Sport fishermen in Southeast can catch more king salmon in the region, following an emergency order issued by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game earlier this month.

Starting on August 1, non-resident fishermen can now catch four Chinook in a season, up from three, though their daily bag limit of two remains the same. Resident sport fishermen have no annual limit to the amount of king salmon they can catch, but their daily limit is now three kings a day, up from two.

Troy Tydingco is the area management coordinator for Southeast sport fisheries, and a longtime Sitka Fish and Game biologist. He said the reason for the jump is two-fold.

“Two things that are kind of happening happening simultaneously. One is our allocation was a little higher this year than it was last year, and fishing success is a little lower,” he said in an interview with KCAW last week.

Fish and Game updates catch estimates weekly, and Tydingco said the state is predicting sport fishermen will catch less than the 43,000 kings they’re allotted this year under the international Pacific Salmon Treaty.

The state tracks charter fishing with a log book that requires all charter captains to record their harvest, so they have a census accounting for all the fish that are caught. Overall, Tydingco said data shows the season has been similar to the last several years for most sport fisheries in Sitka.

“We have lots of different fisheries that people are interested in: ground fish, salmon, halibut, and overall, it’s been kind of average average season,” he said. “We’ve seen about the same amount of participation that we have in prior years, and similar harvest for most things.”

The increased annual king limit for nonresidents and the daily increase for resident sport fishermen are in effect until September 30.

Tydingco said the public can always get involved through Alaska Board of Fisheries process and have a fair amount of say in how fisheries are managed at the local advisory committee level or by writing proposals.