Fraser River Sockeye Fisheries and Fisheries Management - Cohen ...

Subsistence fishing, while important from a cultural perspective and given the highestpriority, is nominal in terms of relative magnitude and is estimated with a permit system.The subsistence harvest relative to run strength has always been so small that satisfyingsubsistence needs is not usually an issue (P. Salomone, pers. comm., Area ManagementBiologist for Egegik and Ugashik, ADF&G). Regulations regarding subsistence includegear restriction to a 10 fathom gillnet of any mesh and a 200 sockeye per permit limit; thepermits are for keeping tally of the take as another permit will be issued to anyone goingover the limit. Subsistence harvest is always allowed during commercial openings, andmany times subsistence remains open in between commercial closures. This constantopportunity to subsistence harvest throughout the season ensures that the 200 fish perperson regulation is always achievable by those who pursue their limit. Minard andMeachum (1987) reported sockeye subsistence catch to average 144,000 (0.6% of thetotal run) between 1963 and 1985; Morstad et al. (2010) reported 104,000 (0.3% of thetotal run and 0.4% of harvest) for 2008.Commercial FisheriesGear types and allocationPrior to the 1980s, high-seas harvest by the offshore Japanese gillnet fisheries wassubstantial. Currently, state salmon fisheries in and around the South Alaska Peninsulaintercept approximately 3% of the sockeye salmon returning to Bristol Bay (Figure 26).Only set and drift gillnets are permitted in the Bay; drift gillnets can be fished from vesselno greater than 32 feet in overall length. Set-net sites are maintained along beaches in theBay and fished from skiffs with assistance from assorted wheeled and tracked vehicles.Beginning in 1998, the allocation between these two gear types was formalized intomanagement plans, and allocations to drift-netters ranges among the districts from 72 to90% of the catch (Table 27). Managers have been successful at meeting theseapportionments in spite of allocation being secondary in priority to reaching escapementgoals (Salomone 2006, 2009).132