Please direct any questions to: Rhea Ehresmann ([email protected])
Source: Olson, A., J. Stahl, M. Vaughn, K. Carroll, and A. Baldwin. 2017. Annual management report for the Southeast Alaska and Yakutat groundfish fisheries, 2017. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fishery Management Report No. 17-54, Anchorage.
State managed fisheries currently occur in NSEI (Chatham Strait) and SSEI (Clarence Strait and adjacent waters of Dixon Entrance). Sablefish have been harvested in the internal waters of Southeast Alaska since the early 1900s. Prior to the 1940s, sablefish were primarily landed as bycatch in the halibut fishery. Halibut longline gear was modified in the late 1940s to target sablefish. Unitl the 1970s, harvest levels fluctuated widely due to low price and better opportunities in other fisheries. Pot gear was first introduced in 1970 in Clarence Strait and Dixon Entrance areas and the pot fishery accounted for 33% of the total harvest in the early 1970s. In 1981, the NSEI fishery was restricted to longline gear only, but pot gear was still allowed in the SSEI subdistrict.
Sablefish have been historically managed with limitations on fishing seasons and harvest levels. Season limitations were first imposed in 1945 for the NSEI management area and in 1982 for the SSEI management area. Fishing seasons continued to be shortened in both areas as effort escalated in the 1970s and 1980s. GHRs based on historic catches were established for both areas in 1980. In 1985, a limited entry program was implemented for both the NSEI and SSEI sablefish fisheries. However, the number of vessels and overall operating efficiency of the longline fleet increased significantly after the limited entry program was implemented. In order to stay within GHRs, the department continued to reduce the number of fishing days in both areas. In the NSEI area, the number of fishing days fell from 76 days in 1980 to one day in 1987. One-day openings continued in the NSEI area through 1993. In 1993, the NSEI fleet harvested 3,640,000 dressed lb, which was 2,140,000 dressed lb over the upper bound of the GHR (1,500,000 dressed lb). In an effort to improve management, the board adopted an equal quota share (EQS) system for the NSEI area in 1994. In SSEI, the number of fishing days declined from 200 days in 1980 to 2 days in 1996 (Table 13). In 1997, at the request of industry,the board adopted a similar EQS system for the SSEI fishery and established separate seasons for the longline and pot fisheries to reduce gear conflicts.
- Fish tickets
- Pot and longline fishery logbooks
- Port sampling (length, weight, sex, maturity, & age)
- Longline Survey
- Biological (length, weight, sex, maturity, & age)
- Hook Accounting
- Bycatch
- Southeast region harvest permit