Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends

Commercial purse seine fishing in Lower Cook Inlet's Southern District remains shut down, cutting off income for seine permit holders as the season winds toward its Aug. 15 close. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed all district waters to purse seine harvest late on July 31, and its Aug. 7 update did not reopen them.

Set gillnetters in the same district, by contrast, have kept fishing on their regular schedule — two 48-hour openings a week — with two more, Aug. 10 and Aug. 13, before the season ends the morning of Aug. 15. So as the season closes out, one gear group in the district is tied up while the other keeps working.

The closure came alongside aerial survey counts showing sockeye returns below their escapement goals in two of the district's lakes, though above goal in a third. The department reported those counts next to the closure without saying the survey results caused it.

Lower Cook Inlet access has been unsettled all season. Openings and closures across the Southern, Outer, Eastern and Kamishak districts have shifted at short intervals through the summer's inseason advisories, and the department directs fishermen to its Homer office for updates.