PETERSBURG – An application for an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) permit alteration to release 40 million chum salmon in Thomas Bay brought forth by the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA) has been approved.
The application process has taken just over a year to secure the location, north of Petersburg, for the release but the change is something NSRAA general manager Steve Reifenstuhl has been thinking about for a while now.
“I looked at Thomas Bay approximately 20 years,” he says. “Had temperature probes out there to evaluate temperature throughout the winter and also looked at conditions and sites for anchoring the net pens.”
Reifenstuhl says he gave the streams and rivers entering Thomas Bay a good looking over, too. Flash forward to a year ago and NSRAA was eyeing Thomas Bay as a good option to combat low production of the organization’s Hidden Falls hatchery. Reifenstuhl and NSRAA are hoping Thomas Bay will be an “excellent site.”
Last year, NSRAA had all the necessary permits, but the final permit needed through ADF&G got tabled in order to have a baseline test conducted to collect additional information. The study looked into Chinook bycatch, among other things, and a report was completed by Patrick Fowler of Petersburg’s ADF&G division of sport fish, and Troy Thynes of the division of commercial fisheries.
Its contents were available to the regional planning team (RPT) during their meeting at the end of November in Juneau. The body unanimously recommended ADF&G commissioner Sam Cotten approve the release.
“He doesn’t have to go along with their recommendation, but in this case, he did,” Reifenstuhl says of Cotten.
The net pens are on their way to Petersburg where they will be assembled and then taken to Thomas Bay, Reifenstuhl says. The amount of fry released this year will be 25 million and they are currently being mobilized. NSRAA should have them ready to move into holding locations at Thomas Bay by mid- to late-February. The fry will be held for a couple months before being released, he says.
“The apprehension or concern is that we haven’t operated in Thomas Bay. Not all release sites work as well as others,” Reifenstuhl says. “But you can’t know until you do it. So, we’re going to get started and it’ll take three years from the first release.”
By that Reifenstuhl
means the results of this year’s release will be unknown until 2020. NSRAA will do
everything they can to raise healthy fish able to withstand difficult marine environments, but it’ll be a waiting game. Predators and water conditions go a long way in determining the success of a release like this, Reifenstuhl says.
The move could open the door for increased opportunity for early season commercial seiners and gillnetters. However, it was noted at
the RPT’s last meeting that a letter of opposition and a
petition signed by 72 people from Petersburg had been received. Letters of support submitted by Icicle Seafoods, Silver Bay Seafoods, among other organizations and about a dozen commercial fishermen, were also noted during the meeting.
“We have been listening to what people say and their
concerns about the recreation conflicts or possible fishing conflicts,” Reifenstuhl says. “And, we are going to design the harvest area so that we minimize those conflicts. We have a long history of working areas where there are other user groups.”
Reifenstuhl says NSRAA, a Sitka-based organization, was established three decades ago and it’s ready to deal with any potential conflicts that arise in Thomas Bay.
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