Subsistence fishing for spot prawns in Hoonah Sound won’t quite be like the days prior to 2020, when harvesters could run a string of pots. Beginning May 1, permit holders will be allowed one pot, with only two pots per boat, even if there are more permit holders on board. Says ADF&G biologist Aaron Dupuis, “When we start turning the faucet back on, it’s going to be real slow.” (KCAW/Berett Wilber)
When the Department of Fish & Game closed all fishing for shrimp in Hoonah Sound in 2020, there were declines across the board in population. But some population declines are more troubling than others.
“The most concerning thing that we saw was that decline in small shrimp,” said Aaron Dupuis, the state biologist who manages shrimp in Hoonah Sound.
Dupuis says the relatively quick disappearance of small shrimp forced him to “pump the brakes” on all subsistence, sport, and commercial harvests in the sound.
Spot prawns have an interesting life history that makes the survival of small shrimp really important.
“The small shrimp are all males, and they transition to female shrimp as they grow older,” said Dupuis. “So when you’re seeing that lack of small male shrimp, that means that if you don’t do something pretty soon, eventually you’re not going to have any large female shrimp in the population.
The term for this is “protandric hermaphrodite.” In many species, having a lot of large, healthy females usually means good things for the population, and the relative absence of males is not necessarily detrimental. Unless the species is a protandric hermaphrodite, then having all those young males is critical to the survival of the population.
Subsistence harvesters will get a crack at Hoonah Sound shrimp beginning May 1. There will be limitations, however. The days of setting a string of pots are over. It’s one pot per permit, and no more than two pots per boat, regardless of how many permit holders are aboard.
Dupuis says caution is warranted, as a similar story – a five-year closure followed by a gradual reopening – unfolded in Tenakee Inlet a few years ago.
“Tenakee looked like it was coming back,” he said, “and then the personal use and commercial fisheries opened up for a year or two, and then the population crashed again. And now everything’s closed in there. So when we start turning the faucet back on, it’s going to be real slow.”
Some old hands at shrimping might not want to make the 50-mile boat ride north from Sitka to Hoonah Sound, but some will. A skewer of large spot prawns on the grill makes a nice complement to salmon and halibut. Word hasn’t been out very long that Hoonah Sound is opening again. Although Dupuis doesn’t expect Hoonah Sound to be “flooded” with effort, he says people will definitely go. “We’ve already had a few calls,” he says.
