The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery for the season.
The harvest tallied less than half the preseason quota of 11,549 tons.
More details in this announcement. Sounds like the fish just weren't cooperating.
So, can we officially call this fishery a bust? Deckboss isn't ready to say that until we know more about the price processors paid for the herring.
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14 comments:
What a fiasco. At least the subsistence fishery survived. This has to be embarrassing to the Dept. And I feel for hose who have invested in mega boats and high dollar boats. I suppose that no one should be too surprised though. There certainly have been some warning signs. Dept said there were 42 miles of spawn. sounds good, except when you learn that there have been years there were several times that many miles of spawn. Something has to change.
If ADF&G isn't embarrassed, I am for them and have been since they took over management.
Little Red Ridding Hoodneeds to go!
Make it a 5000 ton cap and super exclusive area would work
The fishery is a disgrace and should be shut down immediately. Anybody with a brain knows this, those who¨s god is only money sees it the other way.
This failure will have serious consequences. The Dept will have a tough time hiding behind their flawed science. If the governor wants to run for another term or run for national office, he better start adapting to the wave of the future. I tend to like Cora, but she could be the first head to roll after the herring fiasco. And if the Chinook problem on the Kenai worsens, and her guy Webster does not get confirmed, then it adios to the commissioner.
Bill Brown on the Board of Fisheries two years ago told the Department's top scientist that the model they were using was flawed and would blind them any crash in the population.
Of course the Department was blind to any critical review of their work. Instead, full steam ahead last year with a harvest projection of 28,000...
Fuller steam ahead this year with a projection of 11,000...
A blind man is not required to see at his peril...I therefore repeat, that experience is the test by which it is decided whether the degree of danger attending given conduct under certain known circumstances is sufficient to throw the risk upon the party pursuing it...
Oliver Wendel Holmes
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs//2012-2013/statewide/rcs/rc022_karl_johnstone_2013sitka_sound_herring_sac_roe.pdf
Sad state of affairs this fishery and that fishery crashing here there and everywhere all over the State. Sad state of affairs.
The fish was there,
Yes they were,
But SBS was backed up
So they closed it
To let them catch up,
And when they were ready,
All that was left was spawn.
So don't you see,
SBS owes a big price,
That will make it right.
The handwriting is on the wall. The herring fishery is in failure mode and will very likely be the subject of a major lawsuit if it continues. More and more people, agencies, scientists, and other users are finally getting it. Don't kill any more herring in Sitka. Stop now! Before it is too late. Perhaps there should be a protest such as done by Greenpeace. Send out the small boats by the dozens to block sets by the skiffs. Put the small boats right in from of the seiners or the skiffs to prevent the fishing. Let's have a few arrests and then trials that will get national coverage of the failing fishery and the lop sided greed and Dept. management by friends of the permit holders. If i were a permit holder I would be selling while I could still get some money. Because when the sh*t hits the fan, down, down will the permits go.
Quite a bit of ignorance in the comments here, just because the quota was not caught does not mean the fish were not there. Several things happened like the fish going from green to a major spawn in 2days, as well as hitting the beach mainly inside the subsistence closure. The bulk of the biomass spawned inside that closure offering very little opportunity for harvest. Silver bays problem just compounded the situation. Approaching 50 miles of spawn is a very healthy biomass.
Oooooooops not over!!!!
Dept. of Fish and Game may reopen the fishery. Seems new fish have arrived, and they need to get those herring yet.
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