Southern District purse seine fishery stays closed in Aug. 7 Lower Cook Inlet advisory

Commercial purse seine fishing in Lower Cook Inlet's Southern District remains shut down, cutting off harvest and delivery income for seine permit holders as the season winds toward its Aug. 15 close. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed all waters of the district to purse seine harvest at 10 p.m. Friday, July 31, and its Aug. 7 inseason update did not reopen it.

"Effective at 10:00 PM, on July 31 all waters of the Southern District will close to commercial common property purse seine harvest and will remain closed until further notice," the department said in Advisory Announcement No. 15.

For Southern District seine permit holders, the closure blocks fishing access until further notice, limiting harvest opportunities and the timing of deliveries and income for the season. Set gillnet permit holders in the same district have kept fishing on their regular schedule, with two openings left, Aug. 10 and Aug. 13, before the season closes at 6 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15.

Set gillnet harvest continues on its standard pattern of two 48-hour periods per week, beginning 6 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays.

Preliminary seine harvest stands at roughly 109,000 sockeye, 67 Chinook, 780 chum, 2,720 pink and 119 coho salmon, with 22 permit holders reporting deliveries.

Aerial surveys flown July 29 counted 1,370 sockeye in Delight Lake and 3,070 in Desire Lake, both below their sustainable escapement goal ranges; Aialik Lake's count of 7,000 sockeye exceeded its goal range of 3,200 to 5,400. The department's advisory reports these counts alongside the purse seine closure without stating that the survey results caused it.

Lower Cook Inlet access is not fixed through the end of the season. Openings and closures across the Southern, Outer, Eastern and Kamishak districts have shifted at short intervals through successive inseason advisories this summer, and fleet watchers tracking the Bristol Fleet announcement page have argued the district should be followed advisory by advisory rather than treated as a set schedule. ADF&G directs fishers to its Homer office for further updates.