Sand Point salmon fishery opens Wednesday for 109 hours, the longest window of the string

Salmon boats around Sand Point get another opening this week — about 109 hours for purse seine and set gillnet gear starting Wednesday, across the districts and sections around the community, Alaska Fish and Game said. Drift gillnet gear is limited to a smaller area, and one section, Bechevin Bay, opens to all three gear types after being closed in the two previous openings.

The short, staggered openings track a management strategy built around immature salmon. Each July, the department test-fishes the Shumagin Islands and closes the area to seine gear if 100 or more immature salmon per set turn up — a way to avoid catching young fish before they've grown. This year's test on July 6 found 391 per set, nearly four times that threshold. Gillnet gear can still fish there even when seine gear can't.