A combination of time and area restrictions, low prices and scant fish has made for a rough start to the season for Haines gillnetters.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game area management biologist Nicole Zeiser said about 141 gillnetters caught 93,000 chums, 8,000 sockeyes, 9,000 pinks, and 300 kings in Lynn Canal last week. All the salmon catch was below average, except for the kings.
Zeiser said the chum catch has been improving week to week, but in general “it’s been very very slow,” she said.
Fishing in Lynn Canal is still heavily limited to protect kings, whose low 2019 escapement projections worried Fish and Game biologists. Gillnetters are prohibited from fishing north of Eldred Rock and Vanderbilt Reef in the “postage stamp” area, and in the boat harbor area within two nautical miles from shore. All areas have a maximum mesh size of 6 inches and are closed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., except for inside the boat harbor area.
The fishery has been saddled with time restrictions as well. All areas except inside boat harbor had only been open two days a week until July 7, when the boat harbor opening was increased by two days and the “postage stamp” area got one additional day.
Commercial gillnetter Will Prisciandaro said chums were selling for 50 cents per pound, compared to 90 cents last year. “It’s just kind of disheartening,” he said, adding that he had chosen to come home early instead of fishing for an extra day. “It didn’t seem like it was going to pan out.”
Mike Forbush, senior Alaska operations manager of Ocean Beauty Seafoods, said the salmon market is facing a number of difficulties.
Though he said he could not comment on specific prices, the market challenges are “a pretty big deal for the industry.”
“There’s a big volume of Russian production still on the market,” he said, adding that Chinese tariffs on U.S. exports were also driving down pink and chum prices. Forbush also expressed worry about rising trade tensions between the U.S. and the European Union.
Right now, he said, Ocean Beauty’s biggest concern is low production from the gillnet fleet. “We’re not getting enough fish from the commercial fisherman,” he said.
Apart from the restrictions, Zeiser said, the slow chum catch could be partially attributed to the heat wave. “The catch rate generally goes down during these weather conditions,” she said, noting that in hot weather, fish tend to stay deeper.
“We don’t know exactly why fishing is slow,” she said in an email. “If we knew how to read (salmons’) minds… we’d all be rich and we could manage the fishery with our eyes closed.”