Sitka sac roe herring season opens

The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery opened at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday under a cooperative model.

Dave Gordon, area management biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the decision was made by permit holders to eliminate competition and lower costs to “make it worthwhile to go after the product” as the market is poor.

It wasn’t a popular decision among tenders, however.

“There’s a lot less boats here,” said Tanner Mackiewicz, president of the Alaska Independent Tendermen’s Association. “A lot of people without jobs.”

He said there were about 15 tenders participating when there’s normally around 50.

It was the first time in 27 years that his dad didn’t cooperate in the fishery as a tender — “there’s a lot of guys like that,” he added.

Mackiewicz said he understands why the permit holders decided to fish it cooperatively and collect tender fees themselves, but he added that the decision has far reaching effects.

Sitka, he noted, was “super quiet” Wednesday when it’s normally hustling and bustling.

“It’s really weird how permit holders don’t have to be on a boat,” he said, adding they can stay home and get their check through the mail.

If the co-op was state sanctioned, he added, that wouldn’t be allowed.

None of the processing is being completed in Petersburg this year.

Petersburg Fisheries Plant Manager Patrick Wilson noted that the quota was too small to warrant the herring being brought here. The harvest level was set at 8,712 tons this year, about half of last year’s quota.

The fishery’s two-hour notice began at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

A test sample taken from a large body of herring west of Black Rock Monday yielded 7.3 percent mature roe and 3.4 percent immature roe with an average weight of 147 grams.

While sample immaturity was high, “the separation of less mature herring from the mature schools, as well as the maturation of herring over the next several days could result in rapid progression of mature roe content,” ADF&G said in a press release Monday.

An aerial survey Monday morning showed that herring predators were concentrated in the areas west and south of Crow Island and Bieli Rock.