Under provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced today that the preseason Chinook salmon PST all-gear catch limit for Southeast Alaska (SEAK) is 205,165 fish in 2020. However, the ADF&G target will be 201,100 Chinook.
This year’s target includes a 2% reduction from the PST limit that will serve as a buffer to avoid exceeding the limit and payback provisions within the PST. The all-gear catch limit for SEAK is determined by the Pacific Salmon Commission and is based on a forecast of the aggregate abundance of Pacific Coast Chinook salmon stocks subject to management under the PST as determined by Catch per Unit Effort in the SEAK early winter troll fishery.
The SEAK Chinook salmon all-gear catch limit is allocated among sport and commercial fisheries under management plans specified by the Alaska Board of Fisheries as follows:
2020 Treaty Chinook Salmon Allocations Number of Chinook Salmon
Commercial purse seine (4.3% of all-gear) 8,650
Commercial drift gillnet (2.9% of all-gear) 5,830
Commercial set gillnet (1,000) 1,000
Commercial troll (80% after net gear subtracted) 148,500
Sport (20% after net gear subtracted) 37,120
Total all-gear catch target 201,100
The preseason outlook is for continued poor production of the SEAK Chinook salmon stocks, including three stocks (Chilkat, King Salmon, and Unuk rivers) currently listed as stocks of management concern. This will necessitate a management regime aimed at minimizing catches of these stocks. A similar strategy was employed in 2019 and was successful at reducing interceptions of SEAK wild Chinook. Allocative and regulatory information specific to 2020 can be found in news release sections for the Division of Sport Fish and Division of Commercial Fisheries. Links to these releases are below:
Related Division of Sport Fish Advisory Announcements:
Ketchikan Area – https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/EONR/index.cfm?ADFG=Region.NR&NRID=2879
Petersburg/Wrangell
