Get in touch and share some perspective — give us a call at 907-842-5281 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.
Messages to the Fleet
From Scrimshaw on the Kahuna, wishing a very special happy birthday to Emall Christianson on the Miss Adrienne over in Ugashik.
The Numbers
The baywide catch on Wednesday was 2,408,543 fish, bringing the total season catch to 19,913,750. Cumulative escapement is at 13,195,422 so far. The total run as of Wednesday, July 10 was estimated at 34,009,172 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in 844,118 fish on Wednesday, for a total of 9,176,209 fish, with an average drift delivery of 1,606 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 14,715,679.
The drift fleet has caught 77.5% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 19.7%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 2.8%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 16,368 sockeye on Wednesday, for a total of almost 1,469,820 sockeye up the Nushagak so far.
35 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 35,194 so far this season. That's about two thirds of the way to the escapement goal range of 55,000 to 120,000 chinook in the Nushagak.
2,450 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 226,359.
The Nushagak River is past its sockeye escapement goal range of 370,000 to 1.4 million fish. The river is estimated to see a 3.5 million sockeye run this season.
Wood River
At the Wood River counting tower on Wednesday, sockeye escapement counts continue to decrease. 53,166 sockeye passed, bringing the total escapement to 3,798,366, with another 4,854 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 is forecasted for around 7.8 million sockeye.
Igushik
The Igushik tower crew counted 21,984 fish yesterday, for a total of 271,284 so far, with an additional 3,354 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning.
Togiak
Fishing crews in Togiak caught 8,041 fish on Wednesday, for a total catch of 78,912 so far, with an average drift delivery of 171 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 15,516 fish on Wednesday, for a season total of 39,060, with another 1,206 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 117,972.
The total run for Togiak River sockeye is forecasted to be around 680,000 fish, and it is a third of the way to being within its escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 1,161,895 fish yesterday. The season total stands at 4,681,783 fish, with an average drift delivery of 1,051 sockeye. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 77.9% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 14.5% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 7.6%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 4,356 spawners yesterday, making their total 547,242 fish.
The Kvichak tower crew counted 660,918 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 4,003,110. Another 500,000 fish are estimated to be in-river, between the commercial fishing district and the counting tower.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 11,039,139 so far.
28,980 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 1,307,004.
A run of approximately 15 million sockeye is expected across the Naknek/Kvichak district this season.
The Naknek River over two thirds of the way to its escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million sockeye. The Kvichak River is now within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million, and the Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 197,704 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,525,988 with an average drift delivery of 873 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 76.8% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23.2%.
9,594 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 983,952 fish, bringing the total season run so far for Egegik to 4,509,940.
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 196,785 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 2,450,858, with an average drift delivery of 993 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 88.1% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 11.9%.
107,928 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Wednesday, bringing their total to 775,584. Another 400,000 fish were estimated in-river, bringing the total run for the season to 3,626,442.
The Ugashik district is within its escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million fish, the district’s run this season is forecasted to be about 4.6 million sockeye salmon.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 187 permits on 133 boats. That will stay the same in the next 2 days. D boats will stay at 54.
The Ugashik District has 244 permits on 167 boats, which will increase to 246 permits on 168 boats by Saturday. DBoats will increase from 77 to 78.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 775 permits on 564 boats. That will move up to 842 permits on 621 boats by Saturday. DBoats will bump up from 211 to 221.
In the Nushagak, there are 368 permits on 272 boats. By Saturday, that will move down to 363 permits on 267 boats. DBoats will stay at 96.
The Togiak District has 21 permits on 21 boats, which should move up to 22 permits on 22 boats in the next 2 days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,595 active permits on 1,157 boats and 438 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 6,320 sockeye swam through the weir on Wednesday, for a season total of 381,634 so far.
3,239 fish were part of the early run, and 3,081 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 45,963 sockeye on Wednesday for a season total of 1,764,730.
9 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, bringing the total season harvest to 2,959 so far.
278 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 439,830.
No coho was caught on Wednesday. Their season total is 1,157.
And 1 pink was caught. The pink’s season total is 282,613.
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 8th-9th.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming towards the Kvichak River – an estimated 29 percent were headed there.
About 17 percent of the sampled sockeye were swimming towards the Egegik River.
An estimated 13 percent of the samplings were on their way to the Igushik River, and another 12 percent to the Naknek River.
About 10 percent were heading towards the Alagnak River and the estimate for the Wood river is 8 percent.
Another 5 percent of the fish sampled are on their way to the Ugashik river, and 4 percent are headed to the Kuskokwim river.
And 3 percent are on their way to the Togiak river, with the remaining 1 percent on their way to both the Egegik and the North Peninsula.
North Peninsula 0.6%
Ugashik 4.6%
Egegik 16.7%
Naknek 11.6%
Alagnak 9.6%
Kvichak 29.1%
Nushagak 0.5%
Wood 7.7%
Igushik 12.7%
Togiak 2.7%
Kuskokwim 4.2%
No fish were caught at stations 10 and 22 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 2 had a catch index of 19.
Station 4 had a catch index of 5.
Station 6 had a catch index of 30.
Station 8 had a catch index of 76.
Station 12 had a catch index of 2.
Station 14 had a catch index of 26.
Station 16 had a catch index of 46.
Station 18 had a catch index of 41.
Station 20 had a catch index of 2.
Station 24 had a catch index of 9.
Overall, yesterday’s mean catch index was 22, less than half yesterday’s index, and less than a quarter of last week’s high.
Across stations yesterday, 55 fish were caught in the small mesh, and 82 fish were caught in the big mesh. So far this season, 63% of the test fishery catches were in the small mesh, and 37% of the catches were in the big mesh.
The mean length of fish yesterday in the small mesh was 499mm, and the mean length of fish caught in the big mesh was 515mm. That’s bigger than the season average so far, which is 489 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.
