Unimak Bight scallop grounds close tonight with the season's 7,500-pound quota filled

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed Unimak Bight to commercial weathervane scallop fishing for the rest of the 2026/27 season, effective 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10. Catch reports indicate the district will have taken its guideline harvest level, the 7,500-pound quota set before the July 1 opening, ADF&G said. It covers waters west of Cape Pankof and east of Scotch Cap Light in the Alaska Peninsula area. Vessels must fish elsewhere or stand down.

The 7,500 pounds of shucked meat is half the Alaska Peninsula Area total. It was cut from 15,000 pounds starting with the 2018/19 season, a reduction the 2020 scallop stock assessment report attributed to declining catch per unit effort, the catch for time spent fishing, and increasingly concentrated effort.

Unimak Bight is an exploratory fishery requiring a commissioner's permit, and effort is sporadic. No one fished it in 2023/24, and it closed by regulation Feb. 15 with zero harvest. It closed early before too, taking 7,360 pounds in July 2022 and closing again July 18, 2025. Kodiak's Northeast District closed the same way Sept. 2.