Sea cucumber fisheries open in October for Alaska divers
Alaska’s salmon catch is nearing 219 million and fishing continues despite slowing down at this time of year. That’s 30 million more salmon than was forecasted.
For pinks, the harvest so far is over 151 million with catches at Prince William Sound, Southeast and Kodiak all topping projections
Also at Southeast, beam trawlers have a third go for northern pink shrimp totaling 650,000 pounds in two districts. The spot shrimp fishery opens on October 1 for 457,300 pounds.
That same day Dungeness crab reopens for the fall fishery.
Southeast’s sea cucumber dive fishery opens on October 4 with a catch of 1,872,800 pounds. Diving for red sea urchins also opens with a harvest set at nearly 3 million pounds.
At Prince William Sound, cod opened on September 1 for pot and longline gears on boats less than 50 feet and a fishery is ongoing for lingcod ((32,600 pounds).
Chignik opens to sea cucumber divers on September 20 with a 15,000 pound harvest limit
Kodiak crabbers are still pulling up Dungeness crab through the end of October. That catch is at 1.3 million pounds so far.
Kodiak opens for sea cukes on October 1 with a 120,000 pound catch quota and for 20,000 pounds at the South Peninsula.
Alaska halibut fishermen have taken 69% of their nearly 19 million pound catch limit with less than six million pounds left to go.
For sablefish, just over half of the more than 43 million pounds catch has been landed. Both fisheries this year are extended by a month to December 7.
Fishing for pollock, cod, flounders and other groundfish continues throughout the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The Gulf pollock fishery reopened on September 1 with a 5.4 million pound quota.
Proposed catches for 2022 pollock and other groundfish is on the agenda of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council when it meets viz Zoom October 6-15.
