Deep Inlet closes to common property salmon fishing for broodstock

The Deep Inlet fishing grounds near Sitka close to commercial salmon fishing Monday, and the state has not said when they will reopen. The closure "will remain in effect until further notice," according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Deep Inlet is a terminal harvest area, a spot where hatchery-raised salmon return and can be caught. The Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, which runs the Medvejie Hatchery and releases the fish there, asked the state to close it so the hatchery can collect enough adult chum to spawn the next generation. Under the management plans for the area, those hatchery needs come before the commercial fleet.

What is missing is a date. In past broodstock closures the association has named one, saying in 2023 that it aimed to finish collecting by a specific day and reopen to trollers the next, extending only if it fell short. This announcement gives no target, no reopening criteria and no estimate of how long the closure will run. The association will report daily to the state on its progress.

The fleet has already had an interrupted season here. Deep Inlet was closed to general commercial fishing from late June until August while the hatchery took its cost-recovery harvest, the catch it sells to pay for its operations, as Alaska News reported. The association also closed Southeast Cove and Crawfish Inlet to general chum fishing for the whole 2026 season.

Seine, gillnet and troll permit holders out of Sitka lose a reliable place to target hatchery chum, coho and Chinook. Neither the state's notice nor the association's request includes any comment from fishermen.