The Chilkat River as seen from Mount Ripinsky in summer of 2017. (Emily Files)
After a lengthy process, where Board of Fish members, ADF&G biologists and the public weighed in, an action plan to increase the number of wild Chinook salmon that make it up the Chilkat River to spawn is in place.
“For the Gillnet fishery here in Lynn Canal, we’re pretty much set. So, what’s in that action plan is what we are going to implement,” said Rhea-Fournier.
That’s Wyatt Rhea-Fournier, the ADF&G Area Management Biologist for commercial fisheries in District 15 in Haines.
The Chilkat king salmon run was considered a stock of concern by the Board of Fish when it met in January [2018]. A stock of concern designation means that the run did not meet escapement goals four out of the last five years. Escapement for Chilkat kings has been hovering around a thousand fish.
The Board of Fish then asked ADF&G to prepare management options for sport, subsistence and commercial fishing in the area. The goal is to minimize the amount of Chinook caught in the fishery.
There were multiple options, with option one being the status quo. Option three was the most conservative and option two was somewhere in the middle. Rhea-Fournier says the board chose option two for commercial fisheries.
“And so, in the middle was kind of a large area where you could do what we just did, or go way to this highly conservative effort. So Board of fish chose a couple different options—for commercial fish they chose option number two and for subsistence they chose option one, which was status quo,” said Rhea-Fournier.
Rhea-Fournier says the option number two action plan went out for public comment and then the Board of Fish amended and finalized it. He says that option means reduced area and reduced time for commercial gillnetters in Lower Lynn Canal.
“So that means during the first week of the season in the Lower Lynn Canal in section 15C, we will only be open in the postage stamp, a small area that’s south of the latitude of Vanderbilt Reef and east of a line from Vanderbilt Reef to Little Island Light,” said Rhea-Fournier. “Then in week two, the area south of Vanderbilt Reef will be open.”
Gillnetting will only be open two days per week in those areas and net mesh sizes will be limited to 6-inches maximum. Night fishing won’t be allowed from 10 pm to 4 a.m.
In addition, the outside part of the Boat Harbor terminal harvest area will also only be open for two days per week for the first two weeks with night closures with a six-inch maximum mesh restriction.
Fishing in Upper Lynn Canal will also be restricted to an area south of the latitude of Eldred Rock and east of a line from Eldred Rock to a point two miles off-shore from Sherman Rock. Additionally, there will be a mesh restriction with a maximum of six-inches and night closures.
Subsistence fishing will have the same restrictions as last year—Chilkat Inlet will stay closed until July 22. The Chilkat River will be open for the first two weeks of June. In the third week of June, it will be open from 19-mile to Wells Bridge area, four days per week.
Regulations for sport fishing and the troll fishery are still in the works.
The Lower and Upper Lynn Canal commercial gillnet fisheries start on the third Sunday in June [June 17]. And the subsistence fishery in the Chilkat River opens June 1.
