By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Department of Fish and Game searched through the weekend for a place to open the sac roe herring fishery, but without the help of the seine boat skippers who had been volunteering the past week to make test sets on schools.
The fleet has been on two-hour standby for an opening since March 17, and the lack of progress has caused some processors to release some of the tenders they had been keeping in readiness.
“We’re having a little bit of attrition,” F&G Area Management Biologist Eric Coonradt said in an interview today.
Coonradt said he learned on Sunday from the Sitka Herring Marketing Association that the seine fleet went on strike from test fishing on Friday, although the reason for the disagreement between fishermen and processors wasn’t clear to him.
As far as the herring and predator activity seen in Sitka Sound today, Coonradt said biologists were seeing a “similar picture as we saw yesterday.”
The report from Sunday’s aerial survey noted schools in Kanga Bay, Katlian Bay, the Magoun Islands and Dorothy Narrows; the highest concentrations of herring predators between Inner Point and Kamenoi Point, the Magoun Islands, Dorothy Narrows, and north of Bieli Rocks; with a spot spawn in Krestof Sound on the southern end of Partofshikof Island.
He reported on VHF Channel 10 this morning that the spawn in that area didn’t seem to be expanding.
Today’s survey showed herring near Bieli Rocks, and east of Vitskari Rocks. Coonradt said this afternoon he will be looking to assess schools at Redoubt and Kanga Bay aboard the R/V Kestrel.
Another update is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Fish and Game expected the majority of returning herring to be 3- and 4-year-old fish, and doesn’t want to call an opening on smaller fish that aren’t marketable.
Jamie Ross, who has participated in the Sitka Sound fishery for more than two decades, said he decided not to come this year after he was delayed by weather and heard the first reports about the smaller fish in the returning biomass. He said there are similar trends of smaller fish at Kodiak and Togiak, where he also fishes sac roe herring.
“The bottom line is the herring come back every year for seven years or more,” he said. “My attitude about the whole thing is, I would just as soon let them sit in the water and come back next year when they’re bigger and worth more. Why take fish that aren’t marketable?”
He said the reports he’s heard from colleagues in the fleet are that there are plenty of fish, but the dominance of smaller fish is “diluting the whole population.” He said similar trends have been seen in the history of the Sitka fishery, and expects the situation to improve next year, as the fish get larger. He noted the nature of fishing is unpredictable, and there are a number of environmental factors (increased whale populations, climate change) outside the control of user groups and managers.
Ross said he has faith that Fish & Game will not call an opening on unmarketable fish.
“Hopefully, there will be a gargantuan spawn, and subsistence users will get what they need,” Ross said. “I hope we can all keep our faith in the department to manage the fishery correctly.”
