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State cuts Craig and Klawock herring harvest limit 28% as forecast drops
Commercial herring fishermen around Craig and Klawock have a 28% smaller harvest limit this season after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game set it at 5,135 tons on Tuesday, down from 7,095 tons last season.
The department expects fewer herring. It forecasts 34,230 tons of mature spawning herring in the Craig and Klawock area this year, down from 47,302 tons last season, and allows fishermen 15% of that.
The catch is split between two fisheries. A winter fishery for herring sold as food and bait gets 60%, or 3,081 tons. It's already open and runs until the limit is expected to be reached, or Feb. 28 at the latest. The other 40%, or 2,054 tons, goes to the spring spawn-on-kelp fishery, where herring are held in floating pens called pounds, hung with kelp, and the kelp is harvested once the fish spawn on it. Any part of the winter limit left unused shifts to the spring fishery.
Nearly half the forecast comes from one group of fish. The 3-year-olds that joined the stock in 2025 were the second-largest such group in the area since the department's records began in 1988, and that group "continues to be strong," the department says. Those fish are now 5 years old.
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About Craig
Craig, known in Tlingit as Sháan Séet, is a city on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. It is a fishing and timber town, and among the island's main communities.
Craig's city council handles public safety, grants, elections and city services, and works out agreements with Shaan-Seet, the local village corporation. Fisheries are central to the town, including the winter herring bait fishery it shares with neighboring Klawock, and state researchers survey households on what they hunt, fish and gather.
Craig's police dispatch serves Klawock, and other island communities look to it for 911 service. Crimes on the island are prosecuted through the district attorney's office in Ketchikan, and the surrounding Tongass National Forest ties Craig to federal timber and land decisions.