Personal use and sport shrimp pot fisheries in Kasaan Bay and Skowl Arm will close from 12:01 a.m., Saturday, July 5, through Wednesday, December 31, 2025. The closed waters include all waters of Kasaan Bay and Skowl Arm west of the longitude of Kasaan Point at 132°16.87′ W long. (Map Below).

This personal use and sport closure is being implemented due to significant decreases in abundance from both department pot shrimp survey catch per unit effort (CPUE) and commercial shrimp pot fishery CPUE data in Kasaan Bay and Skowl Arm.

Historically, Kasaan Bay and Skowl Arm were closed to the commercial harvest of spot shrimp during the 2015–17 commercial shrimp pot seasons. It reopened for the 2018/19 season with minimal effort and then during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons, Kasaan Bay set new historical high commercial CPUE before dropping sharply in the 2021/22 season. More recently, the commercial shrimp pot fishery was closed after being open for only two days during the 2024/25 commercial shrimp pot fishery and remained closed for the 2025/26 commercial shrimp pot fishery.

The Kasaan Bay spot shrimp stock has been surveyed by the department annually since 2011. There were steady declines in survey CPUE from 2020 through 2022, then department survey data from fall 2023 indicated another sharp decline in survey CPUE, as well as a reduction in all size classes of shrimp and extremely poor recruitment of small class sizes, indicating poor abundance of recruits and pre-recruits. For the 2024/25 season, continued poor stock health indications from department surveys combined with poor commercial fishery performance data the previous two seasons have led to the commercial fishery closure with the added personal use and sport closure.

The intention of this closure is to allow the spot shrimp abundance in Kasaan Bay and Skowl Arm to rebuild to levels that allow sustainable harvest for all user groups. This closure will remain in effect through 2025 and will be evaluated after the departments fall survey.

The Division of Commercial Fisheries Emergency Order corresponding to this announcement is EO 1C2425.

The Division of Sport Fish Emergency Order corresponding to this announcement is 1-SHR-B-20-25.

Adisory Announcement for Commercial Fisheries.

Office	Ketchikan	Petersburg	Wrangell	Sitka	Juneau	Haines	Yakutat
ADFG	225-5195	772-3801	-	747-6688	465-4250	766-2830	784-3255
AWT	225-5111	772-3983	874-3215	747-3254	465-4000	766-2533	784-3220

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