The Alaska Department of Fish and Game set up its field office in mid-April, but was unable to conduct aerial surveys due to bad weather and significant snowfall, up to 12 inches on April 17.
The department uses sea surface temperature at Unimak Pass and air temperature at Cape Newenham as predictors of run timing and first harvest. This year’s predictors indicated first spawn between May 1 and May 4, and the first harvest between May 3 and May 6, which is about average for Togiak. However, the first seine opening did not take place until May 12, and the first gillnet fishery happened May 13.
As in recent years, Fish and Game has opened the fishery for long periods at a time, up to 14 hours per day, to allow fishermen to find fish with a high roe maturity.
The first few openings produced mixed roe maturity, and the gillnet fleet was also hampered by lack of processing capability.
At one point, May 15, the seine fleet was required to stand down so that the gillnet fleet was not disadvantaged. Regulations allocate 30 percent of the quota to the gillnet fleet and 70 percent to the seine fleet.
The fishery wrapped up May 21 with a total of 7,041 tons of gillnet fish and 15,812 tons of seine fish harvested. Average roe quality was 10.43 percent, and average fish size was 395 grams.
The International Pacific Halibut Commission is seeking bids from commercial longline vessels to perform a live halibut collection charter during the summer of 2006. The charter will operate out of Newport, Ore., and is expected to require about two days of fishing, plus transit and offload time.
While specific charter dates are flexible, the charter must be conducted either between June 26 and Aug. 16, or between Aug. 31 and Sept. 22.
The purpose of the charter is to collect a total of 24 live halibut ranging in size from 60-99 centimeters, or 24-39 inches, in length and deliver them to a research facility in Newport. The halibut will be used in a study to determine the feasibility of using internally implanted electronic archival tags in Pacific halibut.
Vessel owners interested in the charters are asked to submit a bid based upon a lump sum for delivery of the required number of live halibut, including crew, fuel and food expenses.
The vessel must have accommodations for at least one IPHC staff member in addition to the normal crew, and a reasonably smooth-surfaced fish hold capable of being flooded, with a system which allows fresh seawater to be circulated. Vessels need not be licensed for halibut fishing to be eligible.
For a copy of the charter specifications and bid forms, contact the IPHC offices or download from the IPHC Web site, www.iphc.washington.edu. For additional information, contact Tim Loher at (206) 634-1838, ext. 212. Bids must be received at the IPHC office in Seattle by 4 p.m. PDT June 9.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
