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.
Why are chinook runs declining in Bristol Bay, while sockeye runs are shattering records?
Chinook salmon numbers have declined significantly in the Nushagak district, falling far short of in-river escapement goals in five of the last six years. Yet at the same time, Bristol Bay’s sockeye runs are at an all time high, with an unprecedented run last year in the Nushagak. KDLG’s Jessie Sheldon investigates what’s known and unknown about these trends.
Naknek Kvichak district escapement doubles
Half a million fish pushed up the Naknek Kvichak District yesterday, doubling the total escapement there to 1.1 million. KDLG’s Jack Darrell checked in with area management biologist Travis Ellison for the update - he says no need for alarm, it’s within the normal range.
Dolphin Tales
Up next, we have the following story from fisherman Steven Burrows, fishing near Port Heiden on the F/V HAP. We’ll let Steven take it from here, through a dramatic reading by KDLG’s Mark McKeown.
Messages to the fleet
No messages to the fleet tonight. If you’d like to send one in, give us a call 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
The numbers
The baywide catch Thursday was another hearty 1.6 million fish. The total season catch is now at 18,816,601. Cumulative escapement is at 5,431,134 with another 950,000 in-river. The total run as of yesterday was 25,197,735 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in another 467,192 fish on Thursday, with an average drift delivery of 734 sockeye. The total catch is at 7,701,267.
The drift fleet has caught about 81 percent of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 16 percent, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 3 percent.
Nushagak River
At the Nushagak River sonar, 63,396 sockeye passed on Thursday for a total of 1,391,934 fish up the river so far.
661 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar yesterday for a total of 28,422 this season. The escapement goal is at least 55,000.
Another 1,200 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of 73,111 this season.
Wood River
74,916 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Thursday, bringing the total escapement to 1,973,118. Another 13,170 swam up by 6 am this morning.
The escapement goal for the Wood River is up to 3 million fish, and the forecast is around 8 million sockeye.
Igushik River
12,648 sockeye passed the Igushik counting tower on Thursday, for a total of 188,262 fish this season. Another 4,518 swam past the tower as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak
The Togiak counting tower is active, and 9,360 sockeye swam past on Thursday, and another 1,392 as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak escapement is forecasted at 700,000.
Togiak fleets caught 7,781 fish yesterday, for a season total of 39,244 fish. The average drift delivery was 113 fish. The total run in Togiak is at 48,604.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets hauled in 328,575 fish, bringing the season total to 4,508,514 fish. The average drift delivery was 364 fish. Yesterday’s escapement was over half a million fish, with another 700,000 estimated in-river. The season’s total escapement is now at 1,151,310.
The drift fleet caught about 77 percent of the total harvest, Naknek setnetters caught around 12 percent and Kvichak setnetters around 10 percent.
In the Naknek River, 85,086 fish swam upstream yesterday, bringing the river’s cumulative escapement to 567,402.
In the Kvichak River, 317,388 fish made it upstream past the counting tower, for a total escapement of 413,334 fish so far. The in-river estimate for the Kvichak is 700,000.
In the Alagnak River, over 113,250 spawners swam upstream yesterday, for a total season escapement of 170,574 fish.
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 837,940 fish on Thursday, with an average drift delivery of 1,418 fish. The season’s total catch is now at 6,288,089.
Egegik drifters have caught in about 82 percent of the harvest this season, and setnetters have caught 18 percent.
Escapement yesterday was 17,598]fish, for a total season escapement of 712,074 fish. The total run is now at 7,200,163.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets harvested no fish on Thursday either. The season total is 279,487 fish harvested. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 73 percent of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 27 percent.
Cumulative escapement is at 5,076 fish, with another 50,000 estimated in-river. The total run in Ugashik is at 334,563.
Vessel Registrations
As of noon today, in Egegik, there are 423 permits on 321 boats. That will drop slightly to 321 permits on 333 boats by Sunday, and the number of DBoats will increase from 102 to 105 boats.
The Ugashik District has 76 permits on 58 boats, which will increase to 114 permits on 85 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go from 18 to 29 by Sunday.
The Naknek-Kvichak District has 610 permits on 458 boats. That will increase to 658 permits on 494 boats by Sunday. DBoats will increase from 152 to 164.
In the Nushagak, there are 443 permits on 336 boats. In the next 2 days, that will increase slightly to 446 permits on 339 boats. DBoats will stay the same at 108.
The Togiak District has 23 permits on 23 boats, which will stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,575 active permits on 1,196 boats and 380 DBoats.
Chignik River
Chignik fleets have harvested 120,983 sockeye this season, as of the latest update on July 4.
At the Chignik River weir, 8,586 sockeye swam through the weir Thursday, for a season total of 386,361 fish.
An estimated 8,586 fish were part of the early run yesterday, for a season total of 352,850. An estimated 2,439 fish were part of the late run yesterday, for a total of 33,500 fish.
Area M
In Area M, North and South Peninsula fleets harvested 64,839 sockeye on Thursday. The season’s total is 1,503,348 fish.
They caught 39 chinook Thursday, for a season total of 2,828. 32,821 chum were caught, 1,840 pinks, and four coho.
The total Area M season harvest across species is now at 1,955,164.
For the South Peninsula, total harvest is at 885,502 sockeye and 1,744 chinook.
In the North Peninsula, total harvest is just under 617,846 sockeye and 1,037 chinook.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The test fishery crew analyzed 190 fish for the stock composition estimate for July 3-5.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming to the Egegik River – an estimated 26 percent were headed there.
About 18 percent of the sampled sockeye were swimming to the Kvichak River.
An estimated 18 percent of the samplings were on their way to the Nushagak River, and 13 percent to the Wood River.
And about 13 percent were heading towards the Naknek River.
The estimate for the Ugashik river is 7 percent, and about 3% for the Alagnak River, and 3 percent to the Igushik River. Another 1 percent are headed to the North Peninsula, less than 1% to the Togiak and Kuskokwim rivers.
North Peninsula 0.9%
Ugashik 6.9%
Egegik 25.7%
Naknek 13.9%
Alagnak 2.4%
Kvichak 18.1%
Nushagak 15.8%
Wood 13%
Igushik 2.9%
Togiak 0.1%
Kuskokwim 0.2%
The Daily Catch Index has rebounded after two days of stormy weather and rough fishing conditions, which technicians say may cause the results to be somewhat inconclusive.
For Port Moller catches on Thursday, no fish were caught at Stations 2, 4 or 18.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 6 caught 15 fish in the small net and 37 fish in the big net. That catch index is 111.
Station 8 caught 35 fish in the small net and 27 fish in the big net. That catch index is 128.
Station 10 caught 58 fish in the small net and 47 fish in the big net. That catch index is 210.
Station 12 caught 23 fish in the small net and 52 fish in the big net. That catch index is 118.
Station 14 caught 7 fish in the small net and 3 fish in the big net. That catch index is 21.
Station 16 caught 12 fish in the small net and 19 fish in the big net. That catch index is 64.
Station 20 caught 2 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 8.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
