Cook Inlet drift fleet cut to Areas 3 and 4 on Mondays and Thursdays starting Aug. 10

Upper Cook Inlet drift gillnetters face a narrower fishery starting at 7 a.m. Monday, Aug. 10: the Central District fleet will be confined to Drift Gillnet Areas 3 and 4, open Mondays and Thursdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. until further notice. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game posted the restriction Friday, and the department says the schedule will hold for the rest of the Upper Cook Inlet salmon season unless changed by emergency order.

The restriction is required by rule once harvests fall below a set threshold. Sockeye harvest on Aug. 3 and again on Aug. 6 each came in below 1% of the season's total drift gillnet sockeye harvest, and the Central District Drift Gillnet Fishery Management Plan requires limiting the fleet to Areas 3 and 4 after two consecutive periods under that threshold. The department laid out that mechanism in its June season outlook; ADF&G frames the tighter schedule as a conservation measure meant to protect salmon runs and manage the fishery.

The restriction follows a separate federal closure affecting commercial salmon fishing in the Cook Inlet exclusive economic zone. Alaska News previously covered the single 12-hour Area 3 opener on Aug. 6, which followed that action in a different jurisdiction: the National Marine Fisheries Service closed the Cook Inlet EEZ, federal waters beyond state jurisdiction, to commercial salmon fishing at 7 a.m. on Aug. 5 to keep the aggregate coho stock complex inside its total allowable catch. That came after the Board of Fisheries voted 4-2 to narrow this fishery to protect northern Cook Inlet coho. The rationales differ: the state restriction followed two fishing periods in which sockeye harvest fell below 1% of the season total, while the federal closure was imposed to prevent exceeding the aggregate coho stock complex's total allowable catch.

No response from Upper Cook Inlet drift gillnet permit holders or fleet representatives was available as of publication.