USA: Huge harvest guidelines but few buyers for Alaska’s herring fishery

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has posted a harvest guideline for the 2024 Sitka herring season of 81,246 tons, or approximately 162.5 million pounds.“[The forecast] is greater than any prior forecast or estimate of spawning biomass for Sitka Sound herring,” ADF&G said in a 22 December advisory announcement.But with few interested buyers, the fishery, which opens in late March or early April, is not attracting much commercial interest.There are three herring fisheries in Alaska – Sitka; Togiak, which is in Bristol Bay; and Kodiak – all of which have experienced historically large runs in recent years. The forecast for the 2024 Togiak fishery is 216,037 tons, the fifth-highest since 1993. The 2024 Kodiak season forecast has not yet been released.In 2022, the herring fishery was valued at USD 12.7 million (EUR 11.6 million), the highest value total since 2013 but down from previous years, during which the fishery regularly brought in between USD 20 million and USD 25 ...