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.
Peter Pan owner Rodger May bids for company's assets
This spring, Peter Pan Seafoods was put into a receivership by a Washington state court after the company became unable to pay its bills. Silver Bay Seafoods stepped in to operate Peter Pan’s plants in Dillingham and in Port Moller. It also put in a bid for some of Peter Pan’s assets.
But then, one of Peter Pan’s owners came back with a counter offer—and an accusation: that the bidding process wasn’t fair. He recently scored a victory in that battle. Reporter Kirsten Dobroth has been covering Peter Pan for Undercurrent News.
Fish and Game reports record small sockeye sizes
This year in Bristol Bay, fishing crews noticed that sockeye were on the small size. On Friday, the Alaska department of fish and game confirmed those observations. The agency says that for this point in the season, the sockeye returning were, on average, the smallest they’ve ever seen. This continues a decades long trend.
Dillingham local publishes book of poems
Lancee wet man lives in Dillingham, and this spring, she published a book of poetry. She came to the studio to read a few poems about salmon. Find her work at www.vigilancee.org or on Instagram at @__vigilancee.
Messages to the fleet
We have one message to the fleet tonight.
To Jacob on the F/V Endurance: Wishing you a happy birthday, hope you get your birthday boat load and hope y'all are locking it down. — From Hunter
The Numbers
The baywide catch on Sunday was 394,865 fish, bringing the total season catch to 29,779,465 according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Cumulative escapement is at 19,384,264 so far. The total run as of Sunday, July 21 was estimated at 49,163,729 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 59,061 fish on Sunday, for a total of 11,747,901. That’s around 50% higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 7.9 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 391 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 18,456,697, which is 50% 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 3,691 sockeye on Sunday, for a total of 1,685,410 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.
No Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, their total is 41,449 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.
6,829 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 282,249.
Wood River
11,300 11,310 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Sunday, bringing the total escapement to 4,387,566, with another 3,240 fish passing the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning. The Wood River is 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 15,846 fish yesterday, for a total of 635,820 so far, with an additional 3,408 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning. That’s triple the Igushik’s preseason escapement estimate of 210,000 fish.
Togiak
Fishing crews in Togiak caught 12,136 fish on Sunday, for a total catch of 278,176 so far. That’s over halfway to the pre-season catch forecast of 500,000 fish, with an average drift delivery of 482 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew counted 9,492 fish on Sunday, for a season total of 138,132 spawners, with another 4,188 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 416,308.
The Togiak River is over halfway to its forecasted run of 680,000 fish, and it is now within its escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 156,907 fish yesterday, the season’s total catch stands at 8,647,951 fish. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of around 7.6 million fish. Drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 80% of the season’s total catch, setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 13%, and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 7%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 2,064 spawners yesterday, making their total an estimated 926,112 fish. That’s within the Naknek River’s escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million sockeye.
The Kvichak tower crew counted 15,144 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 6,542,196. The Kvichak River is within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million.
Around 8,352 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 2,288,868. The Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 18,405,127 so far. That’s above the preseason estimate of a 15 million sockeye run.
Egegik
Egegik fleets brought in 95,687 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,940,864. That’s past the pre-season catch forecast of 4.3 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 580 sockeye. Egegik drifters have caught 77% of the total catch this season, and setnetters have caught 23%.
1,356 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 1,109,406 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 6,050,270, which is slightly above the preseason run forecast of 5.5 million sockeye salmon.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets brought in 71,074 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,164,573. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 3.6 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 449 sockeye. Ugashik drifters have caught 88% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12%.
Around 32,022 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Sunday, bringing total escapement to 1,670,754, which is 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 5,835,327, surpassing the preseason forecast for this year’s total run size of 4.6 million.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 9,169 sockeye swam through the weir on Sunday, for a season total of 513,104 so far.
1,244 fish were part of the early run, and 7,925 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M, fleets harvested 8,448 sockeye on Sunday, for a season total of 2,201,004.
One chinook was caught in Area M yesterday. Their total season harvest is 5,979.
52 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 493,255.
Seven coho were caught on Sunday. Their season total is 31,403.
And no pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 342,228.
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.
