Get in touch and share some perspective — give us a call 907-842-2200 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org. If you’d like to get a message out to the fleet on this show, send your messages to the fleet to fish@kdlg.org.
Nushagak District meets king salmon conservation goal, triggering opener
Commercial fishing opened in the Nushagak District on Sunday night. The state Board of Fish delayed the opener this year as part of the Nushagak King action plan, an initiative aimed at preserving the district's declining king salmon population. The state created three triggers for opening commercial fishing: either 420,000 sockeye swimming past the Nushagak river sonar, 800,000 sockeye past the Wood River tower, or a hard start date of June 28th. Yesterday, it was the first trigger - with a push of fish up the Nushagak River. We caught up with westside management biologist Tim Sands to explain.
Naknek sportfishing regulations change
Sport fishing regulations have changed across Bristol Bay this year following decisions by the Board of Fisheries over the winter - also in response to concerns over low king salmon populations. The board made changes related to King salmon in the Naknek drainage, our focus today, as well as introducing three youth-only fishing days.
Mechanical Monday
This season on the Fish Report, we have a new weekly segment called Mechanical Mondays. Whether you are an experienced boat engineer or a new deckhand, or working with a new engine or boat this season, we’ll spotlight boat mechanics’ tips, tricky engine problems, the quick patchwork repairs and what works long term.
This week, Gabe Dunham of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Advisory Program joins us again to talk about service and maintenance of one of the most important systems on any vessel: propulsion.
Yup’ik dancing, Christian prayers and traditional remembrances mark Dillingham’s 34th annual blessing of the fleet
A large crowd gathered at the Dillingham harbor under rare sunny skies for the 35th annual Blessing of the Fleet, honoring those who died fishing in Bristol Bay. They prayed for safety, luck and bounty in the upcoming salmon season. KDLG’s Corinne Smith reports.
Messages to the Fleet
We have a birthday message for Towner Goodman who’s out fishing, from your mom and dad wishing you a happy 22nd birthday!
The numbers
The bay-wide daily catch on Sunday was 352,218 fish harvested, with all of those caught between the Nushagak and Egegik districts. The total run as of yesterday was 2,425,391 sockey, and cumulative escapement was at 1,223,586.
At the Nushagak River sonar, 256,293 sockeye passed on Sunday for a total of 517,698 fish up the river so far.
5,318 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar for a total of 18,038 so far this season.
And 8,612 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of 40,756.
Wood River
343,806 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower Sunday, for a total escapement count of 623,370. Another 101,388 fish swam up as of 6 a.m. this morning.
About 8 million sockeye are expected to return to the Wood.
Igushik River
The Igushik counting tower is now active, with crews there counting 7,542 sockeye on Sunday, for a total of about 7,590 this season. Another 546 fish swam upstream as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak
Fishermen in Togiak caught zero fish yesterday, and the season’s cumulative catch is 2,242.
Togiak’s forecast is an estimated 700,000 sockeye, and about 500,000 for harvest.
Naknek-Kvichak
No fish were caught in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers on Sunday. The total season harvest is 26,307 fish to date. This season’s total escapement is just 588 fish. 96 of those fish swam upstream yesterday.
The Naknek is forecasted to see a 6.5 million sockeye run, and the Kvichak is expecting to see over 8 million fish. The Alagnak is forecasted to get around 4.2 million, but no Alagnak counts are in yet.
Egegik
Fishing crews caught 2,846 fish yesterday, bringing the season’s total catch to 730,823. Yesterday, another 1,788 fish swam upstream, bringing the season’s total escapement to 74,340 fish. The season’s escapement goal is over 800,000.
The total run is now at 810,163 fish, and Egegik is expected to see around 11 million sockeye.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets caught zero fish on Sunday. The season total is 63,518 fish harvested, escapement is at zero, leaving the total run at 63,518.
Vessel Registrations
As of noon today, in Egegik, there are 451 permits on 345 boats. Permits will increase just to 452 by Wednesday, and the number of boats will stay the same. DBoats will increase from 106 to 107.
The Ugashik District has 48 permits on 38 boats, which will also increase slightly to 50 permits on 40 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will stay steady at 10.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 147 permits on 132 boats. That will increase to 175 permits on 152 boats by Wednesday. DBoats will increase from 15 to 23.
In the Nushagak, there are 705 permits on 501 boats. In the next 2 days, that will jump to 745 permits on 527 boats. DBoats will increase from 203 to 218.
The Togiak District has 14 permits on 14 boats, increasing to 17 permits and 17 boats on Wednesday.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 29,244 sockeye swam through the weir yesterday, for a season total of 150,503.
An estimated 27,728 fish were part of the early run, and about 1,516 fish part of the late run.
Area M
In Area M, North and South Peninsula fleets harvested 29,617 sockeye on Sunday for a total of 881,236 fish this season. They caught 50 chinook for a total of 2,171 to date.
1,191 pinks were caught on Sunday along with 1,649 chum and zero cohos.
Most of the season’s fish have been caught on the South Peninsula, with the South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fleets' total harvest now at 742,849 sockeye and 1,442 chinook.
In the North Peninsula, total harvest is at 134,411 sockeye and 728 chinook by fleets in Nelson Lagoon and Port Heiden.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The test fishery crew analyzed 190 fish for the June 23-24 stock composition estimate.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming to the Egegik River – an estimated 31% were headed there. The 90% confidence interval for that run is between 20 - 42%.
About 16% of the sampled sockeye were swimming to the Nushagak River. The 90% confidence interval for that river is 9 - 23%.
An estimated 15% of the samplings were on their way to the Kvichak. The 90% confidence interval for that river is between 7 - 24%.
About 14% of the fish sampled were heading towards the Wood River. The 90% confidence interval for the Wood River is between 7 - 222%.
The estimate for the Naknek is 9%. Another 9% are swimming to the Igushik, about 3% to the Kuskokwim, and also 3% to the Ugashik. Less than 1% to the North Peninsula, Alagnak and Togiak rivers.
North Peninsula 0.3%
Ugashik 2.5%
Egegik 30.9%
Naknek 9.4%
Alagnak 0.2%
Kvichak 14.7%
Nushagak 15.5%
Wood 14.3%
Igushik 9.0%
Togiak 0.2%
Kuskokwim 2.9%
For Port Moller catches on June 25, no fish were caught at Station 14 or 22.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the larger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 2 caught 7 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 23.
Station 4 caught 21 fish in the small net and 27 fish in the big net. That catch index is 111.
Station 6 caught 56 fish in the small net and 32 fish in the big net. That catch index is 151.
Station 8 caught 44 fish in the small net and 37 fish in the big net. That catch index is 128.
Station 10 caught 16 fish in the small net and 8 fish in the big net. That catch index is 53.
Station 12 caught 1 fish in the small net and 24 fish in the big net. That catch index is 45.
Station 16 caught 10 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 23.
Station 18 caught 0 fish in the small net and 3 fish in the big net. That catch index is 7.
Station 20 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Editorial note: the total run for Egegik went down by 5,000 fish from Saturday’s count. Fish and Game says that’s because of an overestimation of in-river fish which biologists say they have corrected.
