Harvest estimates for selected marine sport fisheries in southeast Alaska during 1996
By: by Dennis J. Hubartt, Allen E. Bingham, and Paul M. Suchanek.
Contributors: Bingham, Allen E.; Suchanek, Paul M.; Alaska. Division of Sport Fish.
Series: Fishery data series -- no. 97-16.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 80
Subjects: Fisheries -- Alaska, Southeastern -- Statistics.; Fishing surveys -- Alaska, Southeastern -- Statistics.
Description: Creel surveys of the Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka marine sport fisheries for chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were conducted during 1996. Estimates from these surveys were necessary to provide data for inseason management of the chinook salmon sport fishery in Southeast Alaska to meet an allocation determined by the Alaska Board of Fisheries. Dockside interviews of boat-parties completing trips were used to estimate angler effort for and total catch and harvest of chinook salmon. Harvest and total catches of other Pacific salmon and trout Oncorhynchus species, Pacific halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis, lingcod Ophiodon elongatus, rockfish Sebastes species, and Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma were also estimated. In addition, harvests of Dungeness crab Cancer magister and shrimp Pandalus species were estimated in Ketchikan; while harvest of king, Dungeness, and Tanner crab (Paralithodes species, Cancer magister, and Chionoecetes species, respectively) were estimated in Juneau. The contributions of hatchery chinook salmon and coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch to these sport fisheries were estimated from coded wire tag recovery information. Coded wire tag sampling programs conducted at Petersburg, Wrangell, and Craig also provided hatchery contribution estimates. Scale samples and lengths were taken from chinook salmon for age composition and length-at-age estimates in all fisheries. Lengths of Pacific halibut were taken to estimate total round weight of the harvest from existing length-weight relationships. The estimated harvest of chinook salmon was 21,473 (SE = 955) in the three boat sport fisheries monitored. Harvests of chinook salmon were about half of the long-term average in the Ketchikan fishery, but about average in the Juneau and Sitka fisheries. Hatcheries in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon produced about 32% of the monitored chinook salmon harvest with 24% of the total harvest of Alaska hatchery origin. In the Juneau fishery hatcheries produced about 29% of the chinook salmon harvest with Southeast Alaska hatcheries contributing 28% of the total harvest. In the Ketchikan fishery 54% of the harvest was of hatchery origin, and the percentage of Alaska hatchery chinook salmon harvested was 39%. The estimated Alaska hatchery contribution of chinook salmon was 17% in Sitka and coded wire tag sampling in Petersburg, Wrangell, and Craig revealed that chinook salmon from Alaska hatcheries contributed about 28% , 38% and 7% of the harvest, respectively. An estimated 90,017 (SE = 5,289) coho salmon, 54,146 (SE = 5,719) pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, 34,350 (SE = 1,772) Pacific halibut, and 13,020 (SE = 836) rockfish were also harvested in the three marine boat fisheries surveyed. Hatcheries produced 40%, 17% and 18% of the coho harvest in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka, respectively. The Pacific halibut harvest of 11,158 (SE = 1,053) in Juneau was slightly below the long-term average, but the Ketchikan harvest of 11,177 (SE = 1,069) and the Sitka harvest of 12,015 (SE = 943) were above average. Shellfish effort was above average in the Juneau fishery, but below average in the Ketchikan fishery. Dungeness crab harvest was the highest recorded in Juneau but below average in Ketchikan.
Notes: "August 1997"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-31).

Also issued online.