The Sitka herring fishery will open this afternoon.
The Department of Fish & Game has announced that the first opening of the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery will be at approximately 1:45 PM today (Thu 3-20-14) in the area of Starrigavan and Katlian bays.
Fish & Game biologist Dave Gordon announced at around 11:45 AM that he had collected four test samples of fish today that tested well over 10% mature roe, the Department’s threshold for a fishery. The most recent two samples came back with 12.5% and 13.1% mature roe.
Gordon did not say how long the fishery would remain open, but the Department’s goal is to ensure the harvest does not exceed the processing capacity in Sitka, which is now about 2,000 tons of herring a day.
Rachel Waldholz covers energy and the environment for Alaska's Energy Desk, a collaboration between Alaska Public Media, KTOO in Juneau and KUCB in Unalaska. Before coming to Anchorage, she spent two years reporting for Raven Radio in Sitka. Rachel studied documentary production at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and her short film, A Confused War won several awards. Her work has appeared on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Marketplace, among other outlets.
rwaldholz (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8432 | About Rachel
