Sitka resident and ADF&G biologist Patrick Fowler dipnetting for sockeye at Redoubt in early July, 2014. (KCAW photo/Rebecca LaGuire)
Subsistence fishermen trekking out to Redoubt Bay near Sitka can now catch up to 25 sockeye salmon at a time. That’s up from a 10-fish limit earlier this summer.
A single household can now take home a total of one hundred subsistence sockeye over the course of the run.
Meanwhile, sport fishermen at Redoubt will see possession limits rise to six sockeye salmon, from four.
The new limits go into effect on Wednesday, July 16.
“It’s great news for everybody involved in the fishery,” said Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist Eric Coonradt.
The management plan for Redoubt Bay calls for the higher limit when estimated escapement tops 30,000 fish — that’s the total number of sockeye that Fish & Game expects will make it back to Redoubt Lake to spawn.
As of July 14, the Forest Service had counted 8,419 sockeye passing through their weir and into Redoubt Lake. Fish & Game is confident they’ll meet their goals for returning fish, Coonradt said.
“[We have] some pretty good numbers returning,” he said. “It looks like we’re going to easily make –or we already have made — the bottom end of our escapement goal. I think that was about 7,000 fish. And it looks like we may easily make the top end of it, which is 25,000.”
This is the fourth year in a row that Fish & Game has increased the subsistence limit at Redoubt. Last year, the estimated escapement topped 40,000 fish, prompting a small commercial fishery as well.
The Redoubt sockeye run usually peaks around July 20th, Coonradt said, and generally continues into early August. In the last two years, about 250 households have fished the Redoubt run each year, taking between 4,000 and 5,000 sockeye annually.
