Salmon seasons get underway around state

May 22–Fishermen are setting their nets and readying their reels as salmon seasons throughout Alaska get started.

This year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is predicting a harvest of 133.1 million salmon statewide, including 538,000 kings, 33.6 million sockeyes, 4.4 million silvers, 19.9 million chums, and 74.7 million pinks.

Fishing in Prince William Sound for Copper River salmon started May 15, one of the first of the major commercial salmon fisheries in the state to get started each year. The first Copper River salmon were transported to Anchorage, Seattle and other markets May 16 to kick off the season.

During the first two openings, May 15 and May 19, the drift fleet took about 2,000 kings, 5,000 chums and 109,000 sockeye salmon at the Copper River District.

The Miles Lake sonar count was 49,533 sockeyes as of May 20, with early daily counts ahead of forecast.

Other fisheries throughout the state are also underway.

Significant restrictions are expected for the northernmost fisheries this year, including both the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

The subsistence season on the Yukon has begun, and the first chum salmon of 2014 was reported near Mountain Village and Pitka’s Point on May 15.

According to ADFG, this is the earliest reported summer chum salmon subsistence harvest in more than 20 years.

No king salmon have been caught in the lower Yukon, although the Yukon River ice went out early so the king migration is expected to begin soon.

Subsistence fishing is open on the Lower Yukon, but nets are restricted to 6-inch mesh or smaller to protect kings, with middle and upper river users limited to 7.5-inch mesh or smaller.

According to an announcement from ADFG, further restrictions could be announced as kings started moving up the river.

The 2014 outlook calls for about 64,000 to 120,000 kings, and management will be based on the expectation that the run will come in at the lower end of the range, as it has in recent years.

The interim management escapement goal for passage into Canada set by the Yukon River Panel is 42,500 to 55,000 kings to the Eagle sonar. The panel is the part of the Pacific Salmon Commission that coordinates Canadian and U.S. management of Yukon salmon under the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

ADFG is expecting no subsistence or commercial fishing for Yukon kings this summer. There will be no sport fishing for king salmon either, including in the Tanana River drainage.

Subsistence and commercial harvest of summer chum, fall chum and silvers is planned, however. To protect kings, the gear used to target other salmon, and other fish, will be limited, and kings must be released carefully.

According to the announcement, ADFG expects to meet the chum escapement goals set by the Yukon River panel, which call for 70,000 to 140,000 fall chums to the Eagle sonar.

If there is more of a surplus of fish than currently anticipated, the panel’s agreement on escapement goals calls for additional kings and chums to make it across the border to Canada.

At the Kuskokwim River, federal managers restricted subsistence fishing as of May 20.

That date, managers limited the section of the river in their jurisdiction to 4-inch mesh or smaller. Subsistence fishers must also use setnets; no drift nets are allowed this summer. Generally, those fishers are targeting sockeye or chums or other species.

Subsistence users also may not target kings with a rod and reel; dipnets will likely be allowed for catching chums and sockeyes later in the summer.

In April, the Federal Subsistence Board decided that it would limit king fishing to federally-qualified subsistence users. Those users are generally residents of 32 specific Kuskokwim-drainage villages.

Most of the Kuskokwim River flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, so federal managers have jurisdiction there, although in past years, ADFG has also set subsistence regulations for the river.

Generally, about 88 percent of the king harvest is within the area of federal jurisdiction.

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries also changed certain commercial and subsistence regulations for the Kuskokwim earlier this year on an emergency-basis, although the board declined May 16 to make additional changes to the subsistence fishery.

Previously, the board enabled ADFG to limit gillnet mesh size to four inches, allow dipnets instead of gillnets and reduce the length of gillnets.

Before the federal managers said they would limit the 2014 king harvest, and intended to do so by limiting subsistence users to 4-inch setnets, the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group asked the board to enable ADFG to allow setnets but not drift nets. Ultimately, the board did not make that regulation change May 16, although the federal managers can do that on most of the river.

Southeast king catch doubles

In Southeast Alaska, the highlight of the salmon season is the highest allowable catch of kings under the current iteration of the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

Southeast Alaska fishers will be able to harvest up to 439,000 kings this year, more than double the 2013 number.

That means more liberalized sport fishing regulations, and high quotas for each of the commercial sectors.

Purse seiners have access to 18,894 kings, the drift fleet can take 12,743 kings, setnetters have 1,000 kings, trollers have 325,411 and the sport take is managed to about 81,353 kings.

The high numbers are largely due to strong southern king stocks, primarily hatchery fish from Oregon and Washington. Alaska’s hatchery fish are not factored into those numbers.

This winter, Southeast Alaska trollers caught about 14,000 kings. Those were counted beginning in October.

Not all of the Southeast Alaska river systems are as healthy, however, and in-river regulations will not be as liberal. Federal managers have shut down the subsistence king fishery on the Stikine River. That could reopen if the run comes in stronger than the 26,000 forecast.

Kodiak, Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet

Other fisheries throughout the state will begin in the next two months.

At Kodiak, the first commercial sockeye period is planned for June 9, but test fishing on the west side of the Island could occur as early as June 1, according to ADFG’s management plan.

The department expects a harvest of about 2.2 million sockeye, 270,379 cohos, or silvers, and 777,261 chums.

The Duck Bay, Izhut Bay, Inner Kitoi, Outer Kitoi Bay sections, and the Foul Bay and Waterfall Bay Special Harvest areas will all open for sockeyes June 9, with Alitak district set to open later than that, depending on the run strength. Sockeye fishing in areas will open depending on run strength, although most will start by June 14. Pink fishing is set to open July 6.

Fishing near the Kitoi Bay Hatchery, which releases chums, will likely begin in early June, with other targeted chum fishing beginning July 6.

Kodiak-area purse seiners must also immediately release king salmon 28 inches or greater in length from June 1 through July 5. That’s a new rule this summer; previously, seiners were only required to release the fish beginning July 6 if ADFG felt the Karluk or Ayakulik king runs appeared that they wouldn’t meet their escapement goals.

The department will still have the authority to require the later-season release this summer if needed.

At Bristol Bay, 16.86 million sockeyes are expected to be available for harvest and the fisheries there start in June.

The Board of Fisheries made a Bristol Bay regulation changes this year altering where setnets are allowed near Ugashik Village, but fishing will generally remain much the same as last year.

Cook Inlet’s commercial fisheries also occur in June and July, with significant changes compared to prior years, but new regulations for certain sport fisheries are already affecting anglers.

On the Kenai River, the early-run is closed to fishing. Other limitations were also placed on Kenai Peninsula streams, including an annual limit of two kings from May 1 to June 30 for the Anchor River, Deep Creek, Ninilchik River and marine waters south of the Ninilchik. Upper Cook Inlet waters are also more limited this spring.