First Chignik District red sea cucumber fishing period opens Wednesday

Chignik District red sea cucumber divers can fish from noon Wednesday, Sept. 30, to 11:59 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, the first fishing period of the 2026/27 season, under an emergency order the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday.

The season opened by regulation on Sept. 15, but divers may harvest only during periods the department sets by emergency order. The whole season, not this period, is capped at a guideline harvest level, the department's harvest ceiling, of 15,000 eviscerated pounds, meaning sea cucumbers weighed with their internal organs removed. The department's Sept. 4 advisory, which set that level and the emergency-order period system, says ADF&G will track how effort is spread and how the fishery performs. Poor fishery performance, the advisory says, "may result in district or section closures prior to achieving the full GHL."

Each diver needs a current Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission interim-use permit card, the state's commercial fishing permit for the fishery (Q11B for Chignik and South Peninsula; Kodiak requires Q11K), a valid ADF&G diver registration or commissioner permit, which the department issues itself, and a secured market. Completed logbooks are due after every period. Forms and logbooks are available from the ADF&G office in Kodiak.

The Chignik cap matches the 15,000-pound level ADF&G reported for 2014/15. In 2022, market uncertainty left no recorded effort in Chignik. This season, Kodiak's 120,000-pound cap and South Peninsula's 20,000-pound cap open Oct. 1.

Area management biologist Nat Nichols and assistant area management biologist Cassandra Whiteside can be reached at the department's Kodiak office, (907) 486-1840.