Harvest estimates for selected marine sport fisheries in southeast Alaska during 1995
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. 96-28.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 86
Subjects: Fisheries -- Alaska, Southeastern -- Statistics.; Fishing surveys -- Alaska, Southeastern -- Statistics.
Description: Creel surveys of the Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Petersburg marine sport fisheries for chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha were conducted during 1995. 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 crab and shrimp were estimated in Ketchikan and Petersburg; while harvest of crab was 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 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 26,977 (SE = 524), and the estimated catch was 63,493 (SE = 5,227) in the boat sport fisheries monitored. Harvests of chinook salmon were lower than the long-term average in the Ketchikan fishery, but about average in the Juneau fishery. Hatcheries in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon produced about 50% of the monitored chinook salmon harvest, and 37% of the total harvest was of Alaska hatchery origin. In Juneau hatcheries produced about 46% of the chinook salmon harvest, and Southeast Alaska hatcheries contributed 45% of the total harvest. In Ketchikan 25% of the harvest was of hatchery origin, and the percentage of Alaska hatchery chinook salmon harvested was estimated to be 21% of the harvest. The estimated Alaska hatchery contribution of chinook salmon was 36% in Sitka and 63% in Petersburg, and coded wire tag sampling in Craig and Wrangell revealed that chinook salmon from Alaska hatcheries contributed about 4% and 15%, respectively, of the harvest in those locations. An estimated 46,352 (SE = 3,058) coho salmon, 34,638 (SE = 3,701) pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, 43,788 (SE = 1,901) Pacific halibut, and 18,684 (SE = 1,358) rockfish were also harvested in the sampled marine boat fisheries. Hatcheries produced 7% and 38%, respectively, of the coho harvest in Juneau and Ketchikan. The Pacific halibut harvest of 9,252 (SE = 762) in Juneau was below the long-term average, and the Ketchikan harvest of 19,675 (SE = 1,669) was the highest recorded. Shellfish effort was above average in the Juneau and Ketchikan fisheries, and Dungeness crab harvest was above average in Juneau and the highest recorded in Ketchikan.
Notes: "September 1996"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-29).

Also issued online.