Ryan Berkoski

The crashing waves of Bristol Bay are affecting much more than the fishing vessels out on the water. Western Alaska is facing some extremely drastic shoreline erosion, and in some areas it appears to be accelerating. KDLG’s Ryan Berkoski dug into why.

It’s our final show of the season, but the run isn’t done quite yet. Though counting crews are starting to wrap up, the baywide escapement was 50,000 sockeye yesterday. Fewer fish are being hauled in, leaving the total catch about 2.8 million below the preseason forecast. The Eastside districts all surpassed their forecasts, while the Nushagak and Togiak fell a bit behind.

Numbers across the bay continue to decrease as yesterday’s run was just over 100,000 fish. Catch numbers are especially coming to a halt, as the total, bay-wide harvest is still short of its forecast by about 3 million.

The season is winding down with a baywide run of 150,000 fish yesterday. Egegik held the largest catch, while the Nushagak district recorded the biggest escapement. Many crews are starting to head towards the boatyard to break down their operations from the season, and enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Yesterday’s baywide catch number was almost twice than it was the day before, while escapement remained the same. And of all the rivers, the Igushik tower crews counted the most sockeye swimming through. Also, the total sockeye count in the Chignik Weir surpassed half a million after a large push yesterday.

The bay-wide run has surpassed the Bristol Bay inshore run forecast, reaching over 44.1 million, and is still climbing. That said, catch and escapement dropped off over the weekend, with the largest haul coming in from the Naknek-Kvichak district at just under 40,000 sockeye.

The largest catch came in from Egegik yesterday, while the Alagnak held the largest escapement of all the rivers. The total run is creeping up to its forecast, and vessel registration data is no longer available.

Yesterday, Eastside catch counts were all in the hundreds of thousands, and the Ugashik river held the largest escapement. Also the Chignik weir noted a larger late run.

The Naknek-Kvichak had a greater catch & escapement than all other districts combined yesterday, and the Kvichak River has almost surpassed the Nushagak River in total escapement, with almost 3 million spawners making their way upstream. Overall, bay-wide catch and escapement numbers are starting to slow down.

Smaller numbers today as the tail of the run makes its way to the bay. However, both Egegik and Naknek-Kvichak surpassed 10 million in their total run. The strongest escapement yesterday swam through the Kvichak river, as the majority of fish continue to flood that district.