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You can read the 2016 Black Cod Almanac here.

Sitka . . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced today that the directed fishery for Pacific cod will close in the waters of Icy Strait and Port Frederick at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, December 22, 2015. The closure area includes waters of the Northern Southeast Inside Subdistrict (NSEI) that are east of 136°00.00′ W. longitude and west of a line from Point Couverden to Point Augusta (Figure 1.). This includes all waters of statistical areas 355801 and 355802. The guideline harvest range for Pacific cod in the NSEI and SSEI Subdistricts combined is 750,000 – 1,250,000 round pounds. The department estimates that 270,000 round pounds of Pacific cod have been taken from the Icy Strait area during the 2015/2016 seasonal fishing period. This area is being closed Read more…

Petersburg . . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that seasons for the 2015/2016 commercial Tanner and golden king crab fisheries in Southeast Alaska will open by regulation at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. The season start date for the Tanner and golden king crab fisheries is based on the date with the smallest Juneau tidal range between February 10 and February 17 [5 AAC 35.110(a) and 5 AAC 34.110(b)]. Fishermen are also reminded that weather delay criteria for the Tanner and king crab fisheries have been adopted into regulation. Any delay to the start of the 2015/2016 Tanner and golden king crab fisheries due to weather will be announced 24 hours before the start of the fisheries [5 AAC 35.110(b) and 34.110(f)]. The registration deadline for Read more…

Sitka. . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced today the 2016 winter directed commercial fishery for Demersal Shelf Rockfish (DSR) will open in the Northern Southeast Inside (NSEI) Subdistrict and portions of the Southern Southeast Inside (SSEI) Subdistrict on Tuesday, January 5 at 9:00 a.m. These areas will remain open until allocations are taken or until 4:00 p.m. on the day prior to the start of the commercial halibut fishery, whichever occurs first. The seven species of rockfish in the DSR assemblage are yelloweye, quillback, canary, copper, china, tiger, and rosethorn. The 2016 annual directed commercial DSR harvest limit for each area is 55,125 round pounds (25 mt) with 37,485 pounds (17 mt) allocated to the winter fishery. The remainder of the harvest objective Read more…

Sitka. . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today the preliminary guideline harvest level (GHL) for the 2016 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery is 15,674 tons based on a 20% harvest rate of a forecast mature biomass of 78,372 tons. To forecast biomass, the department uses an age structured analysis model using a long time series of egg abundance and age composition data from department surveys conducted during and following the spring fishery. Herring egg abundance is estimated using aerial surveys designed to map the length of shoreline receiving spawn, and dive surveys which estimate the density of eggs and the average width of the spawn. The department mapped 87.9 nautical miles of herring spawn in the Sitka Sound area during the spring of 2015, compared to the Read more…

The Southeast Alaska pink salmon harvest in 2016 is predicted to be in the strong range, with a point estimate of 34 million fish (80% confidence interval: 13–55 million fish). An actual harvest of 34 million pink salmon would be below the recent 10-year average of 38 million pink salmon. The 2016 forecast was produced in two steps: 1) a forecast of the trend in the harvest, and 2) the forecast trend adjusted using 2015 juvenile pink salmon abundance data provided by the NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and Auke Bay Laboratories. A brief discussion and description of the forecast methods can be found at: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareasoutheast.salmon#forecasts Department staff will be available to discuss this forecast and plan for Read more…

There are two new hires at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Alexa Tonkovich is the new Executive Director, promoted from ASMI’s International Program Director. Michael Kohan is also hired as the new Technical Program Director.