The Numbers
The baywide catch on Monday was 915,820 fish, bringing the total season catch to 16,350,991.
Cumulative escapement is at 10,823,180 so far.
The total run as of Monday, July 8 was 28,799,171 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in 245,019 fish on Monday, for a total of 8,080,513 fish, with an average drift delivery of 307 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 13,366,821.
The drift fleet has caught about 76.9% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 20.4%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested about 2.7%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 43,316 sockeye on Monday, for a total of 1,415,630 sockeye up the Nushagak so far. The Nushagak River has now surpassed its sockeye escapement goal range of 370 thousand to 1.4 million fish. The river is estimated to see a 3.5 million sockeye run this season.
1,137 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 34,894 so far this season. That’s more than halfway to the minimum of the escapement goal range for Nushagak chinook of 55,000 to 120 thousand fish.
3,386 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 217,633.
Wood River
At the Wood River counting tower on Monday, sockeye escapement counts have decreased since yesterday. 142,350 sockeye passed, bringing the total escapement to 3,643,332, with another 19,266 fish passing the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The Wood River is past its escapement goal range of 700,000 to 3 million fish. The run forecast is for around 7.8 million sockeye.
Igushik
The Igushik tower crew counted 22,074 fish yesterday, for a total of 227,346 so far, with an additional 6,588 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning.
Togiak
Fishing crews in Togiak caught 12,268 fish on Monday, for a total catch of about 61,275 so far, with an average drift delivery of 171 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 4,656 fish on Monday, for a season total of 15,630, with another 678 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The total run for Togiak River sockeye is forecasted to be around 680,000 fish, with an escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 153,225 fish yesterday. The season total stands at 3,024,692 fish, with an average drift delivery of 213 sockeye. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 69.6% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 20.4% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 10%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 46,776 spawners yesterday, making their total 536,706 fish.
Kvichak escapement counts are rapidly climbing, the tower crew counted 796,494 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 2,419,152. Another 1,000,000 fish are estimated to be in-river, between the commercial fishing district and the counting tower.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 8,134,350 so far.
294,504 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 1,153,800.
A run of approximately 15 million sockeye is expected across the Naknek/Kvichak district this season.
The Naknek River escapement goal range is 800,000 to 2 million sockeye. In the Kvichak River, they are now within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million, and the Alagnak River is well past it’s minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 229,131 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,172,118 with an average drift delivery of 728 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 76.4% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23.6%.
66,204 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 949,470 fish. Another 75,000 fish are estimated to be in-river, bringing the total season run so far for Egegik to 4,196,588.
The Egegik district’s run this season is forecasted to be about 5.5 million sockeye salmon and the Egegik river is within its escapement goal of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets brought in 276,177 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 2,012,393, with an average drift delivery of 1,445 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 88.7% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 11.3%.
189,144 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Monday, bringing their total to 462,114. Another 550,000 fish were estimated in-river, bringing the total run for the season to 3,024,507.
The district’s run this season is forecasted to be about 4.6 million sockeye salmon and the river’s escapement goal is 500,000 to 1.4 million fish.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 198 permits on 144 boats. That will move up to 199 permits on 145 boats in the next 2 days. D boats will stay at 54.
The Ugashik District has 234 permits on 160 boats, which will increase to 256 permits on 175 boats by Thursday. DBoats will increase from 74 to 81.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 696 permits on 512 boats. That will move up to 775 permits on 564 boats by Thursday. DBoats will bump up from 184 to 211.
In the Nushagak, there are 413 permits on 310 boats. By Thursday, that will decrease to 411 permits on 309 boats. DBoats will go from 103 to 102.
The Togiak District has 20 permits on 20 boats, which should move up to 21 permits on 21 boats in the next 2 days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,561 active permits on 1,146 boats and 415 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, only about 4,762 sockeye swam through the weir on Monday, for a season total of 353,941 so far.
2,869 fish were part of the early run, and 1,893 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested around 31,521 sockeye on Monday for a season total of 1,688,197.
12 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, bringing the total season harvest to 2,934 so far.
91 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 439,357.
1 coho was caught on Monday. Their season total is 1,186.
And no pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 282,621.
Most commercial harvests in Area M this season have been caught by South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fleets, with harvest also coming in from Cold Bay, the Dolgoi Island area and from Morzhovoi Bay to South Unimak on the South Peninsula. And, on the North Peninsula, from Port Moller to Outer Point Heiden and from Nelson Lagoon.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
Yesterday the test fishery released their stock composition estimates for July 6th-7th.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming towards the Kvichak River – an estimated 42 percent were headed there.
About 15 percent of the sampled sockeye were swimming towards the Wood River.
An estimated 12 percent of the samplings were on their way to the Alagnak River, and another 8 percent to the Naknek River.
About 6 percent were heading towards the Igushik River and the estimate for the Nushagak river is 6 percent.
Another 5 percent of the fish sampled are on their way to the Togiak river, and 4 percent are headed to the Kuskokwim river.
And 3 percent are on their way to the Ugashik river, with less than 1 percent on their way to both the Egegik and the North Peninsula.
North Peninsula 0.3%
Ugashik 2.9%
Egegik 0.4%
Naknek 8.0%
Alagnak 11.7%
Kvichak 42.3%
Nushagak 6.0%
Wood 14.5%
Igushik 5.5%
Togiak 5.1%
Kuskokwim 3.5%
With the daily catch indices starting to drop, crews at Port Moller are saying this signals that they’ve reached the tail of the run. They say this was expected, but also indicates that the run may be bimodal, meaning there should be a second push that is yet to show.
No fish were caught at stations 2, 16, 22, and 24 yesterday.
The catch index at the stations is the number of fish that would be caught in both the small mesh and the big mesh if the station were fished for a full hour. The small mesh is 4 ½ inches, and the large mesh is 5 ⅛ inches.
Station 4 had a catch index of 31.
Station 6 had a catch index of 18.
Station 8 had a catch index of 155.
Station 10 had a catch index of 60.
Station 12 had a catch index of 32.
Station 14 had a catch index of 15.
Station 18 had a catch index of 36.
Station 20 had a catch index of 38.
Overall, yesterday’s mean catch index was 35.
Across stations yesterday, 128 fish were caught in the small mesh, and 71 fish were caught in the big mesh. So far this season, 64% of the test fishery catches were in the small mesh, and 36% of the catches were in the big mesh.
The mean length of fish yesterday in the small mesh was 499 mm, and the mean length of fish caught in the big mesh was 518 mm. That’s just a bit above the season average so far of 488 mm fish in the small mesh, and 511 mm fish in the big mesh.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
