Time and area restrictions intended to protect area king salmon will likely affect sockeye landings by gillnetters this season.

Spawning Chilkat king salmon have fallen short of escapement goals for six out of the last seven return years. The 2018 Chilkat king salmon return was the lowest on record at an estimated 873 fish, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Brian Elliott said. Biologists project the Chilkat River will fall short of its minimum escapement goal in 2019.

As a result, management strategy for 2019 will focus on minimizing harvests of king stocks.

Fish and Game biologist Nicole Zeiser said stricter regulations will include closing the area north of Eldred Rock lighthouse through the end of July, limiting certain open waters for two days through early July, restricting mesh size to six inches through mid-July and restricting the boat harbor harvest area to one nautical mile from shore.

These actions, restricting waters and mesh size, may influence the harvest of hatchery chum salmon by, Zeiser said.

Norm Hughes, a gillnetter who targets hatchery chum for the first six weeks of the season, estimates that he likely lost about $20,000 from restrictions last year. “I think the fleet is going to have a tough time because of restrictions,” he said. “We’re just not going to have as much opportunity.”

Sockeye salmon met escapement goals in 2018, and are on track to do so this year in the Chilkat and Chilkoot lakes, Zeiser said.  

While the Pacific Salmon Commission’s all-gear catch ceiling for Southeast Alaska king salmon is up by 7,500 fish compared to 2018, comparisons between the two years are not valid, Elliott said.

This year marks the first year of a new ten-year Pacific Salmon Treaty agreement that uses a different model to estimate allowable catch.

The Southeast Alaska allowable catch is determined from fishery performance in the outside waters during a seven-week period in the winter troll fishery, Elliott said.

Overall, the all-gear harvest limit of king salmon in Southeast Alaska is derived from the strength of coastwide stocks, including British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

Because about 80 percent of king salmon harvested in Southeast Alaska fisheries come from outside of the state, managing the treaty catch limits is different than managing local stocks, Elliott said.

For the past two years, Alaska has imposed additional reductions to the treaty’s allowable catch in response to conservation needs. This year, Alaska implemented a 2 percent reduction from the treaty’s allowable catch, resulting in a catch ceiling of 137,500 fish across sport, commercial troll, and net fisheries.

In 2018, Alaska implemented a 10 percent reduction to allowable catch for a catch ceiling of 130,000 fish.

Last year, the Alaska Board of Fisheries labeled the Chilkat River king salmon, along with stocks in Unuk and King Salmon rivers, as stocks of concern because runs have continuously failed to meet escapement goals. That designation came with increased commercial, sport and subsistence fishing restrictions across Southeast.

The king salmon catch allocation formula in Southeast Alaska remains the same as previous years; of the allowable catch of 137,500, approximately 101,000 is for commercial troll fisheries, 25,000 for sport fisheries, and 11,500 for commercial net fisheries.

The Lynn Canal drift gillnet fishery will open at noon on June 16.

Author