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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Repair brings the Hannah back to full capacity
On Wednesday July 17, 2024, seafood processor Northline announced that a broken freezer on board its floating seafood processing vessel had been repaired. With that fix, the Hannah is back to full capacity.
Bristol Maps app helps fishermen navigate the bay
Bristol Bay’s waters can be a maze of sand bars and hidden channels. And they change every year, with each storm and tide. But the charts that fishermen use to navigate Bristol Bay have remained largely the same. As KDLG’s Jessie Sheldon reports, a long-time Bristol Bay fisherman, has developed an app to give fishermen more up–to-date option.
Fish season means bear season
Fishing season also means bear season. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game shared recommendations for keeping bears away.
Weather Wednesday
Get ready to enjoy mild weather in the days ahead.
Messages to the fleet
To Capt. Elijah Henry on the Bristol Pride:
I hope the dogs will stop marking in the house once you’re home! They sure miss you, as do Ethan and I! Tell Tyler 1 and Tyler 2 that we are grateful for their hard work! Miss you lots babe! Love, Jennifer Leigh
The Numbers
The baywide catch on Tuesday was 1,222,846 fish, bringing the total season catch to 26,541,732. Cumulative escapement is at 17,082,990 so far. The total run as of Tuesday, July 16 was estimated at 45,074,722 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 255,039 fish on Tuesday, for a total of 11,209,676 fish. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 8.3 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 598 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 17,599,124, which is more than a third higher than the pre-season forecast of 12.4 million fish.
The drift fleet has caught 75.2% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 20.8%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 4%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 27,076 sockeye on Tuesday, for a total of 1,637,268 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.
1,840 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 39,555 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.
5,470 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 254,038.
Wood River
63,198 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Tuesday, bringing the total escapement to 4,264,074, with another 5,526 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 48,378 fish yesterday, for a total of 488,106 so far, with an additional 11,790 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 29,885 fish on Tuesday, for a total catch of 174,573 so far, with an average drift delivery of 360 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 10,662 fish on Tuesday, for a season total of 76,692 spawners, with another 2,142 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 251,265.
The Togiak River is a third of the way to its forecasted run of 680,000 fish, and it is two thirds of the way to being within its escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 591,732 fish yesterday, the season’s total catch stands at 7,156,206 fish. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 79.7% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 13.3% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 6.6%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 137,334 spawners yesterday, making their total an estimated 887,016 fish. That’s now within the Naknek River’s escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million sockeye.
The Kvichak tower crew counted 341,202 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 5,358,708. Another 1.1 million 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 218,076 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 1,931,448. The Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 16,433,172 so far. Sockeye in the Naknek/Kvichak have surpassed the preseason estimate of a 15 million sockeye run.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 138,160 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,435,198 with an average drift delivery of 598 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 76.7% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23.3%.
23,430 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 1,073,508 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 5,508,354, which is now past the preseason run forecast of 5.5 million sockeye salmon.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets brought in 207,824 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,566,079, with an average drift delivery of 1,085 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 88% 87.9% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12% 12.1%.
Around 107,442 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Tuesday, bringing total escapement to 1,366,170, 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 5,282,249, 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 175 permits on 125 boats. That will stay the same in the next 2 days. D boats will stay at 50.
The Ugashik District has 260 permits on 188 boats, which will increase to 266 permits on 192 boats by Friday. DBoats will go from 72 to 74.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 850 permits on 620 boats. That will move up to 875 permits on 635 boats by Friday. DBoats will go from 231 to 240.
In the Nushagak, there are 333 permits on 245 boats. By Friday, that will decrease to 329 permits on 243 boats. DBoats will move down from 88 to 86.
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 1,640 active permits on 1,200 boats and 441 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 10,830 sockeye swam through the weir on Tuesday, for a season total of 468,466 so far.
2,891 fish were part of the early run, and 7,939 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 60,098 sockeye on Tuesday for a season total of 2,047,234.
4 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, their total season harvest is 5,376.
4,379 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 472,378.
27 coho were caught on Tuesday. Their season total is 17,509.
And 3 pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 311,995.
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.
