The state will share harvest data from the Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery after all. That’s after participating processors gave the Alaska Department of Fish and Game the green light to share the data with the public.
At an information meeting last week (3-19-25), Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis announced that, due to low participation, the fishery did not meet the legal threshold this year for the state to share harvest data. State policy say that fish ticket data will be held confidential unless at least three entities are participating in a given fishery- it’s a rule the state applies to all fisheries.
But according to an ADF&G announcement on Tuesday (3-25-25), processors have now agreed to waive their right to keep the data confidential this year. According to the announcement, from Saturday to Monday just over 1900 tons of herring were caught when the fishery was open.
Over 3 miles of active herring spawn were observed on Tuesday. The commercial fishery was open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, but harvest data from that day has not yet been released.
