If you’d like to send a message to the fleet, get in touch or give some perspective, give us a call 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
Fish facts
Welcome to Fish Facts - where we dive into fish science, ecology, and research, and swim the salmon life cycle, from the open ocean to home streams and rivers. This week: otoliths.
CBC documentary crew covers Bristol Bay sockeye fishery
Some of you may have seen a film crew last week at the Dillingham harbor - morning and night - or maybe on the water in the Nushagak. They’re part of a team of filmmakers making a wildlife documentary series called “Shared Planet” a four-part series by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It’s focused on the human wildlife interactions around the globe - and for the water episode, they came to document Bristol Bay’s on-of-a-kind salmon fishery. KDLG’s Jessie Sheldon sat down with wildlife documentary filmmaker Russell Clark, to learn more.
Voices of the fleet
New this year on the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report, we have a series called 'Voices of the Fleet,' featuring first-person stories from around the Bay with KDLG's Mark McKeown. You may have heard him on KDLG this summer on the news and weather, Mark is a former Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and now freelance journalist. He also has a long running music interview show, Tundrastruck, on KDLG every Saturday night from 8-10, with music from a vast swathe of genres recorded from locations around the world. But the next interview was recorded right here in Bristol Bay, last week.
Messages to the fleet
We have three messages to the fleet tonight, and birthdays to celebrate!
First, belated happy birthday wishes for Steffan Refvik who is fishing in the Nush, from your crew in Florida.
Next we have two recorded messages with happy birthday wishes for Virgil Jr on the F/V Orlean
The numbers
Monday was the biggest harvest day of the season so far, with 2,914,227 fish hauled in across Bristol Bay.
The total season catch is at 13,482,546. Cumulative escapement was at 4,018,049 with another 356,000 in-river.
The total run as of yesterday was 17,856,595 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in another 520,724 fish Monday, with an average drift delivery of 829 sockeye. The total catch is at just shy of 6 million.
The drift fleet has caught about 82% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 15%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 3%.
Nushagak River
At the Nushagak River sonar, 49,502 sockeye passed on Monday for a total of 1,174,805 fish up the river so far.
Another 1,239 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar for a total of 25,323 this season. That’s just about halfway to the escapement goal for chinook this season, which is at least 55,000.
And another 2,875 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of 66,565.
Wood River
60,420 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Monday, for a total escapement of 1,754,046. Another 9,720 swam up by 6am this morning.
About 8 million sockeye are expected to return to the Wood this season.
Igushik River
3,420 sockeye passed the Igushik counting tower on Monday, for a total of 166,014 fish this season. Another 804 swam past the tower as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak
The Togiak counting tower crew is setting up camp and planning to be active and reporting escapement counts by Thursday. Togiak escapement is forecasted at 700,000.
Togiak fleets caught 5,162 fish yesterday, for a season total of 21,317 fish. The average drift delivery there was 112 fish.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets hauled in 1,464,016 fish. That doubled the total season harvest so far, bringing it to 2,836,023 fish. This season’s total escapement is at 317,010, and 88,422 of those fish swam upstream yesterday.
The drift fleet caught 84.2% of the total harvest, Naknek setnetters caught around 9.4% and Kvichak setnetters around 6.3%. The average drift delivery was the largest with 1,943 fish.
In the Naknek River, 79,188 spawners swam upstream yesterday, bringing the river’s cumulative escapement to 210,960.
In the Kvichak River, almost 6,972 fish made it upstream past the counting tower, for a total escapement of 85,848 fish so far.
In the Alagnak River, 2,262 spawners swam upstream yesterday, for a total season escapement of 20,202.
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.
Egegik
Egegik fishing crews caught 851,765 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 1,262 fish. The season’s total catch is now 4,485,177.
Egegik drifters have hauled in about 82 percent of the harvest this season, and setnetters have caught about 18 percent.
Escapement was at 137,646 fish yesterday, for a season’s total escapement of 602,676 fish, and another 25,000 fish in-river. The total run is now at 5,337,853.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets harvested 72,560 fish on Monday. The season total is 181,128 fish harvested. Ugashik drifters have caught 79 percent of that, and setnetters have caught 21 percent of the season’s harvest. The average drift delivery on Monday was 909 fish.
Cumulative escapement is at 3,498 fish with another 6,000 in-river. The total run in Ugashik is 190,626.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 am on Tuesday, in Egegik, there are 436 permits on 332 boats. That will go up by one to 437 permits on 333 boats by Thursday, and the number of DBoats will stay the same at 104.
The Ugashik District has 61 permits on 49 boats, which will also increase slightly to 66 permits on 52 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go from 12 to 14 by Thursday.
Lots of boats headed to the Naknek-Kvichak District this week - there are now 437 permits on 351 boats. That will increase to 583 permits on 439 boats by Thursday. DBoats will increase from 86 to 144.
In the Nushagak, there are 575 permits on 431 boats. In the next 2 days, that will stay the same. DBoats will also stay the same at 145.
The Togiak District has 22 permits on 22 boats, which will stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,531 active permits on 1,185 boats and 347 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 21,432 sockeye swam through the weir Monday, for a season total of 360,906.
An estimated 17,416 fish were part of the early run, and 4,016 fish part of the late run.
Area M
In Area M, North and South Peninsula fleets harvested just 4,398 sockeye Monday. The season’s total is 1,340,118.
They caught 11 chinook Monday, for a season total of 2,769. No coho, pink or chum were caught.
The total Area M season harvest across species is now at 1,756,832 fish.
Most of the season’s harvest has been caught on the South Peninsula, with the South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fleets' total harvest now at 881,278 sockeye and 1,737 chinook.
In the North Peninsula, total harvest is at 4,58,840 sockeye and 1,032 chinook by fleets in Nelson Lagoon, Port Heiden, and the Northwestern District.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The test fishery crew analyzed 190 fish for the July 2 stock composition estimate.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming to the Wood River – an estimated 19% were headed there. The 90% confidence interval for that run is between 11 - 26%.
About 17% of the sampled sockeye were swimming to the Egegik River. The 90% confidence interval for that river is 9 - 29%.
Another 17% of the samplings were on their way to the Kvichak. The 90% confidence interval for that river is between 11 - 24%.
An estimated 15% of the fish sampled were heading towards the Ugashik River. The 90% confidence interval for the Ugashik River is between 3-24%.
The estimate for the Naknek is 10% and another 9% are swimming to the Alagnak. 6% are headed to the North Peninsula, 3% to the Igushik, and 2% to the Kuskokwim. 1% or less are headed to the Nushagak and Togiak Rivers.
North Peninsula 5.6%
Ugashik 14.6%
Egegik 17.4%
Naknek 10.4%
Alagnak 8.7%
Kvichak 17.1%
Nushagak 1.1%
Wood 18.8%
Igushik 3.4%
Togiak 0.5%
Kuskokwim 2.4%
For Monday’s catch indices, Port Moller crews were able to cover Stations 2-24. Technicians report that strong catch indices at Port Moller continue; and that catches in the outside stations picked up. Each day this happens indicates that a later, stronger run is more likely.
For Port Moller catches on Monday, no fish were caught at Stations 2 or 14.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 4 caught 1 fish in the small net and 6 fish in the big net. That catch index is 19.
Station 6 caught 22 fish in the small net and 47 fish in the big net. That catch index is 166.
Station 8 caught 39 fish in the small net and 66 fish in the big net. That catch index is 217.
Station 10 caught 88 fish in the small net and 69 fish in the big net. That catch index is 269.
Station 12 caught 29 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 72.
Station 16 caught 17 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net for a catch index of 43.
Station 18 caught 2 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net for a catch index of 5.
Station 20 caught 2 fish in the small net and 29 fish in the big net for a catch index of 66.
Station 22 caught 26 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net for a catch index of 58.
Station 24 caught 1 fish in the small net and 5 fish in the big net for a catch index of 15.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
