Fish and Game closes Yakutat commercial set gillnet fishery for the rest of the season

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed the Yakutat commercial set gillnet fishery for the season on Oct. 15 in all waters of the Yakutat Management Area, according to the department's closure announcement. The area covers the waters between Cape Fairweather and Cape Suckling, including Yakutat Bay and the Situk-Ahrnklin Inlet.

The season opened June 7 on the Alsek River. The closure follows a late-September opening that Alaska News reported Sept. 26, which ran Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 while king salmon remained off-limits.

Protecting Situk River kings shaped the season. The department's 2026 management plan forecast a Situk run of 900 large Chinook. There are no directed set gillnet fisheries for Chinook in the area; they are caught incidentally in sockeye fisheries. Situk Chinook fisheries stay closed unless inseason projections show the midpoint of the escapement goal, the number of fish managers aim to have reach the spawning grounds, will be reached. Chinook retention stayed prohibited in the Situk fishery through the September openings, and dead kings had to be marked by removing the dorsal fin and recorded as donated.

As of Sept. 21, the department reported Yakutat sockeye returns below average in most systems, though escapement goals were met, while fall coho fisheries continued.

The plan identifies 25 set gillnet fisheries in the area, about half of which have been actively fished in recent years. A department presentation at the Board of Fisheries' Southeast and Yakutat meeting on Feb. 2, 2025 said 91 permits fished and made landings in 2024, the second-lowest participation since 1975. That fleet earned an estimated $1.2 million from 191,000 fish, with sockeye accounting for 52% of the value and coho 45%.

The timing matches recent years. The department's 2025 closure came Oct. 15, and the 2020 closure came Oct. 14.

Under the management plan, areas reopen next season by regulation or emergency order, with the Alsek River opening the first Sunday in June.