This report reviews methods and results of herring stock assessment surveys and sampling completed primarily during 2010 in Southeast Alaska, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principle model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. Spawn deposition surveys were conducted in nine areas, including Sitka Sound, Seymour Canal, Craig, Hobart Bay-Port Houghton, Hoonah Sound, Ernest Sound, West Behm Canal, Tenakee Inlet, and Lynn Canal. Also included are summaries of commercial fisheries that occurred during the 2009-10 season.
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.
Pacific herring Clupea pallasii are important prey for many marine species found in Southeast Alaska and are harvested in commercial fisheries (bait, sac roe, spawn-on-kelp), and for subsistence, personal use, 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 2019, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principle model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. In 2019, 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, although aerial surveys of spawning were continued on a limited basis. The shoreline in state waters where spawn was documented during aerial surveys in 2019, combined for all areas, was 111.0 nautical miles. Post-fishery spawn deposition biomass estimates, combined for all surveyed stocks, totaled 169,514 tons. During the 2018–2019 season, a commercial winter bait fishery was opened in Craig with a guideline harvest level (GHL) of 2,344 tons. A commercial purse seine sac-roe fishery was planned in Sitka Sound with a GHL of 12,869 tons; however, no openings were announced due to high abundance of young/small herring that were below desired marketable size. A commercial spawn-on-kelp fishery was open in Craig with an allocation of 2,911 tons of herring. There were no other commercial fisheries opened in 2019. Herring harvested commercially during the 2018–2019 season totaled 995 tons, not including herring pounded for spawn-on-kelp fisheries or spawn-on-kelp products.
Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, is important to many marine species found in Southeast Alaska and is also harvested in fisheries for commercial bait, commercial sac roe, commercial spawn-on-kelp, subsistence spawn-on-branches, subsistence spawn-on-kelp, personal use, and research/cost-recovery 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 2015, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principle model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. In 2015 spawn deposition surveys were conducted in Sitka Sound, Craig, Kah Shakes/Cat Island, Ernest Sound, Hobart Bay-Port Houghton, Hoonah Sound, Tenakee Inlet, Seymour Canal, and Lynn Canal. The combined total cumulative shoreline where spawn was documented in 2015 for surveyed areas was 145.8 nautical miles. In 2015, post-fishery spawn deposition biomass estimates, combined for all surveyed stocks, totaled 86,023 tons. During the 2014-2015 season, a commercial winter bait fisheries was opened in Craig with a guideline harvest level of 1,358 tons. A commercial purse seine sac-roe fishery was opened in Sitka Sound with a guideline harvest level of 8,712 tons. A commercial spawn-on-kelp fishery was open in Craig. There were no commercial gillnet fisheries opened in 2015. No commercial fisheries were opened in Seymour Canal, Hobart Bay-Port Houghton, Hoonah Sound, Tenakee Inlet, West Behm Canal, Kah Shakes/Cat Island, or Lynn Canal. Herring harvested commercially during the 2014-2015 season totaled over 9,000 tons, not including herring pounded for spawn-on-kelp fisheries; however, a specific value is not available due to confidentiality for some fisheries.
Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, is important prey for many marine species found in Southeast Alaska and is also harvested in fisheries for commercial bait, commercial sac roe, commercial spawn-on-kelp, subsistence spawn-on-branches, subsistence spawn-on-kelp, personal use, and research/cost-recovery 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 2017, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principle model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. In 2017 spawn deposition surveys were conducted in Sitka Sound, Craig, and Seymour Canal. Spawn deposition surveys were not conducted in several other major spawning areas in 2017, primarily due to lack of funding resulting from cuts to state budgets. The shoreline in state waters where spawn was documented during aerial surveys in 2017, combined for all areas, was 107.5 nautical miles. In 2017, post-fishery spawn deposition biomass estimates, combined for all surveyed stocks, totaled 71,011 tons. During the 2016-2017 season, a commercial winter bait fisheries was opened in Craig with a guideline harvest level of 523 tons. A commercial purse seine sac-roe fishery was opened in Sitka Sound with a guideline harvest level of 14,649 tons. A commercial spawn-on-kelp fishery was open in Craig, with an allocation of 349 tons. There were no commercial gillnet fisheries opened in 2017. No commercial fisheries were opened in Seymour Canal, Hobart Bay-Port Houghton, Hoonah Sound, Tenakee Inlet, West Behm Canal, Kah Shakes/Cat Island, or Lynn Canal. Herring harvested commercially during the 2016-2017 season totaled just over 14,450 tons, not including herring pounded for spawn-on-kelp fisheries.
This report reviews methods and results of Pacific herring, Clupea pallasi, stock assessment surveys and sampling completed during 2009 in Southeast Alaska, including summaries of herring spawn deposition surveys and age-weight-length sampling, which are the principle model inputs used to forecast herring abundance. Also included are summaries of commercial fisheries that occurred during the 2008-09 season.
The primary purpose of this project is to collect the data necessary for stock assessment and forecast of herring spawning populations in Southeast Alaska, with the ultimate goal of setting appropriate guideline harvest levels. To conduct stock assessments using the established methods, it is critical to obtain estimates of egg deposition (i.e. "spawn deposition") within each spawning area, estimates of age composition of the spawning population, and estimates of age composition of harvested herring. This information, along with estimates of fecundity relationships and amount harvested are direct inputs for models used to forecast the biomass and age composition of herring spawning populations in the ensuing year.
