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
To Captain Simone on the Zamboni,
The kids asked to go scouting for jumpers on the Methow. Juniper said she saw lots and Emmer wants to know if you can catch these jumpers that way he can see you every day when he goes bike riding! Needless to say, we miss you and the kids love talking fish. Oh and tell Uncle Auddie we say Hi! Remember, Don't rush it, just crush it! Lots of love, MamaGoo, Juniper and Emmer
The Numbers
The baywide catch on Monday was 768,464 fish, bringing the total season catch to 25,318,231. Cumulative escapement is at 16,106,192 so far. The total run as of Monday, July 15 was estimated at 42,474,423 sockeye. That’s above the preseason prediction of 39 million fish, but still within the preseason estimated range of 25 to 53 million fish.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in 325,502 fish on Monday, for a total of 10,954,637 fish. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 8.3 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 839 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 17,205,433, which is more than a third higher than the pre-season forecast of 12.4 million fish.
The drift fleet has caught 75.4% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 20.9%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested about 3.8%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 18,729 sockeye on Monday, for a total of over 1,610,192 sockeye up the Nushagak so far. And the Nushagak River is past its sockeye escapement goal range of 370,000 to 1.4 million fish.
598 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 37,715 so far this season. That's still only about two thirds of the way to the bottom end of the escapement goal range of 55,000 to 120,000 chinook in the Nushagak.
1,924 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 248,568.
Wood River
93,948 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Monday, bringing the total escapement to 4,200,876, with another 12,210 fish passing the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning. That puts the Wood River more than a million fish above the top end of its escapement goal range of 700,000 to 3 million fish.
Igushik
The Igushik tower crew counted 49,950 fish yesterday, for a total of 439,728 so far, with an additional 12,024 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning. That’s more than double Igushik’s preseason escapement estimate of 210,000 fish.
Togiak
Fishing crews in Togiak caught 23,906 fish on Monday, for a total catch of 144,688 so far, with an average drift delivery of 402 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 4,488 fish on Monday, for a season total of 66,030, with another 768 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 210,718.
The Togiak River is almost a third of the way to its forecasted run of 680,000 fish, and it is halfway to being within its escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 24,810 fish yesterday, the season’s total catch stands at 6,563,613 fish. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 79% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 13.9% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 6.8%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 83,718 spawners yesterday, making their total an estimated 749,682 fish. That’s still slightly below the Naknek River’s escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million sockeye.
The Kvichak tower crew counted about 324,636 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 5,017,506. Another 700,000 fish are estimated to be in-river, between the commercial fishing district and the counting tower. The Kvichak River is within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million.
Around 173,916 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 1,713,372. The Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is over 14,744,173 so far. Sockeye in the Naknek/Kvichak have surpassed their goal for the season, which estimated a 15 million sockeye run.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 190,319 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,297,038 with an average drift delivery of 648 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 76.8% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23.2%.
16,422 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement almost 1,050,078 fish. The Egegik river is within its escapement goal of 800,000 to 2 million fish. The total season run so far for Egegik is 5,347,116, which is still slightly below the total run forecast of 5.5 million sockeye salmon.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets brought in 203,927 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,358,255, with an average drift delivery of 939 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 87.4% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12.6%.
94,140 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Monday, bringing total escapement to 1,258,728, which is still within the Ugashik district’s escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million fish.
Another 350,000 fish were estimated in-river. That brings the total run for the season to 4,966,983, surpassing the preseason forecast for this year’s total run size of 4.6 million.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 174 permits on 124 boats. That will go up to 175 permits on 125 boats in the next 2 days. D boats will stay at 50.
The Ugashik District has 275 permits on 197 boats, which will decrease to 275 permits on 196 boats by Thursday. DBoats will go from 78 to 79.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 850 permits on 620 boats. That will move up to 852 permits on 622 boats by Thursday. DBoats will remain at 230.
In the Nushagak, there are 341 permits on 250 boats. By Thursday, that will decrease to 340 permits on 249 boats. DBoats will stay at 91.
The Togiak District has 22 permits on 22 boats, which will stay the same in the next 2 days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,662 active permits on 1,213 boats and 449 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 21,043 sockeye swam through the weir on Monday, for a season total of 457,648 so far.
6,351 fish were part of the early run, and 14,692 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 59,348 sockeye on Monday for a season total of 1,986,634.
1,947 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, their total season harvest is 5,370.
17,365 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 466,673.
12,667 coho were caught on Monday. Their season total is 17,270.
And 24,509 pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 311,749.
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 the Nelson Lagoon, and from the Northwestern District.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
(Correction: This report originally said "Monday, July 16", this has been corrected to the 15th).
