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
Sending well wishes and kisses to the boys on the Ruth M and Lady Deborah - from a beloved former friend and deckhand, Carter
The Numbers.
The baywide catch on Wednesday was 1,022,414 fish, bringing the total season catch to 27,567,377. Cumulative escapement is at 18,161,439 so far. The total run as of Wednesday, July 17 was estimated at 45,728,816 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 191,855 fish on Wednesday, for a total of 11,403,975. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 8.3 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 607 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 17,897,028, which is more than a third higher than the pre-season forecast of 12.4 million fish.
The drift fleet has caught 75% of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 21%, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 4%.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 18,351 sockeye on Wednesday, for a total of 1,655,619 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.
1,417 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of 40,972 so far this season. That's around three quarters of the way to the bottom end of the escapement goal range of 55,000 to 120,000 chinook in the Nushagak.
7,564 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 261,602.
Wood River
38,982 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Wednesday, bringing the total escapement to 4,303,056, with another 3,384 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 46,272 fish yesterday, for a total of 534,378 so far, with an additional 10,356 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 29,494 fish on Wednesday, for a total catch of 204,067 so far, with an average drift delivery of 373 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 17,430 fish on Wednesday, for a season total of 94,122 spawners, with another 2,748 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 298,189.
The Togiak River is over 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 525,567 fish yesterday, the season’s total catch stands at 7,682,560 fish. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 80% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 13% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 7%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 29,172 spawners yesterday, making their total 916,188 fish. That’s within the Naknek River’s escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million sockeye.
The Kvichak tower crew counted 557,508 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 5,916,216. The Kvichak River is within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million.
224,142 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 2,155,590. The Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 16,670,554 so far. That’s above the preseason estimate of a 15 million sockeye run.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 135,279 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,570,477 with an average drift delivery of 650 sockeye. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 77% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 23%.
18,108 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 1,091,616 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 5,662,093, which is slightly above the preseason run forecast of 5.5 million sockeye salmon.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets brought in 140,219 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 3,706,298, with an average drift delivery of 813 sockeye. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 88% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12%.
128,484 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Wednesday, bringing total escapement to 1,494,654, which is now past the upper end of the Ugashik district’s escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million fish.
Ugashik’s total run for the season is 5,200,952, surpassing the preseason forecast for this year’s total run size of 4.6 million.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 7,894 sockeye swam through the weir on Wednesday, for a season total of 476,360 so far.
1,856 fish were part of the early run, and 6,038 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 46,831 sockeye on Wednesday for a season total of 2,094,065.
3 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, their total season harvest is 5,379.
5,228 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 477,606.
26 coho were caught on Wednesday. Their season total is 17,535.
And 23 pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 312,018.
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.
