Nonresident anglers fishing in state and federal waters cannot retain any king salmon that they catch in Southeast Alaska now through the end of the season on Sept. 30.

The restriction went into effect on Monday, July 7.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said it expected the sportfishing sector, including residents and nonresidents, would have exceeded this year’s sport harvest target by about 5,000 kings if no action were taken to curb the nonresident catch, Fish and Game Sitka area management biologist Troy Tydingco said on July 1.

The nonresident closure comes as fishermen of all gear groups in Southeast are feeling the squeeze of a record low treaty allocation of kings, down almost 40% from last year.

Alaska residents fishing in state waters continue to have a daily bag and possession limit of one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length, and no annual limit.

Up until the July 7 closure, nonresidents were already restricted this year to an annual limit of one king.

The 2025 sport fishery harvest limit is based on a sport allocation of 27,700 “treaty” kings that did not originate in Alaska hatcheries and are shared between the U.S. and Canada under the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty.

Data through the end of June shows that Southeast sport fishermen had harvested about 20,000 kings. The department projected that about 25,000 kings would be harvested by June 6, Tydingco said. Of those 25,000, 23,000 will count toward the treaty, leaving only about 4,700 treaty kings to be harvested for the rest of the season.

Tydingco said the nonresident closure is geared at providing uninterrupted harvest opportunity for Alaska resident anglers, while keeping the overall sport harvest within its allocation.

“In order to do that we do have to close the nonresident fishery, and we’ll have to see in the coming weeks how well residents do (catching kings),” Tydingco said.

In recent years, the nonresident take has comprised about 70% to 75% of the overall sport harvest. Nonresidents catch on guided charters, by operating bareboat charter rentals or fishing with friends or relatives who are residents.

Fish and Game has enacted a number of mid-season closures to the sport king harvest in recent years, including a closure to all resident and nonresident take from Aug. 26 through Sept. 30 last year, and a nonresident closure in August 2021.

Tom Ohaus of Angling Unlimited in Sitka said the summer-long nonresident closure comes early in the season and will be hard for the charter industry.

“We need as much certainty and opportunity as we can get, and so this will be a hard regulation,” said Ohaus, who serves as president of the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization.

“Most visitors book their trips months in advance, and many are traveling here specifically for the opportunity to harvest a king salmon,” Southeast Alaska Guides Organization assistant director Kim Landeen wrote in an email. “Closing retention during peak season could lead to cancellations, reduced revenue and long-term impacts on tourism and client trust.”

While the nonresident sport closure is in place through Sept. 30, resident sport anglers may not keep kings that they catch in the exclusive economic zone, which comprises waters from 3 to 200 miles off the coast of Alaska, the Department of Fish and Game said.

The concurrent closure for residents fishing in offshore, federal waters follows with a ruling by the Alaska Board of Fisheries this year that residents who are sport fishing in the offshore zone must follow all nonresident seasons, bag and possession limits, annual limits and size limits.

Tydingco noted that very little harvest of kings by residents occurs in that zone.