Today marks the opening of the Pacific cod pot gear season in state-managed waters off Kodiak. This year’s harvest, for both pot vessels and jig vessels, is 5.6 million pounds. Half of that, 2.83 million pounds, is allocated for pots. The season for fishermen who use jig gear started at the beginning of the year on Jan. 1.
As of Thursday morning, Feb. 13, only eight boats were registered with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to begin fishing at noon for the opener on Feb. 14.
Nat Nichols, an area management biologist for shellfish and groundfish with ADF&G in Kodiak, said despite almost half as many boats registered compared to last year, he expects fishing to be pretty strong.
“I’m also hearing that fishing seems average or better than average," Nichols said. "And average would be the last couple years we’ve had some pretty slow seasons. So things seem to be at least heading in the right direction, based on fishing performance.”
Nichols points out that vessels greater than 58 feet in length can only catch a quarter of the total harvest, roughly 1.4 million pounds. So with five of the eight boats currently registered being bigger boats, he may have to close fishing to them earlier on in the season once they reach their allocation.
Catch rates seem to be very good right now based on the department’s data which shows jig fishermen caught 191,410 pounds from Feb. 2 – Feb. 8. That’s more than eight times what fishers caught during the same time period last year, when they caught 22,133 pounds.
There have also been reports from fishermen to ADF&G, and from the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, that there is an abundance of cod on the fishing grounds that hasn’t been seen in several years.
Still this year’s guideline harvest level is similar to last year’s. Nichols said this highlights the importance of the upcoming summer trawl survey which National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s [NOAA] Fisheries typically conducts every other year. He said the federal survey helps the department set the harvest level.
“So if the quota is going to change, it’s going to change in a survey year like this. For everyone’s sake of course I hope the quota goes up a little," Nichols stated. "We’ve got indications of strong fishing; fishery performance seems to be good. So I hope the survey gets out there and finds the same thing, finds cod and that the quotas go up. That would be my hope for everyone.”
This Pacific cod pot gear season is expected to last for about a month but the jig fishery will likely take longer to reach its full harvest. Nichols said the jig fleet has caught its full allocation the last two years now, but prior to that, it hadn’t since 2012.
