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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 6, 2021

Stephanie Maltarich

We’re seeing jumpers in the Kvichak — in the numbers, that is. An estimated 700,000 fish swim upriver. In the Nushagak District, daily catch has topped 1 million fish in five of the last six days, starting with last week’s back-to-back record-breaking hauls. The district’s total run passed its 15-million-fish forecast.

A busy day in the Naknek-Kvichak District 

Fish have hit the Naknek-Kvichak District. The Naknek met its escapement goal yesterday, and a lot of fish are swimming up the Kvichak, and that means fishermen there can look forward to more opportunities to fish. 

Management biologist Travis Elison flew a survey today to confirm the estimated 700,000 fish swimming upriver. Those fish will bump the Kvichak’s escapement to around 1.5 million -- he says that indicates the run will come in well above its minimum goal of 2 million fish.

We still don’t have a clear picture of what the tail-end of the run will look like. 

“Right now we’re just kind of seeing the bulk of the fish hit the district and start to get counted at the tower. Hard to say what the end will be but right now escapement is looking really good,” said Elison.

Elison says the drift fleet can expect more consistent opportunities to fish this week. 

“Probably every second or third tide we’ll be able to fish over there. Typically we don’t fish every tide in a row because it takes a while for the fish to get through there and we don’t want to clean them out.” 

The Naknek has passed its lower-end escapement goal of 800,000, which means the fleet will still be able to fish there even if the Kvichak slows down. 

Elison said the timing of this push falls in line with what he has seen in the past several years -- the run has ramped up over the past week. 

“Now, here we are on the sixth of July, and we’re seeing the best fishing we’ve seen all season. Everyone’s catches I think will be much improved today than they were all season,” Elison Said.

“This should be the start of the run where we’ve got Kvichak coming in strong, Alagnak’s looking really strong right now, so I expect some pretty good fishing over the next week for everyone here.”

Managers will try to allow drifters more opportunity in the coming days; weeks of southeast wind pushed the fish to the deeper water, but he thinks that today’s winds from the southwest will improve fishing conditions for the fleet. 

East Side reporter Mackenzie Mancuso spoke with Travis Holstrom, an operator at the Port of Bristol Bay in Naknek.  Izzy Ross talked to Mackenzie about the activity over at the port. 

Credit Mackenzie Mancuso
Scenes from the East Side Port

That was Office Assistant and Checker Teya Olsen, Operator Travis Holstrom, and Stevedore Austin Elison, talking about their work as the run starts to ramp up. 

For more, Izzy Ross talked to Mackenzie about the activity over at the port.

21bbfr_7.6_mackenzie_2-way.mp3

Credit Mackenzie Mancuso

Sleep deprivation in the fishing industry

When people think of the fishing industry, they might have dreams of big catches, blue waters, and adventure — but people who actually fish know that there’s not a lot of dreaming during the season. Sleep deprivation is an unofficial staple of commercial fishing, but there isn’t a lot of research on how the lack of sleep affects fishermen — and their safety. Izzy Ross talked to KDLL’s Sabine Poux about a new study aimed at changing awareness about sleep.

21bbfr_7.6_sleep_2_way.mp3

Messages to the fleet

To Luke, from Jessica in Georgia:

21bbfr_7.6_message_to_the_fleet.mp3

To: Jeff Mariska

Jeff, we love you and miss you tons. We are waiting for your return home in Chile -- Gabi & Robin

To: F/V Northern Flyer

We hope the crew is doing well and you have a safe and successful season. Ashley and Little River love and miss Dada Justin and can’t wait to see him.

The Numbers

The baywide run is nearing 26 million sockeye, which is a bit over halfway to the season estimate of 50 million. Over 1.2 million fish escaped yesterday, for a total of just under 9.3 million. Daily catch was a bit over 2.1 million, for a total harvest of 15.8 million fish so far this season.

Nushagak District

The Nushagak District’s harvest is blowing everyone else out of the water -- the fleet has hauled in over a million fish in five out of the last six days. The Nushagak District hauled in 1.48 million sockeye yesterday bringing the season total to 9.8 million. 

Yesterday’s escapement dropped to 326,036 bringing the season total to over 6 million. 

The total harvest is at 9.8 million fish. The drift fleet in the district has harvested 83% of the season’s cumulative catch, while Nushagak set netters have caught 11% and Igushik set netters hauled in around 2%. 

The Nushagak District passed the 2021 season projection of 15 million.

Nushagak River

In the Nushagak River, sockeye escapement is continuing a downward trend - only 104,882 fish escaped yesterday. The season total is now about 3.2 million.

The Chinook yesterday was par for the season - 1,863 swam through, and the total is 38,646.

The chum run fluctuated again; only 1,057 fish passed the counting tower, bringing that species’ total escapement to nearly 64,814.

Wood River

Escapement up the Wood River seems to be dropping, only 154,794 fish passed, with another 23,874 this morning. The Wood River total escapement is now about 2.45 million. 

Igushik River

The Igushik River is now over the mid-range goal for escapement. 66,360 fish swam up yesterday, and another 9,210 swam up as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total to 293,952. 

Togiak

Togiak didn’t fish yesterday, leaving that season total at about 29,000.

The counting crew in Togiak is now reporting escapement. Yesterday, 4,830 fish escaped with another 1,182 as of 6 a.m. this morning. The total escapement for the Togiak River so far is 6,012.

Naknek-Kvichak 

Harvest in the Naknek-Kvichak District had a boost yesterday with 283,000 fish. The total harvest there is now at 1.6 million salmon.

Of that cumulative harvest, the district’s drift fleet caught about 56%, Naknek set netters harvested around 21%, and Kvichak set netters caught the remaining 23%.

Total escapement yesterday saw a major jump with 842,250 fish swimming upriver bringing that total to just under 2.3 million. 

Naknek River

The Naknek River saw a large drop in escapement – just 35,292 fish escaped. But it did pass its lower-end escapement goal of 800,000; The Naknek’s total escapement is now 815,424 salmon.

Kvichak River

The Kvichak River was the big winner yesterday with a huge increase in escapement. Nearly 460,000 fish escaped, more than doubling their season total to 876,306. The in-river estimate for the Kvichak River is now 700,000 fish. 

Alagnak River

The Alagnak River also doubled its season’s escapement so far with 347,634 fish escaping, bringing that river’s total to over 604,926. 

Egegik      

Egegik district had a much smaller push of fish yesterday. Harvest dropped quite a bit -- 253,000 fish were caught yesterday, bringing the total catch to 3.6 million. 

The drift fleet has harvested around 83% of the season’s total harvest, while set netters have hauled in 17%.

68,730 fish swam up the river bringing Egegik’s total escapement to 933,096. The in-river estimate is now about 100,000 fish. 

The total run for the Egegik District is slightly above 4.6 million.  

Ugashik

Ugashik fishermen were out and about yesterday -- 126,000 salmon were harvested, bringing the season total so far to 669,267. 

The drift fleet there has brought in 95% of the season harvest with set netters bringing in the other 5%. 

Only 3,024 salmon passed the counting tower there, bringing the season total to 33,138. The current in-river estimate for Ugashik is 10,000 fish.

The total run for Ugashik is 712,405.

Chignik Weir Counts 

Escapement increased somewhat yesterday on the Chignik River. About 6,761 sockeye fish passed through the weir, and as of 9 a.m. this morning, 510 more swam by. This brings total sockeye escapement for the season to 208,774. Six more Chinook swam by the weir bringing Chinook season escapement to 49. 

The early season run is around 192,770 sockeye, and the late run is around 16,000.  

Area M 

Some sections of Area M were open to fishing yesterday. 

Seven Chinook were caught bringing the season total to 3,115. Sockeye harvest came to 118,000, bringing the total harvest to over 4 million. The fleet did not catch Coho yesterday, so that season total remains at 2,593. Zero pink were caught, and that total remains at 3.25 million. The chum harvest is 801,963.

The total Area M harvest is now around 8 million. 

Port Moller Test Fishery

Yesterday waters were rough around Port Moller, so only one vessel was able to fish stations 14-20 before heading for cover. The second vessel made an attempt to fish stations 8-18. If the weather cooperates, the team will have those catch indices tomorrow. 

Port Moller scientist Scott Raborn noted that while daily catches stayed the same on Sunday, results are not certain since they do not cover the entire transect. Raborn believes catch and escapement will hold steady or increase today before declining July 8 and 9. 

The next Stock Composition status for July 2-3 will arrive at Port Moller tonight, and will fly to Anchorage tomorrow. 

Catch indices for stations 14-20.

Station 14 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 3 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 7. 

Station 16 caught 0 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 3 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 10. 

Station 18 caught 10 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 15 in the 5 1/8. It had a catch index of 75

Station 20 caught 0 fish.  

Vessel registration Tuesday July 6 9:00 a.m. to Thursday July 8 9:00 a.m.

There are currently 1,307 boats registered in the bay, 395 of those are D-Boats. By Thursday morning the bay will see a small increase bringing the total number to 1,330 with 400 D-boats. 

Nushagak District remains steady with 556 boats registered in the district, 179 of which are D-boats. That number will decrease by Thursday bringing total vessels to 555, 178 of those will be D-boats.     

Over in Egegik, 292 boats are registered, 90 of which are D-boats. Those numbers will remain the same through Thursday.

Registrations in the Naknek-Kvichak District rose slightly with 326 registrations -- 76 of those are D-boats. On Thursday, the district will see a slight increase to 343 boats, 80 of which are D-boats.

Registrations in Ugashik climbed slightly with 102 boats registered, and 50 of those are D-boats. The district will see another slight increase on Thursday, with 109 vessels, 52 of which are D-boats.

There are 31 boats registered in Togiak. That fleet will stay the same on Thursday. 

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