Nass Update to July 28

Here's edited highlights of the Nass Update from Nisga'a Fisheries. Of special note are the chum by-catches in Area 3 openings and the low Alaskan catches.


AREA 3 IS CURRENTLY CLOSED TO THE GENERAL COMMERCIAL FISHERY. LAST OPENING WAS FOR GILLNET ON SUNDAY 27 JULY IN WHICH 33 BOATS PARTICIPATED. CATCHES REPORTED WERE: 1393 SOCKEYE, 3336 PINKS, 1539 CHUM AND 3 CHINOOK. NO ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN MADE BY DFO FOR THE NEXT GENERAL COMMERCIAL FISHERY. AREA 3 FISHERIES CONDUCTED TO 24 JULY HAVE BEEN 7 GILLNET [24 JUNE (170 BOATS), 1 JULY (209 BOATS), 7 JULY (174 BOATS), 14 JULY (179 BOATS), 15 JULY (5 BOATS), 21 JULY (16) AND 27 JULY (33)] AND 3 SEINE (14 JULY (13 BOATS), 15 JULY (5 BOATS) AND 21 JULY (13 BOATS)) FISHERIES. TOTAL COMMERCIAL HARVEST ESTIMATES IN AREA 3 TO 28 JULY ARE: 33,830 SOCKEYE, 11,682 PINK, 13,881 CHUM AND 396 CHINOOK (SOURCE OF DATA IS FROM DFO PRINCE RUPERT FISHERIES MANAGEMENT).

TOTAL IN-SEASON CATCH ESTIMATE OF SOCKEYE IN SOUTHEAST ALASKAN FISHERIES IS 67,726 BASED ON DATA TO 28 JULY ON THE ADFG WEBSITE AND IS COMPLETE CATCH REPORTING FOR WEEK 30 (ENDED 26 JULY). REPORTED CATCHES ARE WELL BELOW AVERAGE TO DATE. AVERAGE CATCH OF SOCKEYE IN SOUTHEAST ALASKAN FISHERIES IS 714,000 SOCKEYE FROM 1999 TO 2007. OF THE TOTAL ALASKAN CATCH OF SOCKEYE, NISGA'A FISHERIES IS ESTIMATING APPROXIMATELY 25,000 ARE NASS SOCKEYE BASED ON AVERAGE STOCK % DATA (1982-98) AND IS BELOW AVERAGE TO DATE. AVERAGE CATCH OF NASS SOCKEYE IS 165,000 FROM 1999 TO 2007.

NASS PINK SALMON:

THE FISHWHEEL CATCH OF PINK SALMON (145) TO DATE IS WELL BELOW THE MEAN CATCH (1100) FOR EVEN YEAR RETURNS FROM 2000 TO 2007.

NISGA'A FISHERIES IS CURRENTLY USING THE PRE-SEASON TRTC ESTIMATE FOR NASS PINKS OF 569,000 FOR TRACKING THE NISGA'A ENTITLEMENT (54,000) OF NASS PINK. THE 2008 TRTC ESTIMATE IS FORECASTING ABOVE AVERAGE (524,000) BASED ON TRTC RETURNS OF EVEN YEAR PINKS FROM 1994 TO 2007. HOWEVER, THE LAST NASS PINK SALMON EVEN RETURN YEAR (2006) WAS EXTREMELY LOW (230,000) AND CURRENT COMMERCIAL CATCHES OF PINK HAVE BEEN LOW.

NASS SUMMER-RUN STEELHEAD:

THE FISHWHEEL CATCH OF STEELHEAD (34) TO DATE IS ABOVE AVERAGE CATCH LEVEL (17) FROM 2000-2007. BASED ON EARLY FISHWHEEL CATCH DATA, THE NASS SUMMER RUN STEELHEAD ESTIMATE TO GITWINKSIHLKW (456) IS TRACKING ABOVE AVERAGE (225) TO DATE BASED ON A MEAN RUN SIZE TO GITWINKSIHLKW OF 7,800 DURING FISHWHEEL OPERATIONS FROM 1994 TO 2007 (BASED ON PRELIMINARY HISTORICAL RUN SIZE DATA). THE PRELIMINARY RUN SIZE TARGET FOR NASS STEELHEAD TO GITWINKSIHLKW IS 4,200 DEPENDING ON ANY HARVESTS PROJECTED ABOVE GITWINKSIHLKW.
Information courtesy of Nisga'a Fisheries