Public Radio for Alaska's Bristol Bay
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 5, 2017

Nick Ciolino / KDLG

Bristol Bay processors buckle under back to back huge harvests, just as the Naknek-Kvichak finally gets going. Another 2.6 million on the books July 4, pushing the season total harvest to 12.2 million. Still more than half way to go, if the preseason forecast holds. Genetics from PMTF July 2-3 catches show a bump to Naknek-Kvichak, and after a huge days of catches there Tuesday, the nets were a little sparse today. The beginning of the end?

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.)

Bristol Bay celebrated 4th of July by harvesting 2.6 million sockeye salmon, an impressive haul on the backside of a 3 million sockeye day. Yes, nearly every big buyer in the Bay is struggling to keep up, but those are uniquely large numbers of fish. The last time Bristol Bay did a 3 million harvest was July 2, 1999, and apparently there have only been eight occurrences since 1980. Bristol Bay's 2017 total run just shot to 19 million, and there are an estimated 21 million still coming.  Tonight, Travis Ellison breaks down the welcomed uptick on the eastside, where the Naknek climbed inside its escapement goal range and the Kvichak is suddenly on track, too. KDLG's Nick Ciolino tracks down the captain and crew of the Bunchie, to hear their frightful night aboard a deckloaded sinking Rawson. Plus, AWT's Sgt. Scott Quist talks over charges filed against the Cape Grieg and some Ugashik set netters who were allegedly playing fast and loose with delivery procedures in 2016.

Credit Sarah Grace Durrance

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 Nick Ciolino / KDLG
The Bunchie made it into the harbor Wednesday, after it was beached at Ekuk Monday. The 1979 Rawson started taking on water after it deckloaded fish on the Nushagak's biggest day ever.