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The Nushagak River has Achieved the Sockeye Escapement Goal

Mike Mason

Monday was another big day for sockeye escapement to the Wood and Nushagak Rivers as both rivers have either met or exceeded their escapement goals. The upper end of the escapement goal for the Wood River is 1.5-million sockeye and Monday’s escapement of 158.5-thousand fish put the season total at over 1.7-million. That means that the Wood River is officially over-escaping. Monday’s sockeye escapement to the Nushagak River was counted at 28.7-thousand fish to push the season total to 372.3-thousand. That means that the Nushagak River has officially met the escapement goal, which is between 370-thousand to 840-thousand sockeye. The other sockeye enumeration project up and running in the Nushagak District area is on the Igushik River, which has an escapement goal of 150-thousand to 300-thousand sockeye. Over 20.6-thousand fish were counted Monday to push the season total up to 65.8-thousand. The Nushagak District features the largest king salmon run in Bristol Bay and another 2.2-thousand kings were counted as escapement to the Nushagak River on Monday to push the season total up to 51.3-thousand kings. The in-river escapement goal for Nushagak River kings is between 50-thousand to 120-thousand fish but Fish and Game has a management priority to get 95-thousand kings counted as escapement.