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Another 175-Thousand Sockeye Added to the Bristol Bay Total on Saturday

Mike Mason

A good portion of the catching power in Bristol Bay is gone as many fishermen are calling it a season. It looks like much of the fleet in the Nushagak District has called it quits as the boat-yards in Dillingham are filling up. The same is being seen in the other boat-yards in Naknek and King Salmon. While the season is winding down there are still some sockeye being harvested. On Saturday the Bay-wide harvest was 175-thousand fish. The harvest in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 70-thousand to push the season total to over 4.8-million. Saturday’s catch in the Egegik District was 42-thousand sockeye to push the total to over 4.7-million. In the Nushagak District the catch on Saturday was just 16-thousand sockeye to push the total to above 3.1-million. Down in the Ugashik District the harvest on Saturday was 32-thousand to push the total to over 2.1-million. The harvest Saturday in the Togiak District was 15-thousand sockeye to push the total to above 257-thousand fish. Through Saturday the total harvest in Bristol Bay is 15.1-million. That’s well over a million fish short of the commercial harvest anticipated in the pre-season forecast. Fishing time has been liberalized across all 4 of the major effort Districts and the Togiak District is still on the weekly schedule. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on average there were 121-sockeye per drift delivery Saturday in the Nushagak District and the number was 125 in the Togiak District. The average delivery number in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 102 and it was 147 in the Egegik District. The average delivery number in the Ugashik District was 207. All of the counted rivers in Bristol Bay have met or exceeded their escapement goals except for the Togiak River, which usually features a later run. Through Saturday the total to the Togiak River was 41.1-thousand and the escapement goal is 150-thousand sockeye. 2 of the counted rivers in the Nushagak District are over the upper end of the escapement goals. The Igushik River is over the goal by over 62-thousand fish and the Nushagak River is about 42-thousand fish over the goal. Escapement to the Kvichak River is just over 2-million, which matches the adjusted escapement goal for the Kvichak based on a new run estimate. The Egegik and Wood Rivers are right at their mid-points and the Ugashik River is coming on strong with another 107.6-thousand fish counted Saturday to push the season total to over 649.7-thousand. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 150-thousand sockeye that have not yet been counted as escapement. Through Saturday the total run to Bristol Bay has been counted at over 22.5-million sockeye. That just shy of 4-million fish short of the pre-season forecast.