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.
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Keeping Set Net Gear Safe
There’s been a lot of conversation on Facebook this week about set netters who have had their gear damaged by drift boats. KDLG talked to two set netters about their experiences.
Decarbonizing the Fishing Fleet
The federal Inflation Reduction Act includes more than 300 billion dollars of funding to help the American economy move towards renewable energy. And one Bristol Bay fisherman wants to make sure that fishing boats get some of that funding. That includes crowdsourcing policy recommendations from the fishing fleet.
Messages to the Fleet
Shout out to Connor on the Saint Brendan, all 3 of his girls miss and love him. From Caity.
To F/V Tango Whisky,
Good fishing and Charlie needs fish!
From Tom Birner
The Numbers
The baywide catch on Thursday was 1,074,949 fish, bringing the total season catch to almost 20,990,670. Cumulative escapement is at 13,724,178 so far. The total run as of Thursday, July 11 was estimated at 35,364,848 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets brought in 314,957 fish on Thursday, for a total catch of 9,491,166 fish, with an average drift delivery of 456 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 15,124,074.
The drift fleet has caught 76.8% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 20.3%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested about 3%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 15,966 sockeye on Thursday, for a total of 1,485,786 sockeye up the Nushagak so far.
80 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 35,274 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.
3,387 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 229,746.
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 Thursday, crews counted 56,766 sockeye, bringing the total escapement to 3,855,132, with another 24,084 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 20,706 fish yesterday, for a total of 291,990 so far, with an additional 4,860 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning.
Togiak
Fishing crews in Togiak caught 12,390 fish on Thursday, for a total catch of 91,302 so far, with an average drift delivery of 256 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 8,052 fish on Thursday, for a season total of 47,112, with another 612 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to almost 138,414.
The total run for Togiak River sockeye is forecasted to be around 680,000 fish, and it is more than 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 329,598 fish yesterday. The season total stands at 5,013,352 fish, with an average drift delivery of 329 sockeye. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 77.6% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 14.7% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 7.7%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 27,966 spawners yesterday, making their total an estimated 575,208 fish.
The Kvichak tower crew counted 278,256 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 4,281,366. Another 400,000 fish are estimated to be in-river, between the commercial fishing district and the counting tower.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 11,588,366 so far.
Around 11,436 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 1,318,440.
A run of approximately 15 million sockeye is expected across the Naknek/Kvichak district this season.
The Naknek River is 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 205,600 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,731,588 with an average drift delivery of 684 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 76.6% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23.4%.
5,148 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 989,100 fish, and bringing the total season run so far for Egegik to 4,720,688.
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 212,404 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 2,663,262, with an average drift delivery of 1,150 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 87.6% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12.4%.
Around 104,460 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Thursday, bringing their total to 880,044. Another 250,000 fish were estimated in-river, bringing the total run for the season to 3,793,306.
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 186 permits on 132 boats. That will go up to 189 permits on 135 boats in the next 2 days. D boats will stay at 54.
The Ugashik District has 233 permits on 158 boats, which will increase to 244 permits on 169 boats by Sunday. DBoats will stay at 75.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 775 permits on 564 boats. That will move up to 858 permits on 632 boats by Sunday. DBoats will bump up from 211 to 226.
In the Nushagak, there are 353 permits on 258 boats. By Sunday, that will move up to 355 permits on 260 boats. DBoats will stay at 95.
The Togiak District has 22 permits on 22 boats, which should stay the same in the next 2 days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,569 active permits on 1,134 boats and 435 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 16,749 sockeye swam through the weir on Thursday, for a season total of 398,383 so far.
7,823 fish were part of the early run, and 8,926 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 71,417 sockeye on Thursday for a season total of 1,838,823.
452 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, bringing the total season harvest to 3,411 so far.
5,553 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 448,334.
2,548 cohos were caught on Thursday. Their season total is 3,724.
And 3,727 pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 286,429.
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, from Nelson Lagoon and from the Northwestern District.
Port Moller Test Fishery
No fish were caught at station 18 yesterday, and station 4 was not fished due to marine mammals.
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 2.
Station 6 had a catch index of 24.
Station 8 had a catch index of 31.
Station 10 had a catch index of 9.
Station 12 had a catch index of 2.
Station 14 had a catch index of 6.
Station 16 had a catch index of 32.
Station 20 had a catch index of 5.
Station 22 had a catch index of 4.
Station 24 had a catch index of 6.
Overall, yesterday’s mean catch index was 12, the lowest since June.
Across stations yesterday, 32 fish were caught in the small mesh, and 26 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 501mm, and the mean length of fish caught in the big mesh was 526mm. 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.
And that marks the end of updates from the Port Moller Test Fishery. We will not be including any more catch indices or stock compositions in the remaining fisheries reports.
We’re going to take a short break … we’ll be back with you here on the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report in a moment.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
