(KCAW/Berett Wilber)
Southeast Alaska trollers caught more than anticipated in the summer’s first king opener, leaving few fish to catch for a second opener in August.
Over the first four days of July, trollers took in around 44,000 king salmon. Grant Hagerman manages the troll fishery for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In an interview with KCAW on Tuesday (7-15-25) he said while participation has been trending down over the past decade, this year’s opener looked similar to last year’s.
“Initially we’d flown our vessel surveys on July 2. And you know, at that point it looked like effort was was lower than last year and quite a bit lower than the last five to 10 years,” Hagerman said. “But as we start to finalize fish tickets [we were] actually seeing that the effort was very similar to last year, almost almost identical to last year, surprisingly.”
Around 460 trollers participated in the July opener, to varied success.
“There were some areas of the region that had very good fishing, much better than what we anticipated. And there were some areas that were average to maybe even just a little bit below average, I think, for what we were expecting,” Hagerman said. “So it was a mixed bag, but there was some very good fishing.”
While some of the fishing may have been good, this year’s allocation for Southeast Alaska king fisheries is a record low, down 40 percent from last year. That allocation is set by the Pacific Salmon Commission, under the terms of a treaty between the US and Canada.
Typically, the state opens the summer troll fishery twice- once in July, when around 70% of the allocated summer kings are caught. Then it opens again in August so trollers can scoop up the remaining fish. State managers are still processing fish tickets, but Hagerman said it’s likely somewhere around 9,000 treaty kings will remain available. With such a small count, and considering the fleet was averaging 11,000 a day in July, he said a 24-hour competitive opener in August may not be possible. Instead, the state is discussing whether to replace it with a “limited harvest fishery,” meaning the remaining fish would be equally allocated among permit holders with 10 days to catch their share. It’s an option allowed under a new regulation approved by the Alaska Board of Fisheries this spring.
“Bottom line, it’s a tool for us, really, to not exceed our treaty allocation. That’s the big concern is that we don’t feel like, you know, a 24 hour opening doesn’t really give us much power,” Hagerman said. “[With a 24 hour opening] we’re rolling the dice, we’re assuming that they’re not going to catch this. But given what we saw in July, there’s some concern for that.”
Hagerman said they’ve held limited harvest fisheries for kings before, but only after the first two king openers have wrapped. If the state decides to move forward, it would be the first time they’ve used the model for an August opener.
Hagerman said his office will likely publish final harvest figures later this week and announce its official plan for August.
