Four Southeast shrimp areas open Oct. 1, including one the department had ruled out

Four Southeast Alaska shrimp pot areas will open at 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday: Districts 4, 5 and 16, and District 15-East, which its July closure notice had said would not reopen this year. Two areas that notice listed as possible reopenings, District 15-Remainder and Sections 8-A/10-C, are not on the list.

District 5 has 9,700 pounds of quota remaining, District 4 less than 20,000, District 16 less than 12,000 and District 15-East less than 3,500. Each area closes when its quota is expected to be reached, or at 4 p.m. Feb. 28, 2027. Fishermen must reregister at a Southeast ADF&G office.

Eight areas closed by regulation at 4 p.m. Friday, July 31: Sections 3-B/C, District 4, District 5, Sections 8-A/10-C, District 14, District 15-East, District 15-Remainder and District 16. Three were told then that their season was over.

"Sections 3-B/C will not open by emergency order for a fall/winter fishery due to poor fishery performance," the advisory said. Sections 3-B/C landed 6,100 pounds against a 10,000-pound guideline harvest level. District 14, which the department reopened this season on a rotational basis, produced 900 pounds against a 7,500-pound GHL, and drew the same sentence. District 15-East was the third, excluded on a low remaining quota.

Regionwide, 90 boats took 325,300 pounds against the season's 382,600-pound available quota. The department's April memo set that regional guideline, down from 408,600 pounds the previous season, and described two decades of cut quotas, closed areas and observed recruitment failures, too few young shrimp entering the fishery.

This account is drawn from ADF&G's own closure notice, its fall announcement and its management memo. No fisherman appears in any of them.