Statewide Commercial Salmon Harvest Forecast for 2011

- ADF&G Press Release

Cora Campbell, Commissioner
P.O. Box 115526
Juneau, Alaska 99811
Phone: (907) 465-6137 - Fax: (907) 465-2332

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Press Release: No. 11-15, March 3, 2011

Contact: Geron Bruce, Division of Commercial Fisheries, 907-465-6151

Statewide Commercial Salmon Harvest Forecast for 2011

Juneau – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announces that the statewide commercial salmon harvest for 2011 is forecast to total 203 million salmon of all species. This would be the fifth largest total harvest, and fourth highest pink salmon harvest, since Alaska became a state and took over the management of its fisheries in 1960. All major pink salmon producing areas are expected to produce abundant harvests. Statewide sockeye and chum salmon are also expected to generate excellent harvests, with chum salmon predicted to provide the fifth largest harvest since 1960.

The statewide Chinook salmon forecast is not yet available, because the Southeast Alaska Chinook harvest quota is set under the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The Southeast Alaska quota will not be released by the Pacific Salmon Commission until late March or early April.

The 2011 harvest forecasts for the other four salmon species are 45.1 million sockeye salmon, 4.7 million coho salmon, 133.7 million pink salmon, and 19.2 million chum salmon.

These forecasts are based on quantitative projections of next year’s salmon run using information on previous spawning levels, smolt outmigrations, returns of sibling age classes, and recent survival rates observed for hatchery releases.

Look for inseason harvest information, postseason statistics, and other information about salmon in Alaska online athttp://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=CommercialByFisherySalmon.main .

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  View the 2011 Statewide Salmon Forecast (PDF 1,273 kB)

Alexander Creek Pike Removal Project Funded

(Juneau) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was recently awarded $635,000 from the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund for a four-year program to accelerate efforts to remove northern pike from the Alexander Creek drainage in Northern Cook Inlet. Coupled with funds appropriated by the legislature last session, this award will allow the department to further the objectives of removing spawning northern pike through intensive gillnetting. A program for enumerating king salmon smolt in the area will also be initiated to help monitor the effectiveness of pike removal.

Northern pike, which are not native to areas south and east of the Alaska Range, have been illegally introduced into a number of river basins where they have had very detrimental impacts on other fisheries resources. Alexander Creek in the Susitna River basin is one of the most heavily impacted systems. As an extension of ongoing efforts to gauge distribution and relative abundance of pike within this drainage, a concerted effort will now be made to significantly reduce pike numbers. The overall objective is to restore salmon and resident species populations in this once highly popular fishing destination to long-term sustainable levels that will again provide important sport fishing opportunities.

"We thank the legislature and the local area partnerships for their support of our efforts to reduce the negative impacts of invasive northern pike,” said Charles Swanton, director of the ADFG Sport Fish Division. “The investments made should be returned many fold in terms of economic and social benefits resulting from successful implementation this project."

Additional information on ADF&G aquatic nuisance species and northern pike management plans is available at:http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/special/invasive/invasive.php .

Source: ADFG

Get Your Kid's Fishing Picture on the Cover of Next Year's Regulation Booklet!

(from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

ENTRIES SOUGHT FOR SPORT FISHING REGULATIONS BOOKLET YOUTH COVER PHOTO CONTEST

Would you like a photograph of your child to appear on the cover of the 2011 sport fishing regulations? The Division of Sport Fish is now accepting entries for its annual cover-photo contest. Winning images will appear on three 2011 regional sport fishing regulations booklets, with young anglers and photographers credited inside.

To be considered for the cover, photos must feature one or more youths sport fishing or demonstrating what sport fishing means to them. The primary person in the photo must have been younger than age 18 when the photo was taken and must be an Alaska resident. Pictures that include advertisements or contain people performing illegal acts or acts that the Department of Fish and Game considers inappropriate for sport fishing regulations covers will not be included in the contest.

Photos can be e-mailed to dfg.dsf.AquaticEd@alaska.gov. The subject line of the e-mail must include the city which the person is from or the location the photo was taken. Electronic submission size is limited to less than 10MB. Please limit the number of entries to a maximum of three pictures per person.

Hard copies may be sent to:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game
ATTENTION: Jay Baumer
333 Raspberry Road
Anchorage, Alaska 99518

With hard copy or electronic submissions, please include: a brief description of the fishing adventure (what, when, where), name and age of person(s) in the photo, name of the person who took the photo, and contact information. Submissions should be received at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game or e-mailed no later than 5 p.m. November 1, 2011.

Three regional regulations booklets are included in the contest: 1) “Southcentral Alaska,” which covers the Prince William Sound, Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Valleys, and Anchorage region; 2) “Kodiak,” which covers the Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands region; and 3) “Bristol Bay,” which includes Bristol Bay from Pilot Point to Togiak.

For more contest information, contact Jay Baumer at (907) 267-2265 or jay.baumer@alaska.gov

Halibut bag limits and regulation changes for halibut charters in Southeast Alaska

Anglers wanting to go on a halibut fishing charter in area 2C (shown on map) in southeast Alaska, which includes trips from Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau and other southeast locations, can only retain one fish per day.

Area 3A, with charter fishing trips out of Homer, Valdez, Kodiak and other locations in the central Gulf, has a two-fish bag limit.

A new limited-entry system for halibut charter operations will take effect in 2011, limiting the number of charter boats in the guided halibut sport fishery in Areas 2C and 3A.

For more information, visit the National Marine Fisheries Service website.

Alaska Suggests New Fish Consumption Guidelines

From an Alaska Department of Health and Social Services News Release:

The health benefits from eating fish far outweigh any potential risk from the small amounts of contaminants found in most Alaska fish, according to guidelines released today by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Public health scientists reaffirmed that fish continues to be an important part of a healthy diet for everyone, including pregnant and nursing women, and young children.

Recent data from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Fish Monitoring Program, which has tested over 2,300 fish, reveal a wide variation of mercury content among the 23 species of fish sampled from Alaska waters between 2001 and 2006. Although all fish contain some level of mercury, levels in all species of Alaska wild salmon are very low. Further evidence that Alaska fish are healthy to eat comes from the state’s ongoing free program that monitors mercury levels in the hair of Alaska women. State health officials have not received any reports of unsafe mercury levels in Alaskans who have eaten fish from local waters.

“Fish is an excellent source of lean protein, healthy omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and vitamins,” said Dr. Lori Verbrugge, toxicologist with Public Health and lead author of the new report. “Although we recommend that everyone eat fish at least twice a week, our new guidelines offer specific advice on how to minimize mercury exposure for sensitive groups — namely women who are or can become pregnant, nursing mothers, and children age 12 and under.”

Too much mercury, a toxic metal found in the environment, can harm the developing nervous system of unborn babies and growing children.

Only five species of sport-caught Alaska fish had high enough mercury levels to warrant limiting consumption to two meals or less per week for these sensitive groups. Yelloweye rockfish, large lingcod (40-45 inches) and large halibut (50-90 pounds) can be eaten as often as twice a week, while salmon shark, spiny dogfish, very large lingcod (over 45 inches) and very large halibut (over 90 pounds) can be consumed as often as once a week. Because commercially caught halibut weigh an average of about 33 pounds, halibut purchased from stores or restaurants is safe for this group to eat up to four times a week.

All other groups, including adult men, teenage boys, and women who cannot become pregnant, have no restrictions and are encouraged to consume as much fish from Alaska waters as they want. Those who are concerned about the mercury levels in certain fish species can minimize their risk by choosing fish lower in mercury, like smaller halibut and wild Alaska salmon.

The ADEC’s Fish Monitoring Program will continue to collect and test fish for environmental contaminants, and the consumption guidelines will be updated as needed. Begun in 2001, the program is an ongoing collaborative effort to collect and test Alaska fish for certain environmental contaminants. Partners include the Alaska Departments of Health and Social Services and Fish and Game, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and Alaska subsistence users and commercial fishermen.

Information on both the fish monitoring and human hair biomonitoring programs, as well as more comprehensive information for people who routinely eat more than two fish meals per week , is available online at http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us and at http://www.dec.state.ak.us/eh/vet/fish.htm.

Chitina Dip Net Permits Must Be Returned by Oct 15

From an ADFG News Release

The Chitina personal use dip net fishery closed for the season on September 30, 2007. The dipnetting permits are due back to ADF&G by October 15. These permits were for dipnetting in the Copper River downstream of the Chitina- McCarthy bridge, near the community of Chitina.

As a reminder, you are required to return your permit even if you did not fish, or even if you went fishing but didn’t catch anything. Continuing the Chitina personal use fishing opportunity largely relies on your compliance with requirements, and your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Failure to return any ADF&G permit is a violation and could result in a $200 fine and loss of future fishing privileges.

Please review the information you wrote down on the permit to make sure it is legible and correct. If no one in your household went dipnetting, please check the “Did Not Fish” box on the permit and return it.

Permits can be mailed to the Department with appropriate postage. For your convenience the address is printed on the back of the permit. Permits can also be delivered to your local ADF&G office during regular business hours.

If you have lost your permit, or if it is too damaged to go through the mail, please mail a letter that includes your name, mailing address, 2007 sport fishing license number, driver’s license number, and names of household members. Please provide a list of each time you went dipnetting, whether you dipnetted from a boat or from the shore, and the number of each type of salmon you kept. If you went dipnetting but did not catch any fish, include the date, whether you dipnetted from a boat or the shore, and write “zero.” The letter should be mailed to:

Alaska Department of Fish & Game
Chitina Salmon Permits
333 Raspberry Roaf
Anchorage AK 99518-1599

We are unable to accept dipnetting harvest records over the telephone.

More information on the fishery, including examples of how to fill out permits can be found on the Internet.

If you have any questions regarding the Chitina dipnetting fishery, please contact the ADF&G office in Glennallen at (907) 822-3309.

Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery Update

From an ADFG News Release:

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game would like to take this opportunity to inform the public of the progress on the Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery being built in downtown Fairbanks. During this past year a team of consultants and ADF&G staff, have been busy obtaining permits, finalizing a lease agreement, performing geotechnical borings, drilling a water well, defining the design of the facility and preparing contract documents and issuing a competitive advertisement for the Phase 1 site work. We accepted a bid for site preparation and that work will begin this summer. We anticipate the work of excavation, backfilling and compaction of this site to be completed by the fall of this year.

Meanwhile our team continues to work on the design of the overall hatchery facility. We recently completed the 30% design schematic and are now working on the 60% design level which we expect to complete at the end of September. The 90% plans have a scheduled completion date of January 2008. The final construction plans should be ready to bid by June 2008. The design process has been time consuming due to water treatment requirements and the complexity of this type of hatchery. The time spent now on design issues will reduce the number of changes and the associated cost escalations which frequently occur during construction.

Our schedule presently shows the hatchery being completed in August 2009 followed by ADF&G occupancy and startup of operations in the fall of 2009. This meets our stated goal of having the Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery operational by 2010. Additional information about this project and the Anchorage Sport Fish Hatchery Project can be found here. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact: Gordon Garcia, Division of Sport Fish, Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau at 907-465-4235.