King salmon fishing is back on for nonresident sport anglers in Southeast Alaska, effective Monday, Aug. 4, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced.

Retention of kings by nonresidents had been closed since July 7 in Southeast.

Fish and Game said at the beginning of July that it needed to put an indefinite pause on out-of-state residents’ harvest because the catch was on track to exceed the regionwide sportfish harvest target for kings.

The July 7 closure was geared at preserving an uninterrupted harvest opportunity for Alaska resident anglers, and holding the overall sport catch within the 2025 allocation of 27,700 treaty kings set under the terms of the U.S./Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty.

The month-long closure was effective in reducing the king salmon harvest, and sufficient treaty allocation remains to reopen retention to nonresidents across Southeast, Fish and Game said in a press release on July 28.

Fish and Game Sitka area manager Troy Tydingco said sport anglers in Southeast had harvested about 25,800 kings through July 27. About 20,500 of those fish will count toward the treaty allocation, he said. Alaska hatchery kings do not count towards the treaty harvest.

With some 20,500 treaty kings in the bag, sport anglers can still catch about 6,500 treaty salmon for the remainder of the season, Tydingco said.

That’s “enough to allow for additional opportunity for nonresident anglers while protecting resident harvest opportunity,” he said. “We will continue to monitor closely over the next few weeks and may take action again if necessary.”

Fishermen of all gear groups in Southeast this year are bound by a record-low treaty allocation, with harvest limits down almost 40% from last year. In line with these cuts, nonresident sport anglers can harvest one chinook per person for 2025, a strict limit compared with recent years.

When Fish and Game announced that nonresidents’ king fishing would be shuttered mid-season, charter operators said they would take a hit since they advertise the prized chance for their paying customers.