A Petersburg based tender turned in the salmon to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The fish came from a gillnetter in lower Sumner Strait. More...
The first Atlantic salmon caught this year in the Petersburg-Wrangell area was reported last week.
A Petersburg based tender turned in the salmon to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The fish came from a gillnetter in lower Sumner Strait.
Atlantic salmon are not native to Alaska but are farmed for meat in offshore net pens in the waters off British Columbia. Sometimes fish escape into the wild where they compete with wild salmon for food. Fish and Game Port sampling supervisor, Jeff Rice, says the most recent one caught should not be a cause for alarm.
“One atlantic salmon is pretty common in a given year. A couple years ago, we saw three of four after a big escape from the net fisheries, no net pens down in Canada.”
Rice says escapees are rarely caught. And so far, when they have been caught, their skin appears battered as opposed to silver. The color indicates that the fish only recently left their pens, as opposed to fish that might have been in the wild, actively competing with native salmon for food.
Fish and Game's invasive species program project leader Tammy Davis could not be reached for comment. The number of Atlantic salmon caught in the region is substantially down from the near 100 brought in yearly during the 1990s. From 2005 to present, one to three fish are reported caught annually, with the exception of 2008, when an escape in British Columbia led to 40 atlantic salmon were confirmed caught in Southeast waters.
