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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: June 27, 2021

Brian Venua

There were several more openers around the bay yesterday. There was a big surge up the Wood River, which saw almost 100,000 more fish than on Friday. The daily catch passed one million for the first time this season, showing a stronger start than 2020.

Yesterday, Bristol Bay's total run was 4.76 million. And the daily catch hit just over 1 million for the first time this season. The total catch so far is at 2.4 million. Saturday’s escapement was 619,917 bringing the total to 2.3 million. 

One year ago, Bristol Bays total run was at 1.6 million, the total catch neared a million and total escapement was around 679,000.

Nushagak District

As of 10 a.m. Sunday morning, the total run in the Nushagak District is 3.2 million.

The Nushagak fleet in the Nushagak harvested 690,000 fish yesterday, bringing the total catch for the season to 1.63 million. 

Escapement for the entire district continues strong, 544,400 fish swam up the river yesterday, totaling 1.84 million so far this year. 

Nushagak River

The Nushagak River sonar counted about 2,368 kings yesterday. That brings the total king escapement to 17,051; 301,000 sockeye swam up the river bringing the season total to 1.3 million. Yesterday’s chum count came to about 9,768, for a total of 35,494. 

Wood River

The Wood River tower counted saw a large increase on Saturday with 242,832 fish, and another 75,000 by 6 a.m. this morning. This brings the Wood River escapement total to 786,792.

Igushik River

The Igushik River tower started counting yesterday morning. It counted 390 fish, and another 1,494 this morning by 6 a.m. The two-day total is 1,884. 

Ugashik

Ugashik didn’t have an opener yesterday; the total harvest remains the same at 105,337.

Egegik

Yesterday the fleet caught 343,000 fish, bringing the season total catch to 914,194. 

About 55,000 escaped up the river, bringing total escapement to 435,684 fish. 

Total run in the Egegik District is 1.35 million. 

Naknek/Kvichak

Escapement in the Naknek-Kvichak District came to about 20,352 bringing the total 31,656. The Kvichak River saw 56 fish. The fleet harvested 38,000, bringing the total 44,606.  

This season’s total run in the Naknek-Kvichak District is 96,262.

Togiak

There are no new numbers from Togiak.

Chignik 

Yesterday the Chignik River saw a bigger push of sockeye with 21,270 swimming through the weir. The early season run in the Chignik River is now slightly over 101,567. 

Area M

The South Alaska Peninsula commercial salmon fishery is open through Monday at 10 p.m.

Yesterday, fleets in Area M harvested 237,710, bringing the season total to 6.9 million. Area M is still the largest harvest in Bristol Bay so far. 

On Saturday, about 200  kings were caught, bringing the total to 2,611. Sockeye harvest was about 115,460, the total remains around 2.99 million. A single coho was caught yesterday, the total remains around 2,587. Pink harvests came in a little lower with about 89,426, that total is just above 3.1 million. Lastly, chum catches were 32,617 with a total of 726,852.

Port Moller Test Fishery 

In an update from Scott Raborn, Port Moller scientist, catches at the Port Moller Test Fishery are declining for the inner stations, but increasing for the outer stations. Researchers are working to make sense of these results: a decline suggests migration is decreasing at Port Moller, while increasing catches at the out stations indicates migration continues to build. 

Raborn believes keeping to the data from the full transect helps create the true migration rate, which indicates a later and larger run than what the inner stations suggest. Station 2 had an unusually large index yesterday, which Raborn notes is an anomaly for this season. 

  

Stock Composition 

As noted in the Fish Report yesterday, June 25 genetic samples from the research vessels are heading to shore, and will arrive to Port Moller this evening. They expect the next stock composition #5 to be available tomorrow evening, June 28.

Station 2 caught 27 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 1 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 70. 

Station 4 caught 2 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 4.

Station 6 caught 10 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 3 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 27. 

Station 8 caught 9 fish in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 0 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 23.

Station 10 caught 39  in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 7 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 106.  
 
Station 12 caught 47 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 34 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 168. 

Station 14  caught 13 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 0 in the 5 1/8. It had a catch index of 31.

Station 16 caught 69 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 0 in the 5 1/8. It had a catch index of 148.

Station 18 caught 46 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 63 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 242.

Station 20 and 22 caught zero fish.

Harvest allocation by gear

In the Ugashik District, 93.5% of the cumulative harvest has been caught by drift boats, while 6.5% has gone to the set net fleet.

In Egegik, set netters caught 25.4% so far, and drift boats caught 74.6%. 

Over in the Naknek-Kvichak District, the Naknek drift fleet has caught 62.6% of the total harvest so far, Naknek set netters took about 27.2% and 10.1% of fish were caught by Kvichak set netters

In the Nushagak, Igushik set netters have harvested 4%, Nushagak drift fleet remained steady at 83%, and Nushagak set neeters harvested 13% . 

Vessel Registration Sunday June 27 at 9:00 a.m. to Tuesday June 29 at 9:00 a.m.

Vessel registrations continue to be the highest in the Nushagak District.

As of 9 a.m. this morning, there are 1,175 boats registered in the bay, 360 of which are D-boats. There will be a slight increase again on Tuesday with 1,203 boats, 371 of which will be D-boats.

In the Nushagak, there are 630 registered boats, and 225 of those are D-boats. On Tuesday, that will increase to 634 boats, 226 of which will be D-boats. 

Vessel registrations in Egegik continue to climb slightly: 322 boats are fishing there, 95 of those are D-boats. On Tuesday morning, there will be a slight increase to 324 boats and 95 D-boats.

Naknek-Kvichak boat registrations climbed over 100 -- the total is at 151, 17 of which are D-boats. On Tuesday, that will increase to 165 vessels. The number of D-boats will climb to 25.

Ugashik added a few boats bringing the total to 46 boats registered in its fleet, 23 of which are D-boats. On Tuesday the district will add a few coming to 54 with 25 D-boats. 

Finally, in Togiak, vessel registrations remain at 26 boats — that will stay the same through Tuesday. 

Contact the fish team at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.