The Department of Fish and Game has set a preliminary guideline harvest level of 8,712 tons for the 2015 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery.
It's the smallest GHL since 2003, when the quota was 6,969 tons.
This year's fishery produced a harvest of 16,976 tons on a GHL of 16,333 tons.
The 2015 GHL is subject to adjustment prior to the start of the spring fishery. More details in this official announcement.
It is about time that the Dept recognizes the need to slow this fishery down. Former BOF member Brown saw this very problem coming several years ago but the Dept kept denying it. It is a waste to harvest this extremely valuable forage fish without recognizing its value to eco system. What was the price last year, $125 a ton? And the Dept allowed a huge harvest once again. The managers of the fishery live in Sitka and are just alter egos of the many permit holders who live or work there. The pressure to please the fishermen is enormous. Hopefully the new Commissioner will put a stop to this rape of such a valuable resource. The BOF has had a chance to help but a majority lacks the courage to do so. Politics at its worst
ReplyDelete6:23, its ridiculous that you're implying the ecosystem is stressed from the 15-20% commercial herring harvest. Whales are booming, and they're the ones responsible for the crash of the inside herring stocks. Get real.
ReplyDeleteherringsynthesis.research.pdx.edu/final_docs/Appendix%20E_wedits.pdf
ReplyDeleteHerring history in SE, interesting read.
5;20, Check with some of the elders in the Sitka tribe and see what they have to say about the eco system. And to accuse whales as being the culprit of fewer and fewer herring is a non starter. It is always something else and never the fisherman that causes species to become extinct or at such low levels that no harvest can occur. I have never heard a fisherman take responsibility for low abundance. Never! By the way what has become of all the herring stocks in SEAK, BC, Oregon and California. How about Cook inlet? Might be worthwhile to stop the harvest for a couple years and see what happens to Chinook and Halibut stocks. Let's see: one Chinook of 20# is worth more than a ton of herring from Togiak and one halibut in the area of 303 is worth more than a ton of herring in Sitka. That is getting "real'
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