Thursday, December 15, 2011

State announces dazzling Sitka herring forecast

The state today announced the preliminary quota for the 2012 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery: 29,008 tons.

How big is that? In a word, biblical.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

29k tons of non marketable product.Smart....

Anonymous said...

Let them spawn! No markets, just going to water down the value with that harvest. 20000 tons is more than enough! leave them for another day

Anonymous said...

let's wipe her out!!!!!!yahoooooo

Jason Miller said...

I have participated in this fishery for the last 20 years and all I can say that its extremely sad that the largest quota with the best quality roe the fishery has ever seen can't even be given away. Its the law of supply and demand, and supply has dramatically exceeded demand for the last few seasons, the 2012 quota will only increase the roe market problem. I certainly hope the processors have found alternative food markets for the product. Why not supply the roe demand, then market the overflow as food grade protein, if there is a lucrative market otherwise leave the rest of the fish in the water.

I certainly hope the Sitka participants come to the realization that the Kazunoko roe market is oversaturated due to lack of demand from a dwindling traditional market in Japan.

J

Anonymous said...

ADF&G is insane and their ASA model is crap. In 2011 they "discovered" that they aged all the herring in Sitka Sound WRONG for the past 12 years...but still they intend to fish this quota. Great so the good ole boys will get $0.01 cent a pound or $20 a ton. WHOOPIE what a wasteful fishery that make no money. Stop shoving this fishery down our throats - Sitkans do not want it! By the time Sherri Dressel figures out what is wrong in the ASA model, Sitka herring will be just like Auke Bay, Kah Shakes, Behm Canal, Hobart, Port Houghton, etc...

Anonymous said...

DUH there is no roe market! All these fish get ground up for fish meal to feed farmed fish. Take your head out of your ass.

Anonymous said...

Ha EH! Shaweik

Anonymous said...

Wes, You should remove post 5 - it's inappropriate.

Anonymous said...

Actually post 8 is the amusing one?

"Surely it cannot show lack of attachment to the principles of the Constitution that she thinks that it can be improved. I suppose that most intelligent people think that it might be. Some of her answers might excite popular prejudice, but if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. I would suggest that the Quakers have done their share to make the country what it is, that many citizens agree with the applicant's belief and that I had not supposed hitherto that we regretted our inability to expel them because they believed more than some of us do in the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount."
Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes, United States v. Schwimmer

Anonymous said...

Don't blame ADF&G, they just set the quota. No one's holding a gun to your head to "let 'er go"

Anonymous said...

If you can afford to fish for nothing AND contribute to a non existing market... Go ahead!!!

Just remember to not whine about prices please.

Anonymous said...

Think about it - the Bobbyt brain trust (that's a joke folks, the Football Head Think Tank) demanded Equal Harvest Share for the past few years, like it mattered in the end after the tsunami.

Sort of like the seine buyback, SE needed the seine buyback (we, the UFA, need to tax you 3% to buyback permits that weren't being fished anyway and we were buying secretly so we could profit using YOUR MONEY that we collected) in order to boost price per pound, well with hardly any buybacks, the past few years the price has gone up and so has the catch. Hmm, there must be something off with that optimal number calculation and the rationale behind the buyback AND equal harvest share.

Anonymous said...

The quota is so high and the price is so low because the demand is so low that the supply has to go up (quota) just so fishermen can break even. This just demonstrates that ADF&G are pawns of the industry, and they don't have the public's interest in mind. 100% fact.

Anonymous said...

SEACC has recently petitioned the Juneau District Attorney to prosecute anyone who harvests roe herring with a charge of wanton waste. Go for it boys!

Anonymous said...

EHS
EHS
EHS

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else find this comical yet unfortunate? http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=specialstatus.fedconsideration
Posted on ADF&G's own website is information regarding the current stock status review of Pacific Herring in Southeast Alaska (which includes Sitka, um hello!) as a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act...

Soooooooooooo...harvesting 29,000 tons (58,000,000 pounds) is a conservative management decision?

Anonymous said...

EHS EHS EHS

Anonymous said...

EHS
EHS
EHS
EHS
EHS
EHS
EHS

Anonymous said...

EEEEEEEEE


HHHHHHHHH

SSSSSSSSS

Anonymous said...

HELLO

GUYS

Ever heard of Equal Harvest Share?