Kodiak Sac Roe Herring Fishery Underway

Jay Barrett/KMXT
One section has already closed in the Kodiak area sac roe herring season that opened Tuesday. In an announcement, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed the Outer Kiliuda Bay Section of the Eastside District yesterday at 11:10 a.m., for the remainder of the season.
The fishery kicked off at noon on Tuesday for both gillnet and purse seine fishermen.
Unlike more well-known fisheries such as Sitka Sound and Togiak Bay, the Kodiak area has several dozen bays, each with their own guideline harvest level and gear type restrictions. Some sections are open until further notice, others are on nine- and three-hour alternating schedules, and a couple haven’t even opened yet.
Test fishing began in the combined Village Islands/Uganik Bay sections and the Danger Bay section on Tuesday, and Fish and Game says they will be opened by emergency order from the management biologist on the grounds when test fishing detects fishable amounts of good quality herring, meaning their size and roe percentage. Those fisheries may be extremely short in duration for seine gear – perhaps as little as 10 minutes.
Here’s the link to the latest herring announcement from Fish and Game to help you sort it all out.