Gillnetters have posted a strong summer on hatchery chum and sockeye, but the seine fleet has waited out one of the weakest early pink returns since the 1980s
The crew of the Petersburg F/V Priest Point prepare to haul a set during a recent Southeast commercial seine opening.
Pink salmon - the backbone of Petersburg's seine fleet - have finally started to show up last over the past week, after what state biologists were comparing to the poorest early returns on the books.
"Pink salmon's been, up until this last week - in particular Sunday - pretty poor so far," Troy Thynes, the Southeast Alaska management coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the Pilot. He described strong escapement and harvest in District 13 near Sitka, and a dramatic jump in both fish counts and catches in the Clarence Strait area, particularly the lower end of District 2....
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