The Alaska Department of Fish and Game tracks escapement on each of the nine-rivers of the Bristol Bay fishery, to ensure millions of sockeye spawners return for future runs. One of the main methods for recording these numbers - dating back to 1955 - is counting towers. Teams of counters rotate shifts 24 hours a day recording fish in intervals, part of a complex and essential equation for tracking escapement by state fisheries managers. KDLG’s Jessie Sheldon tagged along with the Wood River counter team in the Nushagak and has this story.
We’re checking in with crews around the bay this season. Today KDLG's Jack Darrell caught up with longtime Naknek setnetter Reise Wayner to hear about some of the highlights of his season so far.
Out on the water, we check in with longtime drift fisherwoman Ramie Kraun on the F/V Prelude. She’s fished in Naknek since she was a kid, and this season is getting a surprising amount of reading done.
The sun is shining on the westside of Bristol Bay, and as always competing with clouds rolling in. But it is a welcome break from the parade of relentless storms over the past week. That’s the good news. The bad news is going into the weekend, we have more of the same. Climate specialist Rick Thoman gave KDLG’s Jack Darrell the good and bad news for this week’s Weather Wednesday.
Messages to the Fleet
To Mojo on the F/V Corsair: Rye guy and G girl say" Aunt Maureen get lots of fish"
Love you!
The Numbers
The bay-wide harvest declined somewhat Tuesday with 723,542 fish caught.
The total season catch is now at 24,066,520. Escapement yesterday was 566,726 for a season total of 8,071,722 spawners up-river, and another 650,000 estimated in-river.
The total bay-wide run is at 32.7 million fish.
Nushagak
The Nushagak saw the biggest catch of the day with 253,918 fish, with an average drift delivery of 342 sockeye. The total catch is at 9,435,175.
The drift fleet has caught about 77 percent of that total harvest. Nushagak set netters have harvested 20 percent, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 3 percent.
Nushagak River
Another big push of fish at the Nushagak River sonar yesterday, an estimated 122,966 sockeye passed on Tuesday for a total of 1,601,860.
An estimated 417 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar yesterday for a total of 330,053 this season. The escapement goal this year is at least 55,000.
Another 2,043 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of an estimated 81,555 this season. That’s far below this year’s escapement goal of 200,000 chum.
Wood River
At the Wood River counting tower, an estimated 136,914 sockeye passed on Tuesday, bringing the total escapement to 2,296,284. That’s well within the escapement goal range of 700,000 to 3 million fish.
Igushik River
In the Igushik River, an estimated 26,412 sockeye passed on Tuesday, for a total of 279,456 fish this season. Another 3,600 fished passed the towers as of 6 am this morning. The Igushik run is also well within its escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
At the Togiak counting tower, crews estimate 2,196 sockeye passed on Tuesday, for a total of 33,126 fish this season.
The escapement goal in Togiak is 120,000 to 270,000.
Togiak fleets hauled in 13,524 sockeye on Tuesday. The season total catch there is now 76,863. The total run in Togiak is at 109,989 fish.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fleets had the second biggest catch of the day yesterday, hauling in 225,720, with an average drift delivery of 167 fish. The total season catch is now 6,328,573 fish. Tuesday’s escapement was an estimated 208,908 with another 500,000 estimated in-river. The season’s total run is at 9,721,101.
The drift fleet have caught about 75 percent of that total harvest, Naknek setnetters caught around 13 percent and Kvichak setnetters around 12 percent.
In the Naknek River, tower crews estimated 110,640 fish escaped yesterday. That brings the river’s cumulative escapement to over 802,428. That hits the Naknek’s lower escapement boundary, with the goal being between 800,000 to 2 million.
In the Kvichak River, an estimated 56,316 fish made it upstream past the counting tower, with another estimated 500,000 fish in-river. Total escapement is at 1,607,406 fish so far. The escapement goal for the Kvichak is 2 to 10 million.
In the Alagnak River, tower crews estimated 41,952 fish swam upstream yesterday, bringing the total season escapement to 482,694 fish. That’s over double this season’s escapement goal of at least 210,000 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 230,380 fish on Tuesday, with an average drift delivery of 795 fish. The season’s total catch is now at [7,484,649].
Egegik drifters have caught about 81 percent of the harvest this season, and setnetters have caught 19 percent.
Escapement yesterday was an estimated 15,612 fish. Total escapement is estimated at 820,446 fish, and the total run is an estimated 8,305,095. That passes the lower escapement goal for Egegik of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Ugashik
No fish were caught in Ugashik yesterday. The season total catch is 741,260 fish.
Escapement yesterday in Ugashik was estimated at 53,718. Total escapement is at an estimated 148,022 fish, with another 150,000 estimated in-river. The escapement goal range for the Ugashik River is 500,000-1.4 million fish.
The total run in Ugashik is now over 1,039,282. The run is forecasted to be 3.35 million this season.
We’re going to take a short break here, we’ll be back with vessel registrations, peninsula harvests and the latest from the Port Moller Test Fishery.
Vessel Registrations
As of noon today, in Egegik, there are 386 permits on 294 boats. That will increase slightly to 389 permits on 297 boats by Friday, and the number of DBoats will stand at 92.
The Ugashik District has 231 permits on 172 boats, which will increase to 233 permits on 174 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will stay at 59.
The Naknek-Kvichak District has 691 permits on 522 boats. That will jump up to 713 permits on 541 boats by Friday. DBoats will increase from 169 to 172.
In the Nushagak, there are 329 permits on 245 boats. In the next 2 days, that will drop to 311 permits on 236 boats. DBoats will go from 85 down to 76.
The Togiak District has 24 permits on 24 boats, which will stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,661 active permits on 1,257 boats and 405 DBoats.
Chignik River
Chignik fleets have harvested 290,631 sockeye this season, as of the latest update on July 11.
At the Chignik River weir, 5,556 sockeye swam through the weir on Tuesday, for a season total of 420,494 fish.
An estimated 2,843 fish were part of the early run yesterday, for a season total just under 373,841. An estimated 2,713 fish were part of the late run yesterday, for a total of 46,653 fish.
Area M
In Area M, North and South Peninsula fleets harvested just under 39,897 sockeye on Tuesday, for a season total of 1,721,198.
They caught 48 chinook on Tuesday, for a season total of 2,955. 3,206 coho were caught, alongside 16,812 pinks, and 28,814 chum salmon.
The total Area M season harvest across species is now just under 2,293,858.
For the South Peninsula, total harvest is at 951,234 sockeye, 1,822 chinook, 4,114 coho, 242,461 pinks, and 318,461 chum.
In the North Peninsula, total harvest is 769,964 sockeye, 1,133 chinook, and 4,560 chum.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The test fishery announced that they will close up shop for the season on July 13th.
For the July 11 indices, no fish were caught at Stations 4, 10, or 16.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 2 caught 2 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 7.
Station 6 caught 25 fish in the small net and 19 fish in the big net. That catch index is 94.
Station 8 caught 19 fish in the small net and 4 fish in the big net. That catch index is 53.
Station 12 caught 0 fish in the small net and 8 fish in the big net. That catch index is 17.
Station 14 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 18 caught 1 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 5.
Station 20 caught 1 fish in the small net and 6 fish in the big net. That catch index is 13.
Station 22 caught 2 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 6.
Station 24 caught 5 fish in the small net and 4 fish in the big net. That catch index is 15.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
