The overall guideline harvest level is over one point two million pounds and the regionwide harvest has already topped that mark, nearing one point three million. Sea cucumber (Photo courtesy of Matt Lichtenstein) The biggest catch totals this year were in Revilla Channel near Ketchikan, Cholmondeley Sound on Prince of Wales Island, along with northern Clarence Strait and Chatham Strait. In 19 other areas, the fleet has neared or surpassed guideline harvest levels. We haven’t fished in December for a while but as I said we’re just mopping up the quota here next week.”īy late November little remained to harvest for cucumbers, with just two areas still open to fishing. It might have gone a little longer this year by a couple weeks, especially if we fish until December. “It’s pretty easy to manage from the Fish and Game department’s point of view. “There’s a trip limit of 2000 pounds per diver in this fishery,” Doherty said. He thought this year’s sea cucumber fishery has gone well. Phil Doherty is executive director of the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association, an industry group based in Ketchikan. Diving started in early October for both. The season for sea cucumbers is wrapping up while fishing for geoduck clams is expected to continue this winter.īoth sea cucumbers, slow moving creatures shaped like their vegetable name sake, and geoducks, large clams, are plucked from the ocean floor by divers and sold to Asian markets. The commercial fisheries for two sea floor-dwelling delicacies of Southeast Alaska started in October.

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