Sand Point salmon fishery gets 131-hour opening in Stepovak sections

Purse seine and set gillnet permit holders in Beaver Bay, Balboa Bay, Southwest Stepovak, Northwest Stepovak, and East Stepovak get a 131-hour opening this week. The window runs from 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 until 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Division of Commercial Fisheries issued the terms Tuesday as Sand Point Commercial Salmon Fishery Advisory Announcement No. 27, under Emergency Order No. 4-FS-M-SP-25-26.

Those sections have been closed since 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 7, when their most recent authorized period, a 23-hour extension, expired. Elsewhere, under the department's Sept. 4 advisory, purse seine and set gillnet fishing remains extended until further notice in the Unimak, Southwestern, and South Central Districts and the Shumagin Islands Section. Drift gillnet gear is extended on the same open-ended terms in the Unimak District and the Ikatan Bay Section.

The advisories carry no harvest figures, no escapement counts of salmon reaching the spawning grounds, and no fishermen's comment.

Announcements run on VHF channels 6 and 73 daily at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The Sand Point office can be reached at 907-383-2334.