One-Fish Limit In Effect For Southeast Alaska King Salmon Fishing (Updated)

ADFG photo

The following press release is courtesy of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (Updated version) :

Juneau – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is announcing the 2019 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. These regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 through 11:59 p.m. Friday, May 1, 2020. The regulations are:

  • Alaskan Resident
    • The resident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length.
  • Nonresident
    • The nonresident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length;
    • From January 1 through June 30, the annual limit is three king salmon 28 inches or greater in length;
    • From July 1 through December 31, the annual limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length, and any king salmon harvested from January 1 through June 30 will apply toward the one fish annual limit;
    • Immediately upon landing and retaining a king salmon a nonresident must enter the species, date and location, in ink, on the back of their sport fishing license or on a nontransferable harvest record.

The king salmon nonretention periods in the Haines, Skagway, Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan areas, announced on January 7, 2019, are still in effect in order to protect wild Alaska king salmon stocks.

The Southeast Alaska king salmon sport fishery is managed under the directives of the Southeast Alaska King Salmon Management Plan (5 AAC 47.055). This plan prescribes management measures based upon the Southeast Alaska Winter Troll CPUE. The Southeast Alaska Winter Troll CPUE for the 2019 season is 3.38 which equates to 25,844 king salmon allocated to the sport fishery. To address the implementation of the new treaty agreement which includes provisions to reduce the Alaska harvest ceiling the following year if the Alaska harvest ceiling is exceeded, the Southeast Alaska king salmon fisheries will be conservatively managed. This equates to a sport fishery harvest target of 25,300 treaty king salmon in 2019. The projected 2019 sport harvest of treaty king salmon is expected to be 21,900-22,500 fish. This is based on:

  1. the estimated treaty harvest of king salmon in 2018 was 21,300 fish;
  2. the same regional management and conservative wild stock management provisions in 2018 will be implemented in 2019; and
  3. the implementation of a two fish resident bag limit in areas closed for wild stock management when they reopen is estimated to increase harvest by 600-1,200 treaty king salmon.

The Southeast Alaska king salmon fishery will be monitored inseason and management action will be taken if needed to keep the sport fishery within the sport allocation. Additional opportunity to harvest Alaska hatchery-produced king salmon in the Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan areas beginning in June will be announced in May.

For further information regarding sport fisheries in Southeast Alaska, contact the nearest ADF&G office or visit: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInfo.eonr

 

ADF&G Announces 2019 SE Alaska Chinook Salmon All Gear Harvest Limit

(Juneau) — Under provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced today that the preseason Chinook salmon all-gear harvest limit for Southeast Alaska (SEAK) in 2019 is 137,500 fish.

This year’s all-gear harvest limit includes a 2% reduction that will serve as a buffer to avoid exceeding the all-gear limit and payback provisions within the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

The all-gear harvest limit for SEAK is determined by the Chinook Technical Committee of the Pacific Salmon Commission and is based on a forecast of the aggregate abundance of Pacific Coast Chinook salmon stocks subject to management under the Pacific Salmon Treaty as determined by Catch per Unit Effort in the Southeast Alaska early winter troll fishery.

The Southeast Alaska Chinook salmon all-gear harvest limit is allocated among sport and commercial troll and net fisheries under management plans specified by the Alaska Board of Fisheries as follows:

2019 Treaty Chinook Salmon Allocations Number of Chinook Salmon
Purse seine (4.3% of all-gear) 5,900
Drift gillnet (2.9% of all-gear) 4,000
Set gillnet (1,000) 1,000
Troll (80% after net gear subtracted) 101,300
Sport (20% after net gear subtracted) 25,300
Total all-gear harvest limit 137,500

Preseason projections for three Alaska Chinook stocks (Chilkat, King Salmon, and Unuk rivers) listed as stocks of management concern indicate that two of the three stocks will not achieve their minimum escapement goals in 2019, necessitating a management regime aimed at minimizing interception of these stocks. In addition, continued poor production across the region is anticipated to affect the eleven monitored Chinook salmon index systems of which seven failed to achieve their minimum escapement goal in 2018. Therefore, the management strategy for the 2019 fisheries will focus on minimizing harvests of these Alaska stocks. A similar management strategy was employed in 2018 and successfully reduced the interception of these stocks.

Allocative and regulatory information can be found in news release sections for the Division of Sport Fish and Division of Commercial Fisheries. Links to these releases are below:

Related Division of Sport Fish News Release:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/EONR/index.cfm?ADFG=region.NR&NRID=2719

Related Division of Commercial Fisheries News Release:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/dcfnewsrelease/1020850172.pdf (PDF 132 kB)