2007 Commercial Troll Chinook Salmon Quotas

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Petersburg Area Office

Brian Lynch P.O. Box 667

Petersburg, Alaska 99833

Phone: (907) 772-3801

Date: April 10, 2007

Fax: (907) 772-9336

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Petersburg. . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the commercial troll

fishery pre-season Chinook salmon harvest target for 2007 is 243,741 fish, which is 12,920 fewer than the

2006 target. The Southeast Alaska all-gear quota is 329,392 treaty Chinook, down from last year by

approximately 17,400 fish. The all-gear quota is allocated among commercial and sport fisheries

according to management plans established by the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The Chinook salmon quotas

specified by gear group are as follows:

Troll 243,741

Purse seine 14,164

Set and drift gillnet 10,552

Sport 60,935

Total all-gear quota 329,392

Trollers are advised that the catch allocations presented here do not include the majority of Stikine River

Chinook that may be harvested in commercial and sport fisheries in Districts 8. For more information on

this issue, please refer to the news release issued out of the Petersburg office on January 31, 2007.

The reduction in the all-gear quota and the troll allocation could result in reduced fishing time and harvest

opportunities for Chinook salmon in the summer troll fishery. However, because we don’t know what the

final harvest of non-Alaska hatchery fish (Treaty fish) will be in the winter and spring fisheries, the

magnitude of any reduced fishing time will not actually be known until just prior to the first summer

season Chinook salmon opening on July 1. The summer troll quota is calculated by subtracting the winter

and spring fishery Treaty Chinook harvest (there is no specific total limit on the number of Treaty

Chinook that may be harvested in the spring fishery) from the annual troll quota and 70% of the total

summer quota is targeted in the first summer Chinook opening. We anticipate at this time that the first

summer opening will be managed in season rather than for a fixed number of days.

Although the pre-season all-gear and troll Chinook salmon quotas are reduced from the past 4 years, the

2007 quotas are still larger than the quotas allowed from 1985 – 2001 and are very similar to the preseason

quota in 2002 and 2006.