Prince William Sound Commercial Salmon Fisheries

2014 Report to Alaska Board of Fisheries

RC 3 Oral Report Tab 3

Written Report Tab 7 Tommy Sheridan

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commercial Fisheries Division, Cordova

1

Presentation overview

• PWS salmon overview

• Fishery assessment tools

• Season summaries • PWS commercial

salmon proposals

2

Coghill Dist. (drift gillnet & purse seine)

Unakwik Dist. (drift gillnet & purse seine)

Eastern Dist. (purse seine)

Southeastern Dist. (purse seine)

Northern Dist. (purse seine)

Eshamy Dist. (drift & set gillnet)

Northwestern Dist. (purse seine)

Southwestern Dist. (purse seine)

Montague Dist. (purse seine) Port Chalmers Subdistrict

(drift gillnet & purse seine)

SGH CCH

WNH

MBH

AFK 3

Fishery assessment tools

4

Eshamy Weir

5

Coghill Weir

Eshamy Weir

PWS survey streams and weirs

Whittier

Valdez

Cordova

Prince William Sound aerial surveys

6

7

Prince William Sound aerial surveys

• Inseason tool, postseason analysis

• Weather can impact quality

• Counts compared to historical averages

• Location and scale of fishing effort also considered

• Same pilot since 1976

District 2011 2012 2013 2014*

Eastern ABOVE WITHIN ABOVE WITHIN

Northern/Unakwik WITHIN BELOW ABOVE BELOW

Coghill WITHIN ABOVE ABOVE WITHIN

Northwestern ABOVE WITHIN ABOVE BELOW

Eshamy BELOW BELOW ABOVE ABOVE

Southwestern ABOVE WITHIN ABOVE WITHIN

Montague ABOVE WITHIN ABOVE N/A

Southeastern ABOVE WITHIN ABOVE WITHIN

PWS total ABOVE

8

Prince William Sound pink salmon escapements 2011–2014

* 2014 values are PRELIMINARY

Southwestern District test fishery

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•PWS pink salmon migratory corridor •Late-July to early August •Provides run strength info •Allows management decisions based on stock composition

Otolith thermal marks

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Otolith thermal marks

• Applied to all hatchery-released salmon –unique mark by species and hatchery

• Easily recovered • Small sample sizes (96 fish) provide stock

composition estimates • Accurate and expedient delivery of

information

11

12

SW District test fishery, 1997–2014

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

7/21

7/22

7/23

7/24

7/25

7/26

7/27

7/28

7/29

7/30

7/31 8/

18/

28/

38/

48/

5

Enha

nced

pro

port

ion

(% to

tal)

Date

Enhanced proportion (%)

Total PWS commercial harvest* by gear type and species, 2012

King Sockeye Coho Pink Chum

Purse seine 186 154,885 22,326 22,804,650 503,996

Drift gillnet 245 1,372,731 7,943 1,228,380 2,836,828

Set gillnet 14 294,632 97 17,311 24,368

Hatchery 9 1,198 2,372 3,531,858 440,941

Total harvest 454 1,823,446 32,738 27,582,199 3,806,133

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* Do not include Copper River or Bering River harvests

Total PWS commercial harvest* by gear type and species, 2013

King Sockeye Coho Pink Chum

Purse seine 775 73,727 221,984 85,925,135 487,464

Drift gillnet 474 432,678 64,947 2,778,574 2,768,389

Set gillnet 59 203,019 360 19,114 42,630

Hatchery 0 9 39,946 4,089,674 761,355

Total harvest 1,308 709,433 327,237 92,812,497 4,059,838

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* Do not include Copper River or Bering River harvests

Total PWS commercial harvest* by gear type and species, 2014

King Sockeye Coho Pink Chum

Purse seine 355 53,127 31,099 36,937,797 347,302

Drift gillnet 114 926,577 140,339 1,404,668 748,460

Set gillnet 22 259,226 65 35,681 20,882

Hatchery 0 12,652 22,084 5,512,474 370,346

Total harvest 491 1,252,073 193,587 43,890,620 1,486,990

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* Do not include Copper River or Bering River harvests * 2014 numbers are PRELIMINARY

* 2014 numbers are PRELIMINARY 16

PWS commercial salmon harvests 1971–2014

0102030405060708090

100

1971197319751977197919811983198519871989199119931995199719992001200320052007200920112013

Salm

on (m

illio

ns)

Year

Pink Chum Sockeye

Pink salmon stock composition 1960–2014

* 2014 numbers are PRELIMINARY 17

0

20

40

60

80

100

12019

6019

6319

6619

6919

7219

7519

7819

8119

8419

8719

9019

9319

9619

9920

0220

0520

0820

1120

14

Tota

l run

(mill

ions

)

Run year

Hatchery Natural

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Year

Purse seine (268 total) Drift gillnet (537 total) Set gillnet (30 total)

Permits fished

* 2014 numbers are PRELIMINARY 18

Perc

enta

ge o

f act

ive

perm

its

Proposals (11)

• Allocation Plan (6 proposals) – Proposals 10–11, and 13–16

• Use of aircraft (3 proposals) – Proposals 19–21

• Commercial gear specifications (1 proposal) – Proposal 17

• Wally Noerenberg Hatchery Management Plan (1 proposal) – Proposal 22

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Acknowledgments

• ADF&G commercial fisheries staff • Amanda Wiese • Jeremy Botz • Steve Moffitt • Rich Brenner • Bert Lewis

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