Courtesy of ADF & G

The Dutch Harbor Food and Bait Herring Fishery opens this week, with three boats registered, “pretty similar to last year,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game area biologist Matthew Keyse in Sand Point.

The allocation of 1,878 tons for purse seiners is down from last year's quota of 2099 tons, Keyse said, noting that last year's quota was not completely harvested. The three small boats rounded up 1,600 tons in seine nets in about four days, he said.

The first opener is set for July 15, for 24 hours, for fishing in the Unalaska and Akutan districts.
This year's gillnet quota is 306 tons, but once again it is unlikely to be harvested, as no boats have pursued herring with gillnets for the past several years, he said. On July 25, the unused gillnet quota rolls over to the seiners, but by that time they have usually already left town, he said. The seiners travel to Unalaska from Sand Point, Chignik, and King Cove, he said.

The last gillnet harvest was in 2009, with less than three vessels participating in a fishery that has never gained much traction since its creation at the urging of the Unalaska Native Fisherman's Association about 15 years ago, to create opportunities for local small boat fishermen.

The gillnet fishery's best year was in 2004, with seven boats boats catching 31 tons out of a 216 ton allocation, Keyse said.

Despite the fishery's name, the Dutch Harbor herring are not for food, but as bait for crabbers and longliners, Keyse said. The amounts caught are dictated by the needs of the seafood processors, he said. This year's buyers are Westward, Peter Pan, and Trident, he said.

While he didn't know this year's price, he said typically it has been around $300 per ton paid to fishermen, though one year it rose to $550.

Only one spotter plane is expected again this year, Keyse said.

Keyse said the herring fishery will be managed locally from the Unalaska ADF&G office by assistant biologist Charles Russell.