29000 tons of herring for Sitka
Carol W
2011-12-16 15:48:35
29000 tons of herring for Sitka Sound.......
Salty
2011-12-17 01:36:19
The really really sad thing is that after all the years of work to build this stock, which includes ideas which became standard for other herring fisheries around the state, like a minimum threshold which has gone from 7,000 tons in 1977, when the Sitka Advisory Committee proposed it, to 25,000 tons now, the fishery is not worth more. Some of us have spent hundreds of hours over the years in meetings working on and listening to comments about herring including 5 hours in one meeting last week.
The numbers are mind boggling. 29,000 tons = 58 million pounds. A fairly large herring in 150 grams or about a third of a pound. So say three herring to pound. We are looking at 174 million individual herring harvested in Sitka next March/April in about a 10 day period if the industry chooses to harvest the quota.
To look at it another way, a fairly good herring set is 100 tons. You are looking at 290 100 ton sets by the 50 or so seiners with permits.
To me, it is wonderful to see the amazing amount of herring in the Sitka area. It is another one of the Alaska fishery management success stories. I wish our coho or King stock had grown like this since 1977.
Carol W
2011-12-18 17:25:02
Eric I am still not sure how I feel about this fishery, the dept keeps raising the quota and yet when you look around there seems to be a lot of mouths to feed out there. And you look at the size of our salmon over the last 5 years, combined with the amount of whales and other preditors it leads one to think that caution is a good way to go in harvesting fish that are at the base of the food chain.
keep your hand on it
Tom
yak2you2
2011-12-19 20:08:02
I think it's the ADF & G taking the easy way out myself. The subsistence users are going to ask the Board of Fisheries for more restricted areas this spring, so to offset this potential fight the dept. is throwing more fish into the mix. That way the seiners will still get the same amount of fish, in a smaller area. Why else would you risk over harvesting a fish that is SO super ciritcal in the food chain. Up and down years happen in every fishery, salmon included, but does anybody ever remember seeing salmon so small as this year? These guys need more groceries, pure and simple.
The Herring issue is a lot like our current economic woes. The answer is not to print more money, or harvest more Herring, You'll only get ahead by making your money or your Herring worth more.
Salty
2011-12-20 03:13:22
Thanks Tom and Yak. It is mind boggling to me how both the Chinook and coho were so small this year up north. I understand the Chinook were normal or even larger than usual in the Noyes Island area.
It was also really weird to me how often the coho and Chinook did not have any feed in them, We take a look at the feed in almost every stomach of the fish we clean. This in spite of more herring than I can ever remember in the Sitka area. The feed that is less is the Sand Lance. Herring, krill, and capelin seem to be doing fine.
And then we had some of the biggest pinks I have ever seen for an average and a huge run in northern SE. It is really perplexing to this old fisherman.
Another thing I noticed, on the few days I fished coho in August, was the number of chum outmigrants the coho who were feeding had in their stomachs.
It would sure be interesting to know what was going on. Halibut are growing slower too.
Abundance
2011-12-20 07:31:03
I have been wondering about this as well. Has anybody ever seen such a weird year for fish? It seems like every run was either boom or bust this year. The kings off of Bartalome and Addington were indeed massive this year. The cohos during the first opening were were very large as well. I thought we were in for a mighty good season. Everybody knows how that went. Just as was said, the cohos just didn't have any feed in them no how much food was around. Usually a coho is the most ravenous thing in the sea. I am not sure what the herring situation is out where the silvers grow up either. Out that far from shore, my guess would be that there main diet would be krill. I hear that the pollock trawlers had a hard time getting the fish, since they were all spread out looking for food. Maybe the problem is out there, not here. There sure is no shortage of herring out here in front of Craig. My last trip out, about a week ago, I was going through schools a mile long by a hundred feet thick. Herring snagged all up and down my gear. It was the same last year, and I am hearing similar stories from Wrangell and Hollis. Of course, predators are out in numbers that I have never seen before during the winter either. There were at least a dozen whales in my drag alone, and one guy snagged onto one with his mainline. Birds are thick out there, and sharks. The only predators that don't seem to be plentiful are the salmon. Just a bare scratch, and one the occasions that a guy does have one, you'd better get it aboard quick before a shark or sea lion gets it. I like to see all of the life out there, but I am wary of celebrating it by raising the herring quota to such insane amounts. Is there any reason to try to catch that many? I have some trust in ADF&G, they are among the best fisheries management authorities in the world, but that's hard to swallow. I have nothing against fishing herring, but moderation is good for everybody. My Dad tells me stories of the near extermination campaign on the herring during his career. I would hate to see something like that happen again, although I really doubt that the people of the southeast would let it go that far. Hope everybody is catching enough kings to pay for fuel.
Abundance
2011-12-23 21:21:01
John Murray
2011-12-24 20:05:39
So many questions about this fishery with so much riding on the health of the resource.Too many unanswered questions:test fishing impact(mortality)stock composition Salisbury-Dorothy Narrows component of the whole?,are herring from south Baranoff/Chatham part of this stock? mortality of herring let go when they don't test right,historic imput from our elders.
As we are seeing from the halibut stock declines its hard for managers to get it right even with a lot of research.
On the other hand ADFG has done well in managing the troll fishery and many in the troll fleet benefit and support them.
alaskanorm61
2011-12-26 00:20:21
The smaller size at age issue for pacific halibut has been a big concern as well as diminishing stock assessments. We all know herring is a big part of their diet, seems like with no market it would make a lot of practical sense to reduce that quota. But how often do we see science and common sense intertwine.....
Salty
2011-12-26 20:27:35
One of the most interesting themes I saw this summer and abundance has now mentioned it too is the lack of feed in both coho and king stomachs even in the midst of lots of feed. What is with that?
John Murray brings up another issue which is that the collapse of halibut abundance under one of the most respected fishery management bodies, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, is casting doubt on the abilities of all our fishery managers.
Does it give anyone pause when the science is being fiddled with every other year. Models are being re-invented, basic information such as stock age and growth rates are being re-estimated.
It really gives me pause when a North Pacific Fishery Council member is quoted as saying he does not take fishermen testimony into account on his Bering Sea quota vote because he has to go with the "scientific" recommendation. Holy Toledo, all of us in the fishing business know that you have to take all information into account. I tend to weight scientific information more heavily than fishermen(experiential) and traditional knowledge but I consider all of them and sometimes the best science does not explain what is going on as well as either the fishermen or traditional knowledge.
When both the science and the fishermen observations, and not just fishermen in the herring industry, tell us that the herring stock in Sitka is at recent record levels, it means something to me. When both the science and the traditional knowledge (subsistence) reported difficulties for local people to catch a halibut in Sitka Sound in their traditional spots it meant something to me even though the halibut guides (charter) reported not problem.
In conclusion, it is important for managers to weigh all the perspectives, and then err on the side of caution, when regulating our fisheries.
29,000 tons of herring. Place 4'x4' blue totes (1000#) end to end for 44 miles and fill them with herring. That is mind boggling . I find it hard to believe it can't have an adverse affect on all of Sitka sound .
Salty
2011-12-28 03:34:37
This amount of herring is having all kinds of effects. I am quite confident they are displacing sand lance.
When I was fishing in huge schools of herring in the winter of 2010 I had to remove all my bait due to dog fish being on every hook.
I suspect the large herring are eating outmigrant salmon fry.
The large amount of roe being put into gardens around here adds an ambiance to the "sea breezes" around here.
[attachment=0]Millions of eggs.jpg[/attachment]
Carol W
2011-12-29 17:32:59
I am not sure on herring eating out migrants of salmon, as to dogfish we have the same problem of a blossoming population in Neets. One of the things we hqave noticed at SSRAA is that when the northern SE does well in survivals the southend is weak and visa versa. I am not saying that is the whole issue in regards to the nonexistent run in deep inlet and low survival to hidden falls.
At SSRAA we are getting ready to start alternating release sites between Kendrick Bay and Mc lean arm to see if there is any difference in how the predators behave.
And I noticed this last summer that the coho's early were eating herring and then as the season matured into July they switched their diet, I also noticed in early to late Sept that there was a new batch of cohos come in off the ocean while not as big as previous years they were definately bigger than what I had been seeing all season, so that seems to indicate there was some issues with coho that moved to near shore areas not feeding as they should, and would also have an impact on how many we were catching, if they aren't feeding they aren't biting.
I think the bottom line is the ocean conditions are in a state of flux and as fisherfolks, hatchery operators, and our management of fish resources we need to be cautious.
Keep your hand on it
Salty
2011-12-30 00:34:20
Tom,
I agree with your thinking. Thanks for posting.
Eric