This report describes the northern Southeast Alaska herring spawn-on-kelp fishery, regional regulations, areas, kelp harvest requirements, guideline harvest levels for 2006. Management plans for the 2006 fishery are outlined, including procedures for announcing fishery openings and closures, and area Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game contacts. Spawn-on-kelp fisheries including Section 12-A (Tenakee Inlet) and Section 13-C (Hoonah Sound) are detailed.
This plan provides an overview of the management approach and regulations for the 2006 spawn-on-kelp pound fisheries on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island near the communities of Craig and Klawock and in Ernest Sound in District 7, south of Wrangell in Southeast Alaska.
Part I: Herring: The Fish and Its Utilization, 1878-1966 -- Alaska Herring: The Basics -- Early Development of Alaska's Herring Industry -- Salted Herring: The Early Years -- Early Alaska Herring Fishery Regulation and Research -- Alaska's Herring Industry Expands: 1924-1931 -- A Chronicle of Alaska's Herring Industry: 1932-1948 -- A Chronicle of Alaska's Herring Industry: 1949-1966 -- Bait Herring -- Part II: Roe Herring -- Alaska's Roe-Herring Fishery, Its Genesis and Management -- Sitka Sound Roe-Herring Fishery -- Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound Roe-Herring Fisheries -- Lower Cook Inlet and Kodiak Area Roe-Herring Fisheries -- Togiak Roe-Herring Fishery -- Norton Sound Herring Fisheries -- Food Herring in the Modern Era -- Part III: Herring Spawn on Kelp -- Genesis of Alaska's Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fishery -- Prince William Sound Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fisheries, 1981-1993 -- Alaska Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Pound Fisheries -- Togiak and Norton Sound Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fisheries.
Pacific herring Clupea pallasii are important prey for many marine species found in Southeast Alaska and are harvested in fisheries for subsistence, personal use, commercial, and research purposes. The Southeast Alaska Herring Management plan (5 AAC 27.190(3)) requires the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to assess the abundance of mature herring for each stock before allowing commercial harvest. Included here are results of stock assessment surveys completed primarily during 2020, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principal model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. In 2020, spawn deposition surveys were conducted only for Sitka Sound, Craig, and Revilla Channel area stocks. Spawn deposition surveys were not conducted in several other traditionally major spawning areas due to lack of funding or low levels of observed spawn, although aerial surveys of spawning were continued on a limited basis. The shoreline in state waters where spawn was documented in Southeast Alaska during aerial surveys in 2020, combined for all areas, was 142.6 nautical miles. Post-fishery spawn deposition biomass estimates, combined for all surveyed stocks, totaled 412,794 tons. During the 2019–2020 season, a commercial winter bait fishery was opened in Craig with a guideline harvest level (GHL) of 6,608 tons. A commercial purse seine sac-roe fishery was planned in Sitka Sound with a GHL of 25,824 tons; however, no fishery openings were announced due to high abundance of young, and therefore small, herring that were below desired marketable size. A commercial spawn-on-kelp fishery was open in Craig with an allocation of 10,118 tons of herring, allowing for the highest kelp allocation for pounds. There were no other commercial fisheries opened in 2020. Herring harvested commercially during the 2019–2020 season totaled 896 tons, not including herring pounded for spawn-on-kelp fisheries or spawn-on-kelp products.
