Geoduck divers get two more days near Ketchikan under a smaller Southeast harvest target

Commercial geoduck divers will be back in the water near Ketchikan on Wednesday and Thursday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday.

Divers can take the 17,000 pounds left at Cat and Dog Islands, which opened last week with a 47,300-pound target, and 24,200 pounds at Foggy Bay. Fishing runs from 8 am to 4 pm both days, for the live market.

Southeast's total harvest target this season is 264,000 pounds, down from 443,600 a year ago, Alaska News reported Sept. 8. Two areas, Saint Nicholas Channel/North Lulu Island and Biorka Channel/Legma Island, stay closed because their estimated geoduck biomass has fallen below 30% of the original estimate. The department says in its season announcement that it has observed and documented sea otters preying on geoducks.

The same announcement says every area passed testing for inorganic arsenic this season, so the clams may be sold to mainland China. Openings can be pushed back up to a day if sampling for paralytic shellfish poisoning runs late.

The fishery closes for Thanksgiving from Nov. 20 through Dec. 1, and for Christmas and New Year's from Dec. 18 through Jan. 12.