2009 Sitka Herring Fishery

[olga1913]

Here are a couple pictures from today's herring opening. There will be one more in a couple of days when the plants unplug themselves.







More pictures here.

[TS]

How does the cannery determine the percentage of fish with egg's ? Thats basically what's valuable isn't it ?

And what is done with the male fish ? And the female fish after the roe is taken out ?

[twodux]

Great pix

Great pix olga! Magazine quality...

Capt T, the roe percentage is determined by taking a few samples out of a set. They'll dip a bucket in the mass of fish, then get the total weight. Then they slit the bellies and take the eggs from the females and weigh those. The weight of the fish is divided into the weight of the eggs to get the roe percentage. 10% is considered good and is what the price is set by. the price is adjusted by the %. Usually, the canneries will take down to 8% roe, but for every % under 10 there is a dedection. And if it's over, they add to the price.

From what I remember, most of the carcasses are made into fish meal. But let me do a quick search.

Yup, fish meal. Here's what I found. It's a real good read actually by the ADF&G on the history of herring fisheries in Alaska.

http://www.cf.adfg.state.ak.us/genin...w/overview.php

In some herring fisheries, the herring are caught mostly for bait. And in others for food. (smoked herring, pickled herring, canned herring etc)

[fishon]

excellent shots

Cool picks Olga.I really miss that fishery.What kind of camera?

[olga1913]

Herring

thanks fishon and twodux,

i had fun taking them. they were taken from the tender Howkan. an old friend has it and invited me on the opening. plenty of space to shoot. they are finishing up fishing as i type. should be the last opening if they get on fish. the pictures were taken with a canon xsi/450D and the 70-200 mm 2.8 canon lens. these openings are usually quite the show.

thanks for your comments,

bruce

[Alan Sloka]

Thanks for the great pics

Very nice pics! There was a show on the other night about the herring fishery.

[ak_powder_monkey]

Missed it by a week (dang) Any sport fishing going on over there yet? Nice Pics!

[olga1913]

Sitka

ak powder,

Thanks for the comment on the herring pictures. I had fun taking them. It was nice to get out of a cork boat and up into a tender with a better vantage for photos.

Sport fishing (and everything else) is off to a slow start here this year. There are a few dollies showing up for the fry in some of the larger rivers. The trollers say the winter kings were few. Just today we had our first major herring spawn on the road system. Very late. The local lakes still have ice and are hiding their trout.

Subsistence wise I will wait for some of the natural feed to clear out before putting down a skate.

Commercial wise, the charter fleet will return from afar and grace us with their presence and their wakes very soon I’m sure.

[ak_powder_monkey]

well shoot maybe I'll have to sport fish for herring... If you happen to see someone fly fishing friday or sunday its probably me