished in the 13-A/B area this season.
Since May 23, just four of those six boats have been fishing in 13-A/B, Sitka Assistant Area Management Biologist Anthony Walloch said today.
He said that harvest has centered on the 13-B area, the southern portion of Section 13-A/B that includes the waters stretching approximately from Neva Strait to Cape Omni.
Fleet members are still adjusting to a recent season switch that follows with an Alaska Board of Fisheries ruling in 2022. The Board changed the shrimp fishery from a fall/winter season, which had been in effect since the mid-1990s, to a spring/summer season. This is the third such spring/summer season.
A preseason memo from ADF&G states that "the goal of the season change is to rebuild the SEAK shrimp pot fishery to a sustainable level."
"Over the last two decades, guideline harvest levels (GHLs) have been cut and areas closed resulting in an annual harvest less than half of what it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s," states the memo. "In addition, there have been recruitment failures observed in several of the surveyed areas in recent years."
The memo states that, for the first time, Crawfish Inlet and West Crawfish Inlet areas of Section 13-A/B would be closed this year due to concerns of local fishermen, a decline in subsistence harvest, and low commercial "catch per unit effort" in the 2024/25 season.
Given the closure, the GHL for Section 13-A/B was reduced by 2,400, which represents the average harvest from the Crawfish and West Crawfish areas from 2011 to 2021. It's the first time that the GHL for the area has been set below 15,000 pounds.
Meanwhile, Section 13-C that includes the waters of Hoonah Sound has been closed to commercial shrimp pot fishing since the 2020/2021 season.
The commercial pot shrimp fishing season opened on May 15 in the 17 specified shrimp pot fishing areas, and closes region wide at 4 p.m. on July 31, unless an area is closed earlier by emergency order.
If the GHL for an area has not been reached by Oct. 1, managers may reopen that area for the fall/winter pot shrimp season. The fall/winter shrimp pot season closes by regulation on Feb. 28, 2026.
