King salmon commercial and sport fishers in Southeast Alaska were asked to wrap up their harvesting efforts on 10 August following record low returns for the region – the worst seen since the commercial harvest in 1975, according to a report from Alaska Fish Radio.
About 66,000 kings were landed in July during the four-day opener, with many fishers gearing up for a second haul of 31,000 projected fish in August. However, to help ensure longevity of regional stocks, authorities have decided to forgo the latter fishing allowance.
“Since a large number of kings that we get in the second opener are feeder kings, we felt compelled to do as much as we could to look toward the future in terms of those stocks. Ocean conditions don’t look all that promising in 2018 and we want to do whatever we can to turn around and try to not replicate 2017 moving into 2018 and beyond,” said Charlie Swanton, Alaska Fish and Game’s Deputy Commissioner, to Alaska Fish Radio.
Officials will review the king salmon closure again in September, said Swanton.
