Area 3 Fishery Update

Here is an update on Nass stocks and fisheries received this morning. It comes from the Nisga'a Fisheries.

Note the Alaskan catches of Nass bound sockeye...and obviously Nass ( and Skeena) bound steelhead would be intermingled with those fish.

These Area 3 commercial openings are always characterized as 'Nass' openings that target Nass sockeye by DFO....but dont be fooled, Skeena bound steelhead could be travelling through Area 3 at this time and be impacted by the non-selective gear used....as well as Nass steelhead.

Note the numbers of each species caught to date....except no mention of steelhead intercepted. With non-retention rules in place every steelhead has to be thrown overboard. This creates the 'no data= no problem' situation....which Alaska also uses to hide by-catch impacts on steelhead.

DFO might make fishers keep track of steelhead encounters or killed fish....maybe they do, but dont publish that info openly. We'll have to check into that...

Interesting to note the numbers of fish wheels put in use by the Nisga'a and the sheer amount of fishery stock data they are collecting.

Info courtesy of Nisga'a Fisheries:

"AREA 3 IS CLOSED.

NO ANNOUNCEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE YET BY DFO ON THE NEXT OPENINGS (ANTICIPATE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TOMORROW).

FISHERIES CONDUCTED TO DATE IN AREA 3 HAVE BEEN THREE GILLNET FISHERIES [24 JUNE (170 BOATS), 1 JULY (209 BOATS), AND 7 JULY (174 BOATS)].

TOTAL COMMERCIAL HARVEST ESTIMATE IN AREA 3 TO 9 JULY IS: 18,347 SOCKEYE, 961 PINK, 7265 CHUM AND 409 CHINOOK (SOURCE OF DATA IS FROM DFO PRINCE RUPERT FISHERIES MANAGEMENT).

ALASKA GILLNET FISHERIES IN DISTRICTS 101 (TREE POINT) AND 106 (SUMNER AND UPPER CLARENCE) BEGAN ON 15 JUNE AND 8 JUNE, RESPECTIVELY.

ALASKAN SEINE FISHERIES IN DISTRICTS 101 TO 104 TYPICALLY START IN ALASKAN WEEK'S 25 (15-21 JUNE; DISTRICT 102), WEEK 27 (29 JUNE - 5 JULY; DISTRICTS 101 AND 104) AND WEEK 29 (13-19 JULY; DISTRICT 103).

SEINE FISHERIES OPENING DATES TO DATE ARE: DISTRICTS 101 (LOWER CLARENCE/REVILLA; OPENED ON 6 JULY), 102 (MIDDLE CLARENCE; OPENED ON 22 JUNE), 103 (CORDOVA; NOT OPEN YET) AND 104 (NOYES/DALL; OPENED ON 6 JULY). TOTAL IN-SEASON CATCH ESTIMATE OF SOCKEYE IN SOUTHEAST ALASKAN FISHERIES IS 26,388 BASED ON DATA TO DATE ON THE ADFG WEBSITE AND IS INCOMPLETE CATCH REPORTING FOR WEEK 28 (ENDS 12 JULY).

CATCHES HAVE REACHED OR ARE JUST BELOW AVERAGE TO DATE AT TREE POINT AND UPPER CLARENCE. OTHER AREAS HAVE JUST OPENED.

OF THE TOTAL ALASKAN CATCH OF SOCKEYE, NISGA'A FISHERIES IS ESTIMATING APPROXIMATELY 12,000 ARE NASS SOCKEYE BASED ON AVERAGE STOCK % DATA (1982-98):

NASS SUMMER-RUN STEELHEAD:THE FISHWHEEL CATCH OF STEELHEAD (6) TO DATE IS ABOVE THE MEAN CATCH (5) FROM 2000-2007. TOTAL COUNTS OF STEELHEAD AT MEZIADIN FISHWAY TO DATE ARE: 0 ADULTS (0 TAGS). THE 2008 CUMULATIVE ADULT COUNT (0) TO DATE IS THE SAME AS THE AVERAGE (0) BASED ON MEAN COUNTS AT THE MEZIADIN FISHWAY FROM 1994 TO 2007. THE AVERAGE COUNT OF STEELHEAD DURING OPERATION OF MEZIADIN FISHWAY FROM 1994 TO 2007 WAS 50. STEELHEAD BEGIN PASSING THE FISHWAY IN LATE AUGUST.THE NISGA'A CATCH ESTIMATE OF NASS STEELHEAD TO WEEK ENDING 5 JULY IS 25. THE NEXT NISGA'A CATCH ESTIMATE FOR WEEK ENDING 12 JULY WILL BE UPDATED ON WEDNESDAY, 16 JULY.NEXT NASS STOCK ASSESSMENT UPDATE - FRIDAY 11 JULY 2008