The Southeast king salmon troll fishery opened Friday, Sept. 1, for the third time this summer, though relatively few fish remain in this year’s allocation, the Department of Fish and Game announced.
With only about 3,200 kings remaining in the season quota, Fish and Game said the 10-day opening will be a rare “limited harvest fishery,” with each permit holder allowed to take only nine chinook.
As a limited fishery, it comes with a few additional rules as well. Fish kept for personal use will count toward the commercial harvest limit, and kings taken during this opening must be separated from other salmon aboard the fishing boats.
The department intends to close the fishery on Sunday, Sept. 10.
A limited harvest fishery is novel in Alaska, and this is only the second time one has been implemented, said Fish and Game management biologist Grant Hagerman of Sitka. He recalled that the first time was in 2019. “It hasn’t really been done too much because it’s a fairly new regulation that allows us to do that.”
In the 2019 limited opening, trollers were allowed to harvest only two king salmon per permit. The short opening is meant to allow fishermen pursuing other salmon species such as cohos to keep a handful of incidentally caught kings they would otherwise have to release, Hagerman said.
Until late June, trollers thought they might not be able fish for kings at all as the result of a federal court ruling in an environmental lawsuit that would have shut down the king salmon fishery in Southeast Alaska. But an appeals court panel issued a stay on the order, and the chinook season opened on schedule.
Fishing for coho and chum salmon was not affected by the lawsuit.
In the suit, the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy alleges that the Southeast troll fleet harvest of king salmon denies food for Puget Sound orcas, a claim the trollers, the state of Alaska and federal agencies have disputed.
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