Fish and Game sets Prince William Sound fall herring quota at 749 tons, citing weak spring spawn

Prince William Sound herring permit holders will fish for 749 tons this fall, about 633 tons less than the management plan would have allowed. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game opens the food and bait fishery at noon Thursday, Oct. 1. In Herring Announcement #6, released Friday, the department said the decision to roll over less than a third of the allowable 80 percent "was made based on the low mile-days of spawn observed in spring 2026." Mile-days count miles of shoreline with active spawn, day by day.

Under the Prince William Sound Herring Management Plan, the fall fishery gets 16.3 percent of the season's guideline harvest level, or 461 tons this year. The plan lets the department add up to 80 percent of whatever the spring sac roe fleet, which targets egg-bearing females, left unharvested, or 1,151 tons. The department instead took 25 percent, or 288 tons.

Spring opened above the plan's threshold, with a 2026 pre-fishery mature biomass of 28,287 short tons against a 22,000-ton minimum, and an overall harvest level of 2,829 tons at a 10 percent exploitation rate. The fleet did not turn out: of 1,740 tons of sac roe quota, only about 589 tons came out, as the department had predicted. The department flew 21 aerial surveys between March 23 and April 30, more than in 2025, recording active spawn on just eight days. In the pound fishery, where herring spawn onto kelp hung in enclosures, only 13 of 128 permit holders registered, and the closed-pound fishery never opened.

The department published no 2026 mile-days figure in any of its six herring announcements this year. Summing its own published survey data outside the Kayak Island district gives 16.7 statute miles for 2026, below 10-year averages of 20.2 and 20.9. The method reproduces the department's published 2022 and 2023 figures, though 16.7 is computed, not departmental. That same series puts 2025 at 10.5, lower than 2026, yet the department granted the full 80 percent rollover that year, opening the fall fishery with 1,750 tons. The 2025 entry rests on 54 mapped segments against 112 in 2026, so it may be incomplete. The record offers no resolution, and includes no views from fishermen or independent scientists.

ADF&G had closed all Prince William Sound commercial herring fisheries through June 30, 2024, citing biomass "primarily... driven by a single age class (the 2016 cohort)." The fall 2024 fishery took 440 tons of a 500-ton quota.

Permit holders must register with the Cordova office, 907-424-4012, by noon Thursday, Sept. 24, or a week ahead if entering later. The season closes Jan. 31, 2027, or when the quota is taken.