Fish and Game sets District 8 beam trawl shrimp harvest level at 250,000 pounds

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game set the guideline harvest level for the District 8 commercial beam trawl shrimp fishery in Southeast Alaska at 250,000 pounds for the fourth fishing period, which began Nov. 1, according to a department advisory issued Friday. That is the top of the district's guideline harvest range of 25,000 to 250,000 pounds per period.

The level includes rollover poundage, shrimp left unharvested in the third period, which ran Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.

The department kept the third-period catch confidential because fewer than three permits fished. "Though not reportable due to fewer than three permits fished, this harvest was below the 250,000 lb GHL," said the advisory, issued by Joe Stratman, the department's Region I shellfish biologist.

The season opened May 1. In the first period, May 1 through June 30, the estimated District 8 harvest was 69,000 pounds, 181,000 pounds below that period's 250,000-pound level. The second-period harvest was also confidential because fewer than three permits fished.

Precautionary guideline harvest levels in Districts 6 and 8 remain unchanged from the 2016/17 season, according to the department's April 28 preseason advisory.

That advisory also sets seasonal bycatch limits for District 8. So far this season, the fishery has taken 560 pounds of coonstripe shrimp, against a limit of 10,000 pounds, and 2,198 pounds of spot shrimp, against a limit of 6,000 pounds.