Abstract
BackgroundAccess to harvestable surpluses of sockeye salmon is often limited by incidental harvest of Chinook salmon in the mixed-species gillnet fishery of Cook Inlet, Alaska, particularly in years of low Chinook abundance. This is restricting economic opportunity and creating allocation conflict between user groups. Prior work quantified differences in migration depth of Chinook and sockeye salmon and suggested that the use of shallower surface-hung fixed gillnets (“setnets”) could potentially reduce Chinook interception rates while leaving sockeye harvest rates relatively stable. However, lack of knowledge concerning the actual fishing depth of setnets was identified as an important uncertainty in implementing regulatory change. Cook Inlet is subject to strong tidal currents and high suspended sediment loads which make the water virtually opaque, preventing simple visual assessment of the depth of fishing nets.ResultsWe used time-depth recorders attached to setnets within Cook Inlet to record the leadline depths of 29, 36, and 45 mesh setnets during all fishing openings in 2015. Recorded depths were far shallower than the physical construction of the nets would suggest for most of the tidal cycle (as shallow as 0.6 m), and only near slack water did they extend down to near their maximum potential depth.ConclusionsIn this study, we demonstrate how time-depth recorders can be used to document the behavior of fishing gear and provide information useful for fine-tuning changes to regulations governing fishing net construction. Most Chinook harvest presumably occurs around slack water because it was only during these narrow time windows that the nets extended into the depths where Chinook primarily migrate. Switching to reduced-depth nets would avoid much of the Chinook distribution. In contrast, sockeye are potentially exposed to nets over much of the tidal cycle, although data on the efficiency of nets at various stages of the tide are lacking. Reduced sockeye harvest rates might be compensated for by some increase in allowable fishing time.
Highlights
Access to harvestable surpluses of sockeye salmon is often limited by incidental harvest of Chinook salmon in the mixed-species gillnet fishery of Cook Inlet, Alaska, in years of low Chinook abundance
To reduce uncertainty concerning how shallow nets might fish relative to the current “standard” net (45 meshes deep of maximum 6′′ stretched measure (15.2 cm) gillnet [19]), we developed a cooperative agreement with four eastside setnet fishery (ESSN) fishermen to directly measure the bottom depth of their nets in 2015 using time-depth recorders (TDR)
The button with a three dot icon on the top left provides a drop down list of the different nets and the button on the far right of the group of eight displays the Chinook and sockeye depth distributions reported in Welch et al [16]
Summary
Access to harvestable surpluses of sockeye salmon is often limited by incidental harvest of Chinook salmon in the mixed-species gillnet fishery of Cook Inlet, Alaska, in years of low Chinook abundance. This is restricting economic opportunity and creating allocation conflict between user groups. The driftnet and setnet fisheries focus on sockeye because of the abundance of this species, but the eastside setnet fishery (ESSN) catches Kenai River Chinook, which are the priority target of the sport fishery. In recent years both the ESSN sockeye fishery and the Kenai River sport fishing industries have been severely limited because even small harvests of Chinook would reduce escapement below minimum permissible limits. The driftnet fishery increases harvest of multiple species of salmon (sockeye, coho, and chum) bound for more northern regions of Cook Inlet, which have their own conservation and allocation concerns
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