The commercial sockeye catch in Bristol Bay has topped 5-million fish. On Tuesday commercial fishermen across Bristol Bay hauled in over 989-thousand sockeye.
The district leading the way is the Egegik District where fishermen hauled in 217-thousand sockeye on Tuesday. The District total is 1.8-million fish. Next up is the Ugashik District where fishermen hauled in 340-thousand sockeye on Tuesday to push the District total to 1.3-million. Fishermen in the Naknek-Kvichak District hauled in 225-thousand sockeye on Tuesday to push the District total to 1.1-million. The commercial catch in the Nushagak District on Tuesday was 207.8-thousand sockeye to push the District total to 683.8-thousand. Fish and Game is not yet reporting the catch in the Togiak District. The Department reports that on average there were 1,222 sockeye per drift delivery on Tuesday in the Ugashik District. The number was 673 in the Egegik District and 501 in the Naknek-Kvichak District. In the Nushagak District there were on average 460-sockeye per drift delivery and the number in the Togiak District was 63. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that as of 9-am Wednesday morning there were 1,584 drift permits registered to fish in Bristol Bay. That’s expected to increase up to 16-hundred permits in 48-hours. Currently there are 1,295 drift vessels registered to fish in the Bay and that’s expected to increase up to 1,310 drift vessels in 48-hours. At last report there were 289 D-boats registered to fish in Bristol Bay. The counting towers on the Ugashik River are expected to be up and counting on Thursday so there is no official escapement recorded to the Ugashik River. However, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is estimating that there are 90-thousand sockeye in the Ugashik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Sockeye escapement to the Egegik River was counted at 44.5-thousand fish on Tuesday to push the season total to 402.5-thousand. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 15-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Tuesday’s escapement to the Kvichak River was counted at 54.6-thousand fish to push the total to 122.6-thousand. Fish and Game estimates that there are another 40-thousand sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Naknek River escapement was counted at 10.4-thousand fish to push the season total to 157-thousand. In the Nushagak District sockeye escapement continues to be strong. 57.2-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Wood River on Tuesday to push the total to 656.8-thousand fish. Escapement to the Nushagak River was counted at 53.8-thousand fish to push the season total to 601.3-thousand. So far the Nushagak River is the only river in Bristol Bay that has reached its escapement goal. Sockeye escapement to the Igushik River was counted at 34.4-thousand sockeye on Tuesday to push the season total to 86.3-thousand. Fish and Game has not yet started counting escapement to the Togiak River. That counting project is expected to be up and running in early July. The daily run summaries are being posted at the Fish and Game offices in Dillingham and King Salmon and they can be found online on the ADF&G Bristol Bay website.