We took about 4 million eggs through Saturday between Medvejie raceway fish and gillnetting at Deep Inlet, putting the total at 40 million eggs. Gillnet collection of broodstock will resume at Deep Inlet once the storm passes.
In order to be sure that everyone has the same information, I will summarize and explain why we had to shut down Deep Inlet and why the eggtake goal is larger than the preseason goal of 51 million eggs or roughly 60,000 broodstock fish. NSRAA takes 24 million eggs at Hidden Falls for the Deep Inlet summer run chum program. We took in excess of 145,000 brood fish at Hidden Falls, more than adequate in any other year except this one where the female ratio was 43%. The ratio is normally 50/50; however due to this turn of events we are short 15 million eggs that should come from Hidden Falls. I was able to purchase 3 million eggs from Armstrong but the majority excess went to Gunnuk Creek (16 million eggs I believe).
The deficit at Hidden Falls for the Deep Inlet program now stands at 12 million eggs. Adding the 12 to 51 million puts our New Medvejie goal at 63 million eggs. Currently we have 36 million eggs in incubators at the hatchery. We towed 5,000 brood fish from Deep Inlet to Medvejie last night and I estimate there are 15,000 total chum brood at Medvejie as of noon today. There could be more but I will use 15,000 for now. These fish are coming in to the fish ladder on a daily basis at about 1,000 fish per day.
NSRAA hired two hard hitting gillnetters – Evens squared – Samantha Dawn and Rip Curl to catch brood at Deep Inlet. They began this morning and are netting good results. As of noon with the help of NSRAA staff we have over half million eggs and expect to surpass a million today. Live eggs are run by fast boat to Medvejie twice per day and fertilized with males held in hatchery raceways. Carcasses, males, and skein eggs are being sold. We will continue this effort as long as it pays viable egg dividends.
Eggtakes will continue at Medvejie every day as well. The calendar is running out and we will continue to work every day until there isn’t a ripe female anywhere to spawn. Given the urgency, that last day is expected to be October 1st, a week later than most years.
Recruitment of broodstock to the raceways was mediocre over the weekend. As of noon today we have 30 million eggs of the 66 million needed. It seems less likely everyday that we’ll meet the goal even though we moved 39,000 fish over so far. The net pens will be moved back to Deep Inlet Tuesday or Wednesday in order to capture and transport the last few thousand fish. We estimate about 15,000 chum at Medvejie waiting to come up the ladder. However, this will still leave us short. Normally, eggtakes go through September 25 and therefore we still have two weeks before learning the final outcome.
At this time we estimate we’ll get another 20 million eggs for a total of 50 million.
We captured broodstock at Deep Inlet on September 7 & 8 and transported ~19,000 fish to Medvejie last night. We estimate there are another 15,000 fish at Bear Cove but they are not pushing the ladder so eggtakes have slowed. At this date we have 24 million eggs of the 66 million needed. Therefore we still need roughly 42,000 brood fish. Adding what we towed to Medvejie we estimate we have 34,000 fish as of September 9, which is short of the necessary number.
We will continue eggtakes through early next week and decide if we need to capture more brood at Deep Inlet (seems highly likely). Fish numbers at Deep Inlet are quite small as the seiner mopped it up well. Meeting the broodstock goal remains tentative; cost recovery is certainly out of reach.
We are still struggling to get sufficient broodstock for Medvejie and Deep Inlet chum programs. As of Sunday we had 17 million chum eggs and an estimated 30,000 broodstock fish in Bear Cove. This is far short of the number we need so we will capture broodstock at Deep Inlet on Tuesday. Net pens are standing ready at DI and will be towed back on Wednesday or Thursday. One piece of good news is we made improvements to the fish ladder at Medvejie and we are spawning more fish than ever before. If it was not for increased efficiency we would have a difficult time spawning the necessary fish before they expired waiting to get up the ladder.
The egg goal remains at 66 million; after today’s eggtake we should have 20 million eggs, leaving 46 million to go. Roughly that requires 46,000 brood fish assuming favorable sex ratio. It appears we will make the goal but that will not be known for two weeks.
Likely scenario is we move 20,000 fish from Deep Inlet, spawn through September 13th and assess eggtake numbers versus broodstock. If we think we have enough fish to meet the goal we will begin conducting cost recovery which still remains at 440,000 lbs. outstanding.
A common property fishery at Deep Inlet seems unlikely but if it does occur it will be ten days to two weeks off.
Medvejie/Deep Inlet Broodstock concerns at Medvejie continue to rule management of Deep Inlet. We successfully moved 20,000 chum in net pens Saturday to Medvejie Hatchery. The estimated number of chum at Medvejie is 60,000, including net pen transfer. We will capture another 20,000 fish at Deep Inlet on Friday September 2 for tranfer to Medvejie.
80,000 chum might be sufficient for the chum eggtake goal but we will be cautious and not conduct cost recovery until we firmly establish sex ratio during eggtakes which begin today. We went through this at Hidden Falls in August when we captured an adequate number of fish (145,000), at least in any other year. However, then we discovered the sex ratio through the 30 day egg take period to be the lowest female portion on record ~43%. In addition lower fecundity (eggs/female) delivered a double whammy and we missed the goal by 10 million eggs. Fortunately we can make this up at Medvejie. In order to guarantee success though we will need to go through a third of the eggtake to assess both sex ratio and fecundity before taking any more fish for cost recovery.
Hidden Falls Coho
Coho cost recovery started at Hidden Falls this morning. Cost recovery will occur on a regular basis through the end of the run. Troll effort in Kasnyku Bay has been increasing over the past two weeks from several boats to 15 or 16 boats. Catch rates were up to 200/day for some. In the past catch rates can remain good even when cost recovery is behind conducted. The coho return to Hidden Falls continues to look average to a bit above average.
Broodstock collection will take priority for the next week to two weeks. The Deep Inlet chum return continues to be extremely poor. We conducted cost recovery on Monday August 22, taking 220,000 lbs. Due to low abundance of fish at the head of Deep Inlet cost recovery was halted to allow remaining fish to be used for broodstock.
Fish will be captured and rolled into net pens on Friday August 26. We hope to get 20,000 fish in the pens which will be towed to Medvejie Hatchery. As of today August 24 we need another 50,000 fish at Medvejie and this will likely require Deep Inlet to remain closed well into September, if not the remainder of the season. Several net pen loads will need to be transported to Medvejie over the next two weeks. Egg takes start next week.
Cost recovery at Deep Inlet will continue only when or if full broodstock numbers are secured. Having run failures at both Hidden Falls and Medvejie/Deep Inlet in the same year is unprecedented and highly disturbing for all. Early marine survival (first month after fry are released from net pens) seems to be the common theme or likely time of their demise. DIPAC chum and Port Armstrong chum survived well this year so it wasn’t a wide spread phenomenon. Whales are a likely suspect and have been documented feeding on chum fry both at Hidden Falls and Deep Inlet. NSRAA has changed its release strategy to avoid some of the whale predation but we will need to do more to the extent possible.
Since the closure of the Deep Inlet Rotational fishery on August 10th there has been a slow build up of chum in Deep Inlet. Subsequent to the heavy rains of Monday and Tuesday this week, large schools of chum moved in to Deep Inlet and to a lesser extent Bear Cove at Medvejie.
As on today approximately 15,000 are in Bear Cove which is only 20% of what is needed for broodstock. Chum estimate for Deep Inlet is 50,000 fish.
The plan is to conduct cost recovery at Deep Inlet on Monday & Tuesday August 22 & 23. We will be prepared with tenders to harvest up to 400,000 lbs and have net pens to hold and transport adults for broodstock. What actually happens on Monday will depend on what we see once we get a seine net in the water. The 3″ of rain expected today and tomorrow should bring in more fish and if lucky could make the effort easier and more productive.
Best case scenario for Monday & Tuesday is we get most of 660,000 lbs needed for cost recovery, observe 50 to 60,000 adult chum at Bear Cove, and capture& pen 20,000 chum at Deep Inlet. That is likely an unobtainable order. Either way Deep Inlet will remain closed for at least through August 24th. It will open with two troll days once we get cost recovery and broodstock secure. An announcement will be made through ADF&G and provide a minimum of 24 hour notice, but more likely 48 hour notice.
The Medvejie & Deep Inlet chum return continues to be very weak. NSRAA closed Deep Inlet rotational fishery on August 11 to begin accumulation of chum in the inlet. These fish will first be reserved for broodstock or if sufficient brood arrives at Medvejie Hatchery the Deep Inlet fish will then be harvested for cost recovery.
During the first three days of the Southeast Troll Closure (August 10 – 12) Eastern Channel is open to chum trolling. However, due to poor recruitment and concerns for chum broodstock NSRAA will not extend the Sitka Sound/Eastern Channel opening for the last two days of the closure.
If the Deep Inlet/Medvejie chum run continues to look as poor as it does now through the weekend, NSRAA will request closing Eastern Channel and inner Sitka Sound to trolling and seining for broodstock conservation. Requesting a closure of common property fisheries is a very difficult decision, however if NSRAA cannot obtain sufficient broodstock it will negatively affect the program three and four years down the road.
60,000 chum are needed for broodstock and ~100,000 chum for cost recovery. The frightening reality is only 206,000 chum have been harvested for the entire summer and fall chum return to Deep Inlet as of August 10th.
Deep Inlet – Scheduled openings will continue through August 10th as we evaluate strength of return over the next several days. August 7th & 8th are seine days and 9th & 10th gillnet days. If run strength does not increase significantly soon we will likely close Deep Inlet to fishing after the 10th.
The experienced and highly effective troll fleet has been combing Sitka Sound for weeks looking for large schools of chum but are not finding any.
During ADF&G’s coho troll closure August 10 – 14, Eastern Channel and parts of Sitka Sound will be open to chum trolling on Aug 10, 11,& 12. See announcement:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/home/news/pdfs/newsreleases/cf/63643062.pdf
Hidden Falls – Chum broodstock is holding up and we expect to complete eggtakes in about a week. Female ratio has averaged 44% (normal is 50% or slightly higher) and therefore more brood fish are needed than typical.
Hidden Falls coho common property harvest continues to look good; trollers have caught 22,000 and seiners 24,000. Seine fisheries are winding down on the north end so coho are expected to begin building up in Kasnyku Bay over the next couple of weeks prior to the start of cost recovery.
