The amount of Chinook (king) salmon allocated under the Pacific Salmon Treaty is much lower this year in Southeast Alaska —almost 40 percent lower than last year— and that’s affecting all user groups.
The treaty is an agreement between the U.S. and Canada, ensuring both countries get some fish. Southeast’s sport fishing allocation (the amount of fish the group is allowed to take) is 27,700 wild king salmon — a slice out of the region’s almost 131,000-fish pie.
Patrick Fowler, regional fisheries management coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said that overall, under the significantly lower treaty allocation, everyone’s going to fish less.
“The Board of Fish has given us the allocation plan for how big of a slice of the pie for each fishery,” he explained. “But because the base of the whole pie wasn’t as big, everyone’s slice is smaller.”
Fish and Game expects resident anglers to harvest about 10,000 fish, which leaves about 17,000 fish for nonresidents this year.
But Alaskans fishing for wild kings in Southeast are now looking at a daily limit of a single fish that’s at least 28-inches; nonresidents can take one king salmon per year from the region.
The one-fish limits follow regulation changes made by the Alaska Board of Fisheries in February, which reduced how much wild king salmon gets allocated to the commercial troll fishery and increased the sport allocation. The board also made changes to the king salmon management plan — instructing Fish and Game to prioritize resident anglers’ opportunity while managing the sport fishery to stay strictly within its allocation.
Part of the changes could allow for residents to take up to three fish a day in years with a higher allocation. In lower allocation years, the limit falls to one a day, but without an annual limit for residents. That’s different from the past few years when residents had a two-fish daily limit and nonresidents could have one fish per day with an annual limit of up to three.
“So it’s significantly less opportunity for nonresidents,” said Fowler. “And then for residents, instead of having a two-fish daily limit, they have a one-fish daily limit [this year].”
Protecting sport fishing for residents puts the burden of staying within the region’s sport allocation limit on the nonresident sector, Fowler said. And if it looks like sport anglers might catch more fish than what’s allowed, the nonresident fishery would be the first to close, though it’s unlikely.
“There’s nothing lower than a one-fish annual limit … you can’t go to half a fish,” said Fowler. “So the only tool we have left is to close the fishery, close to retention.”
He added that the regulation and management changes in combination with this year’s low allocation will impact some businesses.
“Having a one-fish annual limit is going to be hard on a lot of those nonresident businesses that operate in the sports sector,” Fowler said, noting lodges or charter businesses that rely on nonresident and tourist patronage. “But, yeah … this plan is a direct result of the actions that the Board of Fish took this year.”
Catching kings is prohibited until July 14 in waters near the Stikine River — around Wrangell and east of Petersburg. Otherwise, in the Southeast management area, most sport anglers will need to wait until June 14 to fish king salmon.
There are special regulations for hatchery areas like the Wrangell Narrows/Blind Slough terminal harvest area, which opens May 15. Hatchery fish are not part of the treaty allocation of wild king salmon, so fish caught in those specific areas don’t count against this year’s restrictive bag limits in Southeast Alaska.
