Fish and Game lets tenders into Kodiak's herring B season with less than two weeks left

Tenders can start working Kodiak's herring sac roe B season at 9 am Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in an advisory Tuesday. The season has been open since July 1 without them.

Tenders are the boats that collect fish from fishing vessels and carry them to processors. When the department announced the B season in late June, it said "no tenders will be allowed initially." This week's advisory does not say why that changed. The season closes Oct. 25.

The B season is a share of what the spring fishery leaves behind. This year's A season opened April 1 with a harvest level of 6,425 tons, and about 2,500 tons had been caught by May 2, according to department advisories. The B season's harvest level, 1,392 tons, is based on what remained, and it is spread across sections of seven districts.

Forrest Bowers, now acting director of the department's commercial fisheries division, told a Board of Fisheries work session last fall that under new board regulations the Kodiak fishery "is managed now with several seasonal components rather than just two." He said participation in the new opportunities had been lower than the department expected.

Everyone fishing, buying, tendering or processing must register with the department's Kodiak office before taking fish. Fishermen must report their catch as soon as they land it, or nearby areas will close. Each area closes for the season once it hits its harvest level. Purse seiners fish 9 am to 9 pm daily; gillnetters fish from noon on even-numbered days to noon on odd-numbered days.