Salmon notes

• The Southeast Alaska summer troll fishery will see a third opener beginning just after midnight tonight, with about 6,800 treaty Chinook up for grabs. Each troll permit holder will be allocated 18 Chinook for the 10-day fishery.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the purchase of nearly $877,000 in canned pink salmon from Silver Bay Seafoods for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program.

• British Columbia activists behind a campaign known as Alaska's Dirty Secret are again accusing Southeast Alaska fishermen of intercepting, or "stealing," Canadian salmon. They've posted this video.

Southeast salmon crossed off Canada's list

Canada's largest sustainable seafood label has pulled its recommendation for Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries, the Times Colonist newspaper reports.

Look out, Area M!

The nonprofit Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association posted the following on Facebook:

A meeting with Governor Dunleavy is scheduled for Monday, August 29, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Leaders from the Bristol Bay, Kuskokwim, Yukon, and Norton Sound regions will be putting forth solutions to the intercept fishery in Area M. This is a closed meeting, but a report will be given during the In-Season teleconference on August 30, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. AKST and 2:00 p.m. PDTC. To listen to the teleconference you can dial in at 1-800-315-6338 pin: 98566#.

Area M seiners stand down to save chums

Purse seiners in Sand Point and King Cove are voluntarily sitting out this week's salmon season opener as a way to avoid intercepting chums possibly bound for Western Alaska rivers.

Here's a press release from the Aleutians East Borough.

We saw the seiners stage a similar goodwill shutdown in 2005 when chums were running too thick in what's known as the Area M or False Pass fishery.

The seiners fear that netting too many chums while chasing their main quarry, sockeye, could result in ruinous fishing restrictions to protect Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim salmon runs.

Bristol Bay — intercept fishery

Veteran observers of Alaska's salmon fisheries have long heard complaints out of Bristol Bay about fishermen at False Pass
"intercepting" sockeye supposedly bound for the bay.

But you know the old adage about rocks and glass houses.

Just check out this new report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

It's a fascinating study of the genetic stock composition of sockeye harvests in Bristol Bay during the years 2006 through 2008.

The really interesting stuff is on pages 18-22.

Generally, the findings aren't surprising; the vast majority of sockeye salmon harvested in the bay originate from local stocks.

But we find an eye-opener in the numbers for the Togiak District, the westernmost and least productive of the bay's five fishing districts.

Researchers determined a substantial percentage of the Togiak harvest actually originates from the Kuskokwim stock in western Alaska.

In 2006, Kuskokwim sockeye accounted for nearly 28 percent of the Togiak harvest, or 174,206 fish. In 2008, the Kusko component was more than 25 percent, while in 2007 it was 13.5 percent.

Like many Bristol Bay gillnetters, folks in western Alaska have been critical of the False Pass fishery for picking off "their" salmon.

When it comes to sockeye interceptions, looks like some of the pickin' is in Bristol Bay.