Annette Islands Reserve
2014 Commercial Salmon
Catch and Escapement Report
Prepared by
The Metlakatla Indian Community
Department of Fish and Wildlife
and the
Metlakatla Tamgas Creek Hatchery
March 15, 2015
Audrey M.L. Hudson
Rich Hudson Sr.
Jeff Moran
Steve Leask
Dustin Winter
Bret Joines
Mayor, Metlakatla Indian Community
Chairman, Natural Resources Committee
Director, Metlakatla Fish & Wildlife
Manager, Tamgas Creek Hatchery
Fisheries Manager, Metlakatla Fish & Wildlife
Manager, Annette Island Packing Company
ANNETTE ISLANDS RESERVE
2014 COMMERCIAL SALMON FISHERY
Catch & Escapement Report
The Annette Islands Reserve 2014 Commercial Salmon Fishery closed on
October 8, 2014. The season was a very successful one even though summer chum,
fall chum were below average. Coho and early king catches were average. Sockeye
was below average. The catches for pink salmon were well above average.
This report is divided into five sections: a discussion of the total catch, a section
that summarizes the season for each of the two primary gear types, purse seine and
gillnet, a section that describes local escapement, and a final section that summarizes
Tamgas Creek Hatchery production.
Total Fishery Harvest
The Reserve’s total catch was 2,196,542 salmon (Table 1), which is above
average by 1,778,396 fish. The ex-vessel value of the 2014 season was $3,759,839.
As previously mentioned, catches were above average. For the season, 21,789
sockeye were caught, above average by about 10,000 fish. The catch was split
between the Gillnet and purse seine fleets. Gillnetters caught 8,656 fish compared to
13,132 caught by the seine fleet.
The 2014 season saw 130,854 chum delivered by the Annette Islands salmon
fishery. The season for chum salmon can be divided into two parts: the summer run
and the fall run. The summer chum run was slightly above average. In terms of total
value, chum salmon was a significant addition to the Reserve’s salmon fishery, being
valued at more than a million dollars.
The Reserve’s 2014 pink salmon season was also above average. The above
average pink salmon returns to southern southeast Alaska allowed the Reserve fleets to
fish without concerns about escapement. The total pink salmon harvest, at 1,989,953
fish, was above average by 1,746,739 fish. The purse seine fleet took over 70% of the
pink salmon caught on the Reserve.
In recent years the Reserve has come to rely, to an ever-increasing extent, on
Coho salmon, especially those produced by the Tamgas Creek Hatchery, as a major
component of each salmon season’s value. Reserve fishermen caught 52,449 Coho
during the 2014 season, more than 16,000 fish above average. The gillnet fleet
harvested more than 80% of the Coho caught on the Reserve.
King salmon do not comprise a significant portion of the Reserve’s total catch. In
past years, king salmon were important to Reserve trollers, but in recent years, troll
effort has been virtually non-existent. However, the Tamgas Creek Hatchery returns of
king salmon brought the Reserve’s king salmon catch to more than 1,447 fish. This
figure does not include king salmon harvested during experimental openings within the
Hatchery’s Exclusive Harvest Area. Details regarding the 2014 cumulative Salmon
catch can be found in Table 1.
Table 1 - 2014 Cumulative Salmon Catch Report
Gillnet Season Harvest
The Gillnet fleet caught 619,553 fish during the 2014 season, 200,000 fish above
average. The ex-vessel value of the 2014 gillnet fishery was $1,662,634.
The 8,656 sockeye caught by the gillnet fleet was below average by more than
2,000 fish. The gillnet fleet’s sockeye catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) was 12 fish per boat
per day for the season, about half of the historical average.
The chum catch was 99,871 fish, above average by less than a thousand fish a
The CPUE for chum was 61 fish per boat per day, which is below average by 50 fish per
boat per day. As previously described, the bulk of the chum catch occurred during the
summer fishery. The gillnet fleet’s chum catches throughout the fall fishery were poor.
The 465,661 pink salmon landed by the gillnet fleet was above average by
220,000 fish. Pink salmon CPUE for the season was 284 fish per boat per day, above
the average of 116 fish per boat per day.
The gillnet fleet landed 44,209 Coho salmon, above average by more than 8,000
fish. As previously mentioned, the bulk of the Coho catch was contributed by the
Tamgas Creek Hatchery and, to a lesser degree, other local hatcheries. For the
season, Coho were caught at the rate of 27 fish per boat per day, which is average.
The Tamgas Creek Hatchery saw a decent king salmon return in 2014, and that
is evident by the gillnet fleet’s king salmon catch of 1,156 fish.
Purse Seine Season Harvest
The Reserve’s 2014 purse seine harvest of 1,575,966 fish was above average by
nearly 1,609,054 fish. Fourteen purse seine vessels fished the Reserve during the
2013 season, with the average weekly fleet size at 12 vessels.
The purse seine fleet landed 2,245,174 pink salmon, about 756,414 fish above
average. Pink salmon were caught at the rate of 6,033 fish per boat per day, which is
2300 fish above average. In terms of value, pink salmon were, by far, the most
important species to the purse seine fleet.
The purse seine fleet caught 13,132 sockeye. This catch was also above
average by more than 7,000 fish. The sockeye CPUE of 50 fish per boat per day, was
below average by 16 fish per boat per day.
The purse seine fleet’s harvest of chum salmon was above average. The seine
fleet harvested 30,944 chum salmon caught during the 2014 season. The vast majority
of these chum salmon were landed during the first one-half of the season. Chum CPUE
was 120 fish per boat per day, which was about 178 fish per boat per day below
average.
The purse seine fleet does not typically catch large numbers of Coho, particularly
in comparison to the gillnet fleet, and that was certainly the case in 2014. For the
season, the purse seine fleet caught only 7,554 Coho. The fleet caught Coho at the rate
of 29 fish per boat per day, 23 fish from the average rate.
The purse seine fleet has not previously delivered a significant portion of the
Reserve’s total king salmon catch. The Reserve’s total king salmon seine catch was
181 salmon during the 2014 season. The vast majority of the kings were produced by
the Tamgas Creek Hatchery.
Reserve Escapement
The overall escapement for the Annette Islands Reserve appears to be
fluctuating. The Pink salmon escapement exceeded expectations, while the Chum
escapement continues to decrease. Lowest numbers appear to be in those streams
most impacted by fleet pressure. The Management Boards use of number of fishing
days to control the level of escapement appears to be working for improving the Pink
Salmon escapement, however, it does not appear to be improving the Chum salmon
escapement. Area closures and gear restrictions have been utilized the past few years,
in an attempt to start bringing up the Chum numbers. It becomes even more apparent
that continuous monitoring of stream escapement is imperative for determining that
management policies are effective.
Management determined years ago that spawning potential is not a realistic
target for escapement strength, because the spawning potential for each stream was
determined Ms. Evelyn Biggs in 1983, and was based on potential escapement as
determined by Habitat quality. Currently management uses average escapement as its
target for run strength. It is the desire of the Metlakatla Department of Fish and Wildlife
to update the existing habitat survey to take into account current information for
establishing realistic escapement goals based on habitat potential. Please refer to the
Metlakatla Research and Monitoring Plan for details on this subject.
Pink Salmon Escapement
Pink salmon escapement to Reserve streams in 2014 far exceeded the targeted
average numbers. Almost all of the index systems saw pink salmon escapement above
historical averages. Those systems that show a lower than average escapement of
Pink salmon are those streams that tend to be most influenced by commercial pressure.
These systems are closely watched during the fishing season. Overall escapement is
well above the historical average for Pink Salmon escapement on the Island (Table 2).
Table 2 - Annette Islands Reserve Pink Salm on escapem ent by week by year - index system s
Chum Salmon Escapement
Chum salmon escapement was consistently below average throughout most of
the season. Most systems were below average throughout the entire season.(Table 3).
Many commercial fishing policies were put in place to accommodate this decreased
level of escapement. These policies include closing the entire east side of the island,
limiting the number of days available to seining, and placing gear restrictions on
gillnetters. Overall, the average escapement for Island Chum Salmon was below
average. Many Reserve streams have suffered from depressed chum salmon
escapement for quite some time, so that the historical averages have declined over
time. It is our hope that escapement numbers will grow or remain consistent, indicating
that many of the Communities management policies are working as expected. Some
areas have consistently experienced lower than expected escapement numbers due to
their proximity to the commercial fishing effort In particular, chum salmon escapement
to the streams located on the Metlakatla Peninsula continues to be very poor compared
to escapement counts in the early 1980's and to theoretical production potential. As
one might expect, these streams are in closest proximity to the most intensive fishing
pressure.
Table 3 - Annette Islands Reserve Chum Salm on escapem ent by week by year - index system s
Sockeye Salmon Escapement
The Sockeye Salmon escapement for 2014 was the second largest number since
1993, and far exceeds the historical average (Table 4). Lake fertilization and salmon
stocking occurred on an experimental basis in 2005 at a rate of 870 Gallons of lake
fertilizer and 290,000 Fry released into the lake. During the summer of 2012, an
additional 107,000 fry were released into the lake. No juvenile fry and no fertilization
occurred during the summer of 2014 due to limited budgets. However, it is the
Communities plan to increase this level of stocking, and to begin increased levels of
fertilization annually for a minimum of 2 salmon cycles, in an attempt to re-establish this
population permanently. The juvenile sockeye fry that have been released into the
lakes, originated from the Trout lake system when hatchery personnel spawned adult
sockeye salmon from up the streams, and hatched and reared them in the hatchery at
Tamgas Creek.
Table 4 - Annette Islands Reserve Sockeye Salm on escapem ent by week by year - Trout Lake
All Other Salmon Species Escapement
There are no streams on the island that support King salmon escapement. King
salmon require deep water, large systems for natural spawning, the only place that
produces King salmon on the island is Tamgas Creek Hatchery.
Coho Salmon are known to spawn in island streams in small numbers, however,
the adults return so late in the season that conducting reliable escapement counts on
returning adults is impossible. The method for determining the presence of Coho
salmon in island streams is to identify juvenile Coho during the annual escapement
surveys for Pink and Chum Salmon. The only streams where juvenile Coho salmon
were identified during the 2013 season were:
Nadzaheen Creek
Annette Point Creek
Crab Creek
Hemlock Creek
Numbers could not be determined. The only other location with Coho salmon
production is the Tamgas Creek Hatchery.
Tamgas Creek Hatchery
The overall health of the Hatchery and stocks of fish throughout 2014 was good for Tamgas
Creek Hatchery. Table 5 summarizes the egg take information for the 2014 season. The chum
return was excellent. An estimated 68,000 chum returned. We are using SSRAA’s thermal
mark sampling program, and estimated 57% of the Island’s chum catch was from Tamgas
Hatchery origin. The rest were split between SSRAA’s three release sites (Neets Bay, Kendrick
Bay and Nakat Inlet). The chum program is growing slowly but steadily. 13.5 million chum
eggs were taken in 2014. All other species are at full production levels.
The Coho return was at average. All hatcheries in southern Southeast had returns that were at or
about average. About 156,000 Tamgas adult Coho returned in 2014. The jack Coho return was
very strong which is an indicator that the 2015 return will be strong.
The king return was good for the amount of yearlings released. We started to release only
yearling kings several years back. The king return has been low the last 4 years due to the 0
check program not working out as hoped for. This program, the 0 check, has been discontinued.
The sockeye program is still continuing, 500 hatchery sockeye returned. A small portion of the
sockeye were used as brood stock and roughly 3,000 lbs. were given away to members of the
community. The number of sockeye fry released in 2014 was 0, because no eggs were taken in
2013.
2014 Egg Take ,
Fry Release, and Adult Salmon Return
Species
# Eggs taken
# Fish released
Chum Salmon
Coho Salmon
King Salmon
Sockeye Salmon
Total 2014
13,500,000
3,100,000
385,000
40,000
17,025,000
11,000,000
2,544,000
367,000
0
13,911,000
# Returning Adults
68,400
156,239
2,915
500
227,553
Table 5 - 2014 Tamgas Creek hatchery juvenile Salmon summary Table.
Cost Recovery
Tamgas Creek Hatchery conducts a cost recovery operation on returning Salmon to
alleviate some of the costs of hatchery operations. The fish not harvested by the hatchery for
cost recovery were harvested by the commercial fleet or held as brood stock for future salmon
populations. The cost recovery on Chum salmon was low because the hatchery is currently
attempting to build up its production of Chums to 20-22 million eggs annually. It attempted to
purchase eggs from adjacent hatcheries but was denied. In order to raise this number the
hatchery needs to spawn almost every returning Chum salmon.
Pink Salmon is not currently spawned for hatchery production, however, Pink salmon
continue to return to the hatchery. They are harvested and sold as cost recovery. Sockeye
salmon cost recovery is male fish and spawned female carcasses only, as the female sockeye
salmon is spawned to increase runs so that the Trout lake system can be stocked to historic
levels. Almost all sockeye returning to Tamgas hatchery originated from the Trout lake system.
For information regarding this project, please refer to the Metlakatla Indian Community
Research and Monitoring plan, and the Annette Islands Reserve Sockeye Enhancement and
Rehabilitation Plan.
Tamgas Creek Hatchery Cost Recovery
Species
Coho Salmon
Chum Salmon
Pink Salmon
Sockeye Salmon
King Salmon
Total
#
Fish
Total
Pounds
Lbs. of
Eggs sold
29,651
3,478
0
250
1,100
34,479
296,515
42,000
0
1,312
20,000
359,827
0
3,000
0
0
50
3,050
Table 6 - Summary of Tamgas Creek Hatchery Cost Recovery
Tag Recovery Information
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game uses coded wire tags to identify where
individual salmon originate. Every salmon release that would like to be included is issued its
own tag code. Every processor has port samplers that locate and record data for every tagged
salmon that is sold to that processor. This data, along with the heads from the tagged salmon are
sent to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game tag laboratory in Juneau, where the codes are
read, and recorded. Based on this information, individual contributions, and distributions of
salmon can be determined. At the time, there is no tag data on pink salmon, chum salmon, and
sockeye salmon, as there are no locations which currently tag these species.
The tag data that describes the origination of the salmon that is currently being harvested
in the Annette Islands Salmon fishery is listed in Table 7. This data is based on a 5 year average
of tagged salmon that are being sold to Annette Island Packing Company, and is being harvested
in the Annette Islands Fishery.
Location of origination
Tamgas Creek Hatchery
Whitman Lake
Neets Bay Hatchery
Crystal Lake
Deer Mountain Hatchery
Anita Bay
Nakat Inlet
Burnett Inlet Hatchery
Port St. Nicholas
Hugh Smith Lake
Turtle Rock Hatchery
Tagged King salmon
85.1%
16.8%
.7%
6.3%
1.7%
10.1%
0.0%
0.0%
7.0%
0.0%
0.5%
Tagged Coho salmon
70.5%
9.2%
11.0%
0.0%
8.5%
0.0%
2.4%
1.2%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
Table 7. - Make up of Salmon species harvested in the Annette Islands fishery.
Another aspect of Tag data that is important to the Annette Islands fishery and the
Tamgas creek hatchery, is where are Tamgas creek hatchery tagged salmon showing up in other
hatcheries or streams. This information is based on actual number of tags, and not on expanded
data, and is totaled from data which was kept from 1982 through 2000. This information is
listed in Table 8.
Survey Site
Location
Deer Mountain Hatchery
Whitman Lake Hatchery
Chickamin River & Tributaries
Ketchikan Misc.
Margaret Lake
Neets Bay Hatchery
McDonald Lake
Unuk River & Tributaries
Total tags recovered
Total number of tags recovered
King salmon 1982-2000
157
137
60
44
24
2 0
19
9
471
Table 8. - Locations of Tamgas creek hatchery tagged king salmon recovered.
Fish & Wildlife and Tamgas Creek hatchery research
Research is currently being conducted to determine the extent of interaction between
commercial fishermen and Marine mammals.
Much of the research conducted for increasing Sockeye salmon production in Reserve
waters is included in a report produced in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and
Game, Division of Limnology entitled “The Feasibility of Sockeye Enhancement by Hatchery
Fry Planting and Lake Fertilization in Triangle, Trout, Todd, and Tent lakes on Annette Islands
Reserve, Alaska”, dated November 5, 1997.
All other reports that were produced to benefit the resource needs and management goals
of the Metlakatla Indian Community can be made available by contacting the Metlakatla Indian
Community Department of Fish and Wildlife at (907) 886-3474.