Haines fishermen are questioning a recent decision by Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA) to suspend a chum incubation-box project here.
At its Juneau meeting March 11-12, the board of the regional aquaculture association voted to discontinue the program that hatches as many as three million chum salmon eggs at sites at 17 Mile, 33 Mile and at Herman Creek spawning channel.
The project produces as many as 15,000 fish per year, and costs the group $50,000 annually to produce fish that may be worth $80,000, said Steve Reifenstuhl, the organization’s general manager.
The board decided that was a “very low or negative” return on its investments, Reifenstuhl said. Further, the size and location of incubation boxes is limited by the Department of Fish and Game, Reifenstuhl said.
“The board decided instead of keeping butting our head against the wall, we could find another project to take its place,” Reifenstuhl said. He said the group is looking to create one or two new chum spawning channels in the next three years.
Spawning channels have a hit-or-miss record here. Several are not productive and others have been a complete failure, Reifenstuhl said. In light of that, NSRAA has dug test wells and pits monitoring water for temperature and volume over the winter to test suitability of sites. One possibility is expanding an existing spawning channel at Herman Creek.
“We won’t do it unless there’s a high probability of success,” Reifenstuhl said.
NSRAA tried sockeye incubation boxes at Chilkat Lake for about 10 years, but that project failed.
“The difficulty is you have major wild stock systems (around Haines) and you just can’t put large-scale enhancement projects on top of them,” Reifenstuhl said.
Fishermen at last week’s meeting of the Lynn Canal Gillnetters’ Association expressed concern about the cut. “That’s kind of big news. We’re almost a stock of concern and those (incubation) boxes help us at times,” said fisherman Marty Smith.
Gillnetters agreed they needed an added presence on the NSRAA board, as Haines currently has no representation. Commercial fishermen pay a 3 percent tax on the value of their catch to support aquaculture efforts.
Also at the meeting, gillnetters agreed to:
· elect Ryan Cook to lead the organization;
· lobby Fish and Game for support of maintaining fish-counting sonar at Chilkat Lake, and;
· pursue measures that would slow cruise ships, particularly ones traveling south in Lynn Canal. “Some boats out of Skagway go 30 knots. When you see their bow, there’s no time to get in your net, especially if you have fish in it,” said longtime gillnetter Steve Fossman.