Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery opened at noon today, with about 20 seiners fishing an area that includes Crescent Bay and Jamestown Bay east of town, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.

Aaron Dupuis, area management biologist, estimated the fishery would last until fishermen caught the processors’ capacity, which is about 500 to 600 tons for the day.

Dupuis spoke to the Daily Sitka Sentinel briefly while managing the fishery aboard the vessel Eric C.

“It’s the first opening of the year, and it’s going pretty well,” he said.

The guideline harvest level (GHL) for this year’s fishery is 35,015 tons, which is 15% of the 233,433 tons of mature herring that managers expect to return this year. That forecast is a 6% decrease from the 2025 mature pre-fishery biomass estimate of 247,081 tons, ADF&G said.

The department has been conducting vessel sonar and aerial surveys and doing test sets for the last few days, including near Bieli Rocks, two miles west of Sitka then increasingly closer to town.