The Togiak sac-roe herring fishery has gotten off to a very slow start with no harvest reported during the first 2 days of open fishing. The fishery officially opened up Sunday night at 6 after biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game documented the 35-thousand tons of herring necessary to allow the commercial fishery to proceed. Fish and Game reports that no herring were harvested Sunday or Monday. However, Area Management Biologist Tim Sands believes fishermen finally started taking some fish on Tuesday. KDLG news spoke with Sands Tuesday afternoon.
“We need 3 companies to take fish from each gear type in order to report harvest but it sounds like at least some people are taking fish today. I don’t know if it will be enough to reach those requirements.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game flew another aerial survey of the fishing grounds on Tuesday and Sands says he counted 10 purse seine vessels and 10-gillnet vessels. That’s a far cry from the 38-gillnet and 29-purse seine vessels expected to participate in the fishery when the 2014 Togiak Herring Outlook was published in early March. Sands says he’s confident additional fishing vessels are on their way to the Togiak District. “I don’t know what will show up but I know there are still boats on their way.” The Togiak sac-roe herring fishery specifically targets herring before they spawn, which allows the processors to collect and eventually sell the roe. Sands believes there is still a lot of pre-spawn herring in the District but he acknowledges that he saw a lot of herring spawn during Tuesday’s survey flight. The Togiak sac-roe herring fishery features the largest herring quota in the state at over 27.8-thousand tons of herring. Sands confirms that the 6 processors signed up to buy herring have tenders or processing vessels ready to go. He believes that have been waiting until the herring roe reaches the sought after quality. The gillnet part of the ongoing fishery is open until further notice but the purse seine fishery is scheduled to close Wednesday night at 10. However, Sands anticipates that Department of Fish and Game will extend the purse seine fishery at some point on Wednesday.