Perspective from the Naknek River
We’ve spent a lot of time with folks in the Nushagak this season. But we wanted to take a few minutes to hear how things look with our friends to the east.
Melanie Brown is a set-netter on the Naknek River. She’s fishing with her daughter and crewman. Her son will be joining as well. She says they got off to a later start, and there was a hiccup with her boat trailer. Still, it’s been pretty smooth so far.
“We've had a real steady start" Brown said. "Unfortunately, we missed the early Naknek blast. My crew wasn't here yet, but I was happy not to be out in the rough weather. The weather was really rough. And there was actually a boat that swamped on the beach and so it was nice to start in in calmer waters. And yeah, we've been just kind of just having really steady tides. Decent poundage, the kind that adds up.”
Brown has been commercial fishing in Bristol Bay for over 40 years - since 1979. She says this summer has been cold and rainy. But that’s good for the fish.
“We haven't had to contend with heavy winds. Lately, it's been real cold and rainy, but it's good for the fish to come and fish like come in when it's like that. And it's good for the fish quality too," she said.
The bay is expected to see record harvests this season. Brown says she’s seen years where harvests have fallen short of the forecast, and so it’s good to see large hauls across the bay.
“It's looking like we’re kind of hitting the mark. And the cool thing about it too, is it sounds like all the river systems are, are really kind of coming in. So it's good," Brown said. "It's really nice when everybody gets something, you know, instead of there being one really big blast, in one of the rivers and then other people maybe don't make the best choices for the districts that they choose to fish, you know, if they're drifting. Of course, Nushagak has been the big star, you know, for a while now. And that's happening again.”
She says she monitors the Port Moller Test Fishery to get a sense of when to expect big pushes of fish in the Naknek.
“We're just thankful that we get to keep doing this," Brown said. "It's an amazing fishery that we're participating in. And sadly, Bristol Bay seems to be the only viable salmon fishery in our state now. All the other fisheries are suffering. And I'm hoping that we can find solutions for the other fisheries, but in the meantime, we all need to do what we can to protect this amazing run. It's really the last great wild run that's left in the world. And I hope we all make the right choices for the future of this fishery. And we all do what we can to keep this going.”
Long lines to offload catches at tenders in the Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in more than one million fish for the seventh day this season. And while a lot of folks are happy, those huge harvests have posed some logistical problems, too. One fisherman who talked to us didn’t want to be identified. He said boats lines to offload at tenders in the Nushagak have been up to two hours.
"Up until today, it's been long," he said. "You have a four hour closure, and you might quit just a little bit earlier so you can get ahead on the tender line. But you'll get there, and you might be sitting for two hours. And while you're sitting in the tender line, you try to maybe catch a wink or two. But meanwhile you are constantly positioning your boat to be the next person to offload and so by the time we've done offloading, you really don't have any, have enough time but to go back out there, and look for fish, and start fishing again.”
After a few consecutive days of massive hauls, the crew was able to catch their breath during a lull today.
“It's good, steady, strong. Now we've been, you know, fishing every day, twice a day," he said. "It's just very busy, non nonstop. There's no time for sleep. Long tender lines, you know, because when you have more fish it takes longer to offload very little time in between each opener to even find sleep. So it's almost like this little bit of a lull has been kind of a welcome because we can kind of just slow it down a little bit, and maybe catch a longer drift and a little bit of shut eye.”
There was some rough weather last weekend, but overall conditions have been manageable. Catching those fish has also been an incredible amount of work.
“It all just blends together. Because you're awake, pretty much the whole time, even when you’re asleep you’ve got one eye open," he said with a laugh. "And one day just blows into another. So there haven't been that many deck loading days. But every opener has been extremely productive. So because we have such a large fleet of boats over here, we are very effective on mopping up the fish. So we catch a lot, but it's also dispersed a lot throughout the fleet, you know, because we've got three times as many boats as any of the other districts.”
He says he was getting ready to take a 15 minute nap and then back to fishing.
Historic sailboat begins journey to Naknek
For more than 60 years, sailboats dominated Bristol Bay’s commercial fishery. Motorized vessels were illegal. Then, in 1951, the federal government finally allowed motorized fishing vessels in Bristol Bay.
“I think it’s literally down to 50 or 46 boats or something like that in 1954 and then they just disappear," LaRece Egli said. She's the director of the Bristol Bay Historical Society Museum in Naknek. She says almost immediately, sailing was made obsolete for the fishery.
By 1952, powerboats outnumbered sailboats 4 to 1. In less than five years, every commercial vessel had a motor.
This year, local historians are bringing the sailing tradition back to the bay with a vessel named the Libby McNeil Libby 76.
Tim Troll is the executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust and one of the sailing crew. They launched from Homer on July 5.
“We launched this morning at about 9 a.m. It’s a beautiful, nice, sunny day with very calm weather," Troll said.
The sailboat has crossed the Cook Inlet, sailing toward Naknek.
“The boat is on its way. It’s sailing nicely right now, we’ve got four guys aboard, and it just looks beautiful out there," he said.
Troll said in an email that they made it to their first stop in Williamsport on Wednesday night. They carried the boat across the portage, and plan to reach Pedro Bay this evening.
The crew expects to visit Iliamna and Newhalen over the weekend, and then head on to Kokhanok and Igiugig next week. It will visit Levlock on July 17 and the vessel is scheduled to arrive in Naknek on July 19.
Egli says the journey commemorates an iconic period in the fishery’s history.
“Those sails, sailing out on the horizon of our bay are really visual icons and they’re one of those grounding visual markers for both our canning industry, for the labor issues, independence of our fishermen, and also for our indigenous story in our community.”
Troll plans to update KDLG on their voyage over the next few weeks.
The Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust and the Bristol Bay Historical Society Museum have also partnered to purchase the Libby, McNeil, Libby No. 76 and have a fundraiser available on Facebook.
Ted Krieg reads a Dave Carlson diary entry from June 19 - 26, 1939.
This summer, we’re taking a few minutes each week to sit back and listen to a day in the life of a commercial fisherman from more than 80 years ago. Local historian Ted Krieg started reading daily entries from the 1930s diary of Dave Carlson, who lived and worked in Bristol Bay. Each Thursday, Ted joins us to read another passage from Dave Carlson’s life, transcribed by Arlene Atkinson.
The numbers
Fleets across the bay hauled in 2.7 million fish on Wednesday, bringing the total harvest to 32.8 million fish. Another 904,729 fish escaped up rivers across the bay, bringing the total spawner count to 9.1 million. An estimated 630,000 fish are swimming up rivers on the East Side. The bay’s total run is at 42.5 million salmon.
Nushagak District
The Nushagak’s fleet caught another 1.1 million sockeye on Wednesday, with an average drift delivery of 818 fish. It’s the seventh day this season that fishermen in the district have harvested over a million fish. The total catch in the district is at 5.2 million.
Escapement across the district was at 276,589, for a cumulative escapement of 5.6 million fish. The district’s total run is at 20.8 million – almost half of the bay’s total run so far.
Let’s break that down by river.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar crew counted 99,799 sockeye on Wednesday, for a total escapement up the Nush of 2.8 million.
Chum escapement was about double what it’s been in recent days, at 2,381. The total chum run is at 79,731.
And for the second time this season, no Chinook were counted swimming past the sonar. King escapement remains at 41,972.
Wood River
Another big push of salmon swam past the Wood River counting tower on Wednesday; the crew tallied 164,412 fish. Another 34,548 fish swam past this morning. Total escapement up the Wood is at 2.6 million.
Igushik River
12,378 salmon swam up the Igushik River on Wednesday, and another 4,578 friends joined them this morning. The Igushik’s escapement is at 160,572.
Togiak
Togiak’s fleet had another relatively strong day on Wednesday: Harvest was 15,900, bringing the season’s total catch to just under 60,000. Drift deliveries averaged 172 sockeye.
Togiak’s counting crew tallied 2,688 fish swim past the tower, and another 996 salmon swam up this morning. Togiak’s total escapement is at 3,684.
Togiak’s run is now 64,502.
Naknek-Kvichak
The Naknek-Kvichak fleet caught 428,000 fish on Wednesday, with an average drift delivery of 868 sockeye. The total harvest is at 5.2 million.
Escapement across the district was just about the same – 427,758 fish swam past counting towers there, bringing the spawner total to 2.1 million.
The district’s total run is at 7.8 million.
Naknek River
Escapement in the Naknek was the lowest in the district: 67,488 fish swam upriver on Wednesday, for a season total of 937,470.
Kvichak River
The Kvichak saw a huge push of salmon escape upriver: 222,462 made it past nets to spawn, bringing the cumulative escapement to 894,612. Another 400,000 fish are estimated to be swimming upriver as we speak.
Alagnak River
The Alagnak also saw a huge escapement: 137,808 fish swam past the counting tower, bringing the total to 340,842.
Egegik
Egegik’s fleets saw a big haul on Wednesday: 894,000 sockeye were caught, with average drift deliveries of 1,562 fish. The total harvest there is at 9.7 million fish.
Egegik’s escapement has passed 1 million fish: Daily escapement up the was at 107,628, bringing the cumulative to 1 million. And another 90,000 are estimated to be swimming up the river.
Egegik’s total run is at 10.9 million sockeye.
Ugashik
Not a bad day in Ugashik, either: The fleet caught 304,000 fish, with drift deliveries averaging out at 2,119. The district’s cumulative harvest is at 2.4 million.
Ugashik’s tower crew counted 90,066 sockeye swim upriver on Wednesday. Cumulative escapement there is at 254,526. Fish and Game estimates that 140,000 fish are swimming up the Ugashik toward the tower.
Ugashik’s total run is at 2.8 million.
Chignik Weir
Correction July 8, 2022: We initially reported that Chignik's early sockeye run met its lower-end escapement goal of 350,000. That is not the case.
16,081 early run fish swam past the weir on Wednesday, for a total escapement of 315,782, not 355,384 as originally reported.
The 355,384 count is the total number of early and late sockeye that have escaped past the weir.
Fish and Game's website lists the total sockeye run and the late run counts, but does not explicitly list the early sockeye run. Our apologies for this error.
Another 6,475 late run fish came through, for a total of 39,602. The late run’s minimum escapement goal is 200,000 fish.
While the sockeye are doing far better this year, the kings are not. Just one Chinook swam past the weir on Wednesday, for a season total escapement of 80 fish. And the pink run remains at 18 humpies.
Area M
Area M’s fleets caught 283,532 sockeye on Wednesday, along with 28,747 chum, 2,322 pinks, and 339 king salmon.
The South Peninsula’s total harvest is at 3.9 million sockeye, 1.1 million pinks, 560,015 chum salmon, 3,230 kings, and 193 coho.
The North Peninsula’s sockeye harvest is now 1.8 million fish. Its king harvest is up to 857. And chum are at 275.
Port Moller Test Fishery
Technician Scott Raborn says the daily catch index has been consistent since Sunday, July 3. Recent catches have been down from the peak at the end of last week. According to Raborn, runs across the districts will dawdle over the next couple days, before those runs pick back up around July 10. That could correlate with a four-day streak of low catches in the Port Moller Test Fishery. The test fishery estimates that total runs from July 6 - 11 will be 14 million sockeye. The estimates from July 6 - 15 are at 19 million sockeye.
Catches across the transect on Wednesday, July 6:
No fish were caught at stations 4, 6, and 10. And crews didn’t fish at station 12.
Station 2 caught 1 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 3.
Station 5 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 4 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 9.
Station 8 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 5 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 10.
Station 14 caught 10 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 7 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 32.
Station 16 caught 16 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 22 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 71.
Station 18 caught 7 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 28 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 68.
Station 20 caught 17 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 22 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 78.
Station 22 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 5 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 10.
Stock Composition
For a look at how many fish are swimming where, we have the next round of stock composition estimates! The test fishery gene lab analyzed 186 fish in this round.
The Kvichak saw a bump, with almost 30% of the sampled fish headed to that river. Another 22% were on their way to the Nushagak, and 17% were swimming to the Wood. The Alagnak was well-represented, too: 13% of the samplings were swimming to that river. About 7% were going to the Egegik and Naknek rivers, and 1% of those sampled fish were on the way to Ugashik. Less than 1% of those fish were trying to reach the Igushik, North Peninsula, Togiak, and Kuskokwim.
We’re looking to document what a day in the life looks like for a commercial fishermen. If you’re willing to have one of our fish reporters aboard your vessel for 12-24 hours, give us a call at (907) 842-2200.
