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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 10, 2017

Nick Ciolino / KDLG

It's deja vu (all over again) as the fleet rakes in another 2 million fish for their struggling buyers to process. The transfer times to Egegik and Nushagak are waived, and Ugashik and Naknek-Kvichak are only halfway to their forecast size. Port Moller shows a little bump ... how big a tail does this run have?

Our 2017 Fund Drive is underway. This show, dedicated to this fishery and its fishermen, needs your support! While you're listening to the program, consider making a contribution under the Donate tab at the top of our website.

This year's Bristol Bay sockeye run will be one for the books, in good ways and bad. The Nushagak is poised to break its all time size record tomorrow, and some of its drift fleet have recorded sets and days that are hard to believe. Meanwhile, even the Bay's titan companies have buckled under day after day of this much catch, many of them crippled by a primarily American labor force not rising to the challenge. Will the added harvest and all of the deckloads push down this year's price? Port Moller has more fish, is this run going to go to 50 million by the time all is said and done? Tonight, ADF&G's Travis Ellison talks about the Kvichak, which appears to be chock full of fish. KDLG's Caitlin Tan checks in with the fishing at Pederson Point, and KDLG's Jesse Rabinowitz travels to Ekuk to hear about what is, for many, their best season ever. Support this program with a donation to listener-supported KDLG and make sure we're back here in 2018!

Credit Caitlin Tan / KDLG
Reeling in the boat Monday at Pederson Point in Naknek.

Catch this program nightly at 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. on AM 670, and online at KDLG.org. (With early broadcasts Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)

Letters from home to your friends and family in the Bay this summer? Email us at fish@kdlg.org or dave@kdlg.org, or call 907-842-5281. 

Have feedback, suggestions of something you'd like to hear? ReachAveryLill / Nick Ciolino /Allison Mollenkamp / or Caitlin Tan (in Naknek)

Credit Jesse Rabinowitz / KDLG
Salmon into the icy brine at Ekuk Sunday.