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SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 29 July 2010
Neets Bay: The total terminal return of summer
chum to Neets Bay is now greater than the forecast. The terminal forecast
includes cost recovery, broodstock collection and the chum troll harvest. It
is possible to see good fishing for another ten days to two weeks – keeping the
processor near daily capacity. We are defiantly in the back portion of what we
call the peak of the return. The female has varied more than normal as the
troll fishery has a slight bias toward harvesting males (They seem to bite
better.). The real terminal return ratio is probably at or slightly above 50%
female. This return is predominantly 4-year-old fish and they are 55% female,
which would suggest we have some fish to go. This corresponds with our onsite
observation.
 Broodstock
collection is almost finished. We will wait a short time to put the last
fish over the barrier so as not to have too many ripe fish at one time as egg
taking usually goes over a 15 to 20 day period. Egg take has started and is
going well, with more than 30 million green eggs taken.
There were two unique situations through the past week.
The storm last weekend brought a lot of fish to the barrier. This is sometimes
a dangerous situation for us as with too many fish at the barrier and an
exceptionally high flow in Neets Creek, fish are “too attracted” to the stream
and can breach the barrier. There was some evidence this was starting last
Friday. We brought in two additional tenders, one from Trident and one from AGS
to help relieve some of this pressure. This seems to have worked. The Lucky
Buck has been at full production for three weeks.
Several weeks ago Trident expressed some interest in the
carcasses from egg take. While other enhancement organizations have sold
carcasses from egg take for the past several years there has never been any
interest in doing this at Neets Bay. Our egg take station is more than a
quarter mile from the dock making the logistics “interesting”. Regardless, we
have been able to successfully deliver the carcasses to waiting Trident tenders
without any significant difficulty to either party. While these fish do not
have near the value of net caught fish, they are worth something to SSRAA and
the idea that the protein is used and not dumped in the Behm at the end of each
egg collection is positive.
The Snow Pass Coho run continues….The run appears
to be slowing down. There will be only one harvest this week. It is hard to
say how many fish are still coming. During periods of extended high pressure
these fish do not push to freshwater…or at best they trickle into the steep pass
and raceway. That is what is going on now. There are likely at least several
full harvests of summer coho in Whale Pass. The answer about how many will be
clear if and when it next rains. It has been a strong return.
Chinook: Returns to Whitman Lake, Neets Bay, and
Anita Bay were strong again this year. We have harvested about 8,000 kings in
Neets Bay and almost 9,000 from the adult raceway at Whitman Lake. They will be
removing some chinook from the raceway this afternoon, the 21st time
this has happened this year. Sometimes this is only several hundred fish, most
often more. It is important to remove them quickly to maximize the possible
quality. It appears to all concerned that this run is nearly done. These fish
do not compete with troll quality kings, but the current market for wild fish
quickly absorbs the fish.
SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 23 July 2010
 Neets
Bay: At this point cost recovery at Neets Bay is ahead of forecast. Our
terminal forecast includes cost recovery, broodstock collection and the chum
troll harvest. The actual terminal return is almost 2 million pounds ahead of
the forecast…cost recovery is the largest part of the forecast. The run looks
decent at this point as is fish size. We anticipate going into the peak of the
return next week. The overall strength of the return depends on how far the
return extends into August. At a minimum we anticipate another two weeks of
matching harvest with the production capacity of the Lucky Buck.
Broodstock collection started this week. For the first
time in a number of years there was a decent abundance of fish near the barrier
when we started collecting broodstock. As of this morning we have placed half
the required fish over the barrier – about 60,000 fish. We do not anticipate
any difficulty collecting the remaining 60,000 as these first fish are removed
from the system. Egg collection will begin tomorrow. The carcasses from egg
collection will be sold to a local processor this year…another first. While
these carcasses don’t have a high per pound value, this is a positive step as
historically this protein has been discarded. Hopefully there is value in this
for all parties.
The troll fleet has taken slightly more than 200,000 chums
from the area immediately adjacent to the Neets Bay THA and the outer portion of
the THA. Though the return was larger the fish were not as easy to catch with
troll gear as they were in 2009, but the fleet was about twice as large. The
highest boat count was 85 trollers fishing. There were 30 boats fishing this
morning and all three processors that tendered the fishery still have tenders
present.
With a troll fishery in front of the THA it is difficult if
not impossible to gauge where you are in the run by the male/female
percentages. Trollers tend to catch males more than females…perhaps 10% more
males in a given place and time as a concurrent net fishery. In addition, so
far this run has been almost all 4-year-old fish. Fours tend to be more
composed of females than the 3 and 5-year-old run components…perhaps 55% female
at mid point. Recently we have been running about 54% female…with more
variation than usual. Considering the troll fleet as well as the fact this
return is predominantly 4’s…we are likely where the calendar says we should
be…in the first days of the peak two weeks of the return.
The Snow Pass Coho run continues, not sure how else
to describe it. We did two full harvests this week and there is still an
obvious abundance of coho in Whale Pass despite relatively intensive sport and
commercial fisheries targeting these fish. At this point we will simply keep
working the fish that enter the raceway and remain optimistic there are still
good numbers coming. The fresh market for the fish is good…everything is still
being sold fresh under the name “Snow Pass Coho”. It has been a very strong
return.
Chinook: Returns to Whitman Lake, Neets Bay, and
Anita Bay were all relatively strong again this year. We have harvested about
7,500 kings in Neets Bay and almost 9,000 from the adult raceway at Whitman
Lake. It looks like the harvest at Whitman may exceed last year’s before the
fish stop, and Neets will be slightly less than last year’s return. These fish
do not compete with troll quality kings, but the current market for wild fish
quickly absorbs the fish.
SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 16 July 2010
 At this point cost recovery at Neets Bay is on forecast.
In addition the troll fleet has taken about 135,000 fish and there were 70
trollers working the Behm this morning in front of Neets Bay. We are able to
deliver about 220,000 round pounds a day to the Lucky Buck. If this continues
through the first 10 or so days of August we will have met our expectations.
Broodstock collection will begin next week and there are some fish near the
barrier. Sustaining the summer chum run requires about 140,000 fish placed over
the barrier as spawning stock. The real test of run strength will come next
week when the run is supporting broodstock collection, cost recovery, and troll
harvest. Again, at this point we are optimistic.
Fish size has been slightly less than 10 pounds this past
week and the male to female ratio has varied a great deal depending on where the
fish were harvested. Fish we cleaned up near the barrier yesterday were 37%
female. Fish we harvested further out in the bay are now running at about 45%
female. Fish harvested by the troll fleet are running slightly more than 50%
female. It is our experience that fish are caught by trollers perhaps a week to
10 days before they are generally available to seine harvest. The fish by the
barrier have come from an earlier part of the run. We will quickly clean those
up and hopefully get to groups that are near 50% female before broodstock
collection is started in earnest.
The Snow Pass Coho continue to return in record numbers.
We are doing our 9th full harvest today and tomorrow and likely will
quickly follow with the 10th. As you can see from the attached
graphic, we generally continue harvesting some of these fish through the next 5
or 6 weeks.
Chinook: We have removed between 5 and 6,000 chinook from
the raceway at Whitman Lake. We are well ahead of last year’s numbers and 2009
was our largest harvest from the Whitman raceway. These fish contributed well
to hatchery access troll and local sport fisheries and we anticipate the final
tally will be close to 10,000 fish removed from the raceway. Most of these fish
have a market, but it is not the traditional king salmon market.
There have only been a few SSRAA fall coho harvested in
common property fisheries to date. These are a late run stock and we do not
anticipate any cost recovery of these fish – and for that matter little common
property harvest – until at least mid August.
SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 10 July 2010
 Neets
Bay: There is currently a good abundance of summer chum in Neets Bay. The
harvest has exceeded 200,000 pounds a day for the past 4 days and we have been
able to match harvest with processor capacity through that period. It looks as
if that will continue through today. The average weight of the fish is still
about 11 pounds though it is just now going slightly below that. The fish are
relatively large, particularly compared to the small fish we saw last year, and
we have not seen any pale meated fish as yet – and don’t anticipate that for a
week or 10 days. The female percentage is around 45, which is a strong
indicator we are still somewhere on the front shoulder of the return.
This morning there were 41 trollers fishing in the Behm
immediately outside the THA. We will open the outer portion of the THA…between
Chin Point and Bug Island…Monday morning. Information from processors this
morning indicates that experienced chum trollers are now taking between 300 and
500 fish in a trolling day. This is up from 200 a few days ago. This has not
dampened cost recovery harvest to date, but may when we open the THA to
trolling. The THA will close again on Thursday afternoon and we’ll assess troll
harvest and cost recovery to see where we are related to the projected terminal
return. At the end of the second harvest week (July 7)…we were exactly on
forecast, a rare event! Susan was smiling. The past several days of harvest
plus increasing troller presence and harvest allow us to think that we will keep
tracking at least on the projection line – perhaps slightly better.
Snow Pass Coho continue to return in record numbers
for this date. We continue from the raceway at Neck Lake without a break. JR
Parsley (Manager of the Burnett Inlet Hatchery) reports from the site that Neck
Creek is full of fish and there is a lot of sign in Whale Pass. There is no
immediate end in view …this is something we have not experienced in the 12
previous years this project has been in place.
Chinook: The harvest of chinook from the raceways
at Whitman Lake Hatchery started at least several weeks earlier than anyone can
recall. After about 1,000 bright fish, there was a lull in recruitment to the
raceway and we were tempted to think maybe the run was just early…and not very
large. Recently recruitment started again and suddenly we are still ahead
(about 4,000 fish harvested to date) of last year’s record harvest from Whitman
with a lot of fish apparent in Herring Cove in front of the hatchery. Some of
the early fish were suitable for fresh market sales, but at this point we are
seeing the more classic terminal chinook. Broodstock collection has started and
is going well.
SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 6 July 2010
 There
seems to suddenly be a good abundance of chum salmon in Neets Bay, enough to
start the processor working around the clock with a minimum of 180,000 to
240,000 pounds a day. The fish are large (12 pound average) and still
relatively bright with good meat color. This is earlier than we have been able
to get the Lucky Buck working around the clock for several years. We are
optimistic that this will continue. We are NOT overrun with fish. If for
whatever reason there are excess fish at any point this year we will try to
utilize the troll fleet to knock those numbers down. But, at this point that is
not an issue – likely it will not be an issue. Abundance, size, and male/female
ration are all such that we are optimistic about the 2010 return – that at the
least it will reach the forecast.
Snow Pass Coho have returned in record numbers for this
date. We have harvested five full harvests (25,000 fish) and are working on the
6th this morning. Because there is a decent number of fish in
transit, fresh fish brokers have been able to expand the market for Snow Pass
Coho. This is not always possible as they seem to return in fits and
starts…leading to unpredictable abundance, not always the best way to introduce
a product to a new user – promising an availability that does not occur. Neck
Creek is full of fish and there is a lot of sign in Whale Pass. We have had
full harvests that did not exceed the number of this we will have harvested by
this afternoon…and the run should continue off and on for the next 5 or so
weeks.
Chinook: there were 1,000 chinook in the raceway at
Whitman Lake Hatchery this morning. These fish entered over the three day
weekend. We will start broodstock collection today, but will have perhaps 700
excess fish to add to the current harvest. It looks like this run was slightly
bimodal. We had a very early show, then a lull, and now another group of fish
are entering the raceway.
Cost Recovery Update: 28 June 2010
There have been a number of calls from trollers and
processors about the chum at Neets Bay. Though we started fishing on 25 June we
have only harvested about 200 chum salmon. There is little or no sign of
jumpers or finners in the bay. This is not unusual, historically we have had
our first decent set after the 4th of July. We have seen some
harvest at Tree Point this past week. About half those fish were of Neets Bay
origin. The early harvest at Tree Point often has a good number of Neets fish
mixed in – that simply means a good part of the return is coming in the south
end. There was also some chum catch in D106 last week, which means some fish
are also coming around the north end of POW. We would anticipate the first
schools of chum to be nearing Neets Bay by the weekend of the 4th or
during the following week.
We are doing the third harvest from the raceway at Neck
Lake. To date about 12,000 Snow Pass Coho have been harvested for cost
recovery. We usually do not do our first harvest until after the 4th
of July.
There was a week-long lull in chinook entering the raceway
at Whitman, but about 500 fish entered this past weekend. They are being
removed today. This harvest is well ahead of last season, but it does not look
like the run is stronger than it was in 2010…the fish are earlier entering the
raceway at Whitman Lake Hatchery.
SSRAA Cost Recovery Update: 24 June 2010
This is the first 2010 SSRAA cost recovery update. I am
headed out to Neets this afternoon. The Neets Bay THA is closed to common
property harvest at noon today and we start cost recovery in Neets Bay tomorrow
morning. This fishery continues through chinook, summer and fall chum and fall
coho returns, until the first week of October.
SSRAA’s primary revenue source is the cost recovery harvest
of summer chum salmon in Neets Bay. We do not conduct cost recovery fisheries
at any of SSRAA’s other release sites (Kendrick, Nakat or Anita Bay). Our
forecast does not suggest that the return in 2010 will be particularly large.
Under normal circumstances about 225,000 of this year’s Neets summer chum will
be harvested in regional common property net fisheries. We will try to manage a
chum troll fishery in Behm Canal and the outer portion of the THA for a harvest
of 200,000 fish. Broodstock requirements are another 140,000 fish. This leaves
between 500,000 and 600,000 fish for cost recovery. Hopefully, unlike the small
fish in 2009, these fish will weigh their normal 10 pound average. If that is
the case, and the value of these fish stays where it is or increases, we may
meet our 2010 cost recovery goal…if the forecast is correct there is very little
margin for error.
We have harvested about 1,200 chinook from the raceway at
Whitman Lake. This return was quite early. Last year our first cost recovery
harvest from the raceway at Whitman was in early July. At this point it does
not appear that the chinook return is necessarily larger than what we
experienced in 2009 (historically our largest chinook harvest at Whitman Lake),
but the return is earlier.
The first harvest of Snow Pass Coho (summer coho) from the
raceway at Neck Lake took place shortly after the 4th of July in
2009. We are harvesting 4,200 fish from the raceway today, 24 June, and will
harvest another 4,200 on Saturday, 26 June. This run is earlier than we have
ever seen it and strong. Snow Pass Coho tend to be larger during good returns
and smaller in years when the returns are poor, and these fish seem to be larger
than they have been in at least several years.
I will try to update this section at least weekly.
John | 
