Hello All:
Attached is the ADFG News Release announcing this year's quota. I'm sorry to report that the news isn't good.
To top it off, the post-season abundance index for 2012 came in substantially lower than predicted. Meaning, if ADFG had known that number when the quota was estimated last season, we would have given a much lower quota.
Treaty reps and ATA will work with ADFG and evaluate whether this is a true drop in abundance, or a modeling issue. However, it does appear that Chinook salmon production is down all along the coast.
Last count I have on the winter fishery is about 12,000 fish landed. That's been about a week ago.
Hoping for lots of big coho...
Dale
ATA
Well said.
Sorry y'all.
Dale
ATA
Kelper
2013-04-04 20:44:31
So basically.. if we catch 45k treaty fish in the winter fishery.. 24k treaty fish in the spring openings..
129,862-45000-24000=60,862 * 70% = A 1st king opener of 42603 kings. Estimate 10k kings a day, and we have July 1-4 to fish kings? (unless we don't catch our ghl in the winter and the spring hatchery openings suck)
Am I wrong on any of those numbers?
Well, you are correct that those are the numbers that go into any July 1 scenario, but there's no way of knowing all the numbers at this point. Apparently the winter fishery is up to about 13,500. Catch rates are slow, but we all know that with a good shot of fish the fleet can catch quite a few in the last week or two. Still, it's a longer way than normal to 45K.
My crystal ball is pretty hazy, but 4-5 days doesn't seem too far off. That said, it's surprising to look back over the years at number of fish versus days of fishing in July. We average anywhere from the 8,000 to 12,000 per day. Sometimes it's 60K fish in 5 days, but it can be more, or less, to get that. You're right though, 10K is a good ballpark catch per day, as long as the fish are available and catch-able. The July catch curve for the troll fishery is something that would look familiar to your daily experience on the grounds. There is usually a build up of fish and we start real high - say 13-17K estimate for opening day, then the daily rate catch rate quickly shows a steep drop and levels out at something much less.
Raffle tickets are currently on sale for ATA's May raffle. Maybe we should see about adding a game for June similar to the Nenana Ice Classic - pick which day the July king fishery will close - or maybe the date/time the last July troll king is delivered?
July King Classic, anyone?=)
Dale
ATA
Salty
2013-04-05 03:34:03
Thanks Dale and all,
I was in BC all day working on marketing and lure development. Tough news for the troll fleet. Puts us nestl 100,000 kings below our long tme fixed all gear quota of 270,000. Some of you may have seen my op-Ed in the Juneau paper on by- catch today.
Fellow trollers our fleet our salmon troll industry is in trouble. Time to put our differences aside on dividing up the troll pie and uniting to stop the shrinkage of the whole pie.
akfisher1978
2013-04-07 23:17:19
Has the quota ever been this low and if so how long did it take to reach average amounts?
Hi All:
Yep,it's been this low,and even lower a few times. It's been really variable with respect to season length. Will depend on true abundance, availability, and catchability; plus ADFG discretion. Here's a couple of examples from recent years.
Negotiated quotas as low as a range near 145K in about 1996-98. Closed by court order in 1995 at 178K. I don't have the number of fishing days handy for these fisheries at the moment.
2000 & 2001 Quota was 189,900 both years, but we only caught about 187,000 each year - 6 & 5 days respectively
2008 Quota 170,000 - caught 172,000 in 5 days
Our average July catch per day has ranged 8-12K, and I've seen it estimated at 13-17,000 on opening day, based on old ATA logbook data.
I will be working with ADFG before and during the opening, in an attempt to get as many days as we can and still stay within the regulatory goals for both the July and August openings. We'll also work to get as short a coho closure as possible. The number of days will rely heavily on getting solid data from the fleet, and also making sure that conservation goals and allocation commitments are met.
Get in touch so I can answer any questions - then you can decide what to do, but I hope you'll help. These small quotas are a real challenge to manage and we want the fleet to get every fish they can. Data helps.
Dale
ATA