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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: June 24, 2019

Courtesy of Maggie Carr

The winner of the 2019 Neqa Derby comes to the studio to talk about the competition. The Naknek-Kvichak had its first active management opener today. And things are slowly picking up steam in the Nushagak River.

On this evening's show, we catch up with Maggie Carr, who won the second annual Neqa Derby, which took place over the weekend.

 

 
We also check in with a couple Nushagak drifters, and hear what people were thinking as they prepared for the season in the Dillingham boat harbor. 

Harvest in the Nushagak District was 475,000 sockeye yesterday for a cumulative of 1.2 million. That’s out of a preseason forecast of 8 million.

16,000 sockeye escaped past the Nushagak River Sonar yesterday for a season total of 132,800. 2,200 Chinook escaped, for a total of 26,200. And chum escapement yesterday was 13,600. The total is 73,600. 

The Wood River tower counted 11,500 fish as of 6 a.m. this morning. Yesterday’s escapement was 43,200 for a total of 278,200. 

And the Igushik tower started counting at 8 a.m. this morning, so we should have those numbers tomorrow. 

There is a drift opener in the Nushagak District from 8:30 p.m.

tonight until 3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, and again from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

In Egegik, yesterday’s harvest was 148,000, bringing the cumulative harvest to 371,000 fish. Escapement was 10,000 and the cumulative escapement is now 60,000.

A 5-hour drift opener in the Egegik District began just a few minutes ago, at 6:00 p.m. It runs until 11:00 p.m. tonight. Both drift and set netters can fish for 8 hours, from 5:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Tuesday.

In Ugashik, the inriver test fishery project is operational and detecting very low levels of passage into the Ugashik River.

 

According to Fish and Game, the rate of passage into the Ugashik River is too low to justify a commercial fishing opportunity tomorrow. The department says it is monitoring the situation closely and will advise the fleet at noon tomorrow.

Escapement in the Naknek River yesterday was 50,300 for a cumulative of 56,000. The Kvichak inriver estimate is 25,000.

The Naknek-Kvichak District extended the set net opener that began this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. It now closes tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.

That district will open to drifters for a 7 and a half - hour period. It starts tonight at 6:30 p.m. and ends tomorrow at 2:00 a.m. The next opener will last for 9 hours, from 6:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.

 

Credit Courtesy of Maggie Carr

Catch this program nightly live at 6 p.m., with replays at 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on AM 670, and online at KDLG.org. (With early broadcasts of the numbers Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)

Letters from home to your friends and family in the Bay this summer? Email us at fish@kdlg.org or call 907-842-5281.

Have feedback or suggestions of something you'd like to hear? Reach Izzy Ross / Tyler Thompson / Alex Hager / Sage Smiley (in Naknek)

Contact the author at isabelle@kdlg.org 907-842-2200.

Izzy Ross is the news director at KDLG, the NPR member station in Dillingham. She reports, edits, and hosts stories from around the Bristol Bay region, and collaborates with other radio stations across the state.