Higher-than-expected sportfishing catch rates for Southeast king salmon have prompted the state to cut back on the catch limit for residents and non-residents.
Without the reduction, the Southeast sport fishery was expected to have exceeded its allocation of 37,120 fish for the year by 3,460 to 12,650 kings, the Department of Fish and Game reported last Thursday.
“This is basically what we’ve been doing the past few years,”Patrick Fowler, Petersburg/Wrangell fisheries biologist, said Monday. The department usually has enough of an indication of harvest numbers by June 15 to adjust its early season bag limits.
The reduction in catch limits probably is not a surprise to “guides and avid anglers,”Fowler said.
In a normal year, the king salmon catch in the Wrangell-Petersburg area is split pretty close to 50-50 between resident and non-resident sport anglers, he said.
The percentage for non-resident catches is much higher in Sitka and Ketchikan, where hundreds of thousands of cruise ship passengers descend on the communities, many going out on fishing charters during their time in port, Fowler said.
Of course, nothing was usual last year without the cruise ships, he said, allowing the state to increase the catch limit in June in Southeast.
The new limits, which took effect Monday, reduce the Southeast bag and possession limit from three kings per day for residents down to two per day at least 28 inches long.
Non-residents will be limited to one king per day, the same as before this week’s change, but their total harvest limit was reduced from four kings down to three fish through June 30, and then further restricted to two kings July 1-7.
Starting July 8, non-residents will be limited to a total harvest of one king, with any catches between Jan. 1 and July 7 counting against that one-king limit.
“By enacting the new king salmon regulations listed above, the sport fishery is expected to stay within its allocation,”the department’s commercial fisheries division said in announcing the reduced catch limits. “The Southeast Alaska king salmon fishery will be monitored in-season and additional management action will be taken if needed to keep the sport fishery within the sport allocation.”
Last week’s announcement did not change king salmon catch limits for designated hatchery and terminal harvest areas in Southeast, including the Blind Slough and Wrangell Narrows harvest areas nearer to Petersburg and Anita Bay on Etolin Island, across from Wrangell Island.
District 8, in front of the Stikine River, remains closed to king salmon catches.
District 6 — on the west side of Zarembo and Etolin Islands — that had been closed to king sportfishing opened for harvest on June 14, as did much of District 7 along the Back Channel east of Wrangell Island and on the west side of the southern half of the island.
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