Southeast seiners get 39 hours Tuesday, and three areas close after one day

Southeast Alaska purse seiners get 39 hours starting 6 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, in Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12 and 13, most of it open until 9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19. Districts 6 and 7 and the Redoubt Bay and Kanga Bay portion of Section 13-B are Tuesday only.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Region I office in Petersburg issued the announcement Sunday under emergency order 1S6226. Inside, closures are set by coordinate: Boca de Quadra, Carroll Inlet, Nichols Passage and Thorne Arm in District 1, two nautical miles off the Cleveland Peninsula mainland, and waters within 200 yards of salmon streams in Mosquito Cove and Katlian Bay.

One week's preliminary estimates, for statistical week 33 and compiled Sunday, record 3,507,730 salmon from 161 boats, 3.056 million of them pink. District 13 alone accounts for 1,863,460 of those fish from 65 boats, 28,669 per boat against District 3's next-best 17,351. Districts 6 and 12 drew no effort. Districts 5, 7, 9 and the Port Asumcion terminal harvest area are confidential.

A joint NOAA Fisheries and Fish and Game forecast from Nov. 17, 2025 said, "The 2026 Southeast Alaska pink salmon harvest is expected to be near average, with a harvest forecast of 19 million fish." The same document places that estimate at the lower end of its average range, 19 to 33 million, and its 80 percent interval, 13 to 30 million, spans weak and average years. Point Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries ran well below average through July. Fish and Game calls District 13 the region's highlight, with more than 4 million pink salmon there this season under a two-day-on, two-day-off rotation that began Aug. 6. Effort stands at 196 permits, below the 2016-25 average of 217.

In the Anita Bay terminal harvest area, all Chinook may be sold. Elsewhere, Chinook 28 inches or longer may be sold, and smaller fish may be retained but not sold. Salmon retained for personal use, including steelhead, must be reported on fish tickets at delivery. The next seine announcement is due Thursday, Aug. 20. Troy Thynes, the Region I management coordinator, is the contact, at 907-772-3801.