Wednesday’s fishery stretched bewteen Krestof Sound and northern Sitka Sound. Seiners netted an estimated 1,800 tons. (Photo courtesy of ADF&G)
The Sac Roe Herring Fishery opened across a broad swath of Sitka waters Wednesday (03-23-16), including northern Sitka Sound, Krestof Sound, Nakwasina Passage, Promisla Bay and Katlian Bay.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game opened the big fishery at 1:30 p.m and closed it at 7 p.m. The fishery was suspended for 25 minutes at 2:30 p.m. because of low quality herring.
ADF&G opened a second fishery at 5 p.m. in Salisbury Sound and closed it at 6:20 p.m. It included the waters of St. John the Baptist Bay and Sukoi Inlet.
Between both openings, preliminary hails from processors put the total harvest at 1,800 tons.
Seiners are chasing after the approximately 4,970 tons remaining on this year’s quota, in a race against the clock as spawning increases rapidly. ADF&G mapped 15.6 nautical miles of nautical spawn yesterday morning (03-23-16), a lot of it in Hayward Strait. This more than doubles the miles mapped on Tuesday.
