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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 24, 2024

Containers by the water in Dillingham.
Meg Duff
/
KDLG
Containers by the water in Dillingham.

It’s our final show of the season. The total run for the season so far has surpassed 50 million salmon. KDLG’s Ryan Berkoski shares surprises from this summer's numbers. Climate specialist Rick Thoman reflects on this week’s heat. Justin Taufaso talks about his first summer working for a processor. Bristol Bay fishers share what they have learned about fishing from their families.

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.

Making sense of the numbers

KDLG’s Ryan Berkoski has been tracking catch and escapement numbers all summer. We talk about this season’s surprises.

Making sense of the numbers

Weather Wednesday

It’s been a hot few days here in Bristol Bay. For Weather Wednesday, we talked to climate specialist Rick Thoman about this week’s heat and what’s coming up.

Weather Wednesday

As processors wind down, workers look forward

Some processing plants will be open through August; others are winding down. Trident stopped buying in the Nushagak at 6:00 a.m. this morning; it is still buying elsewhere in Bristol Bay. OBI Seafoods is no longer buying in Naknek; their Wood River plant will likely stop buying towards the end of this week, and their Igigik plant will likely close around August 4. Leader Creek is also winding down soon. Northline plans to buy through August 10. For now, Silver Bay’s plants are still open, including the Peter Pan Seafood plants it is operating this summer.

All of those changes mean that processing workers are reflecting on the season and deciding what they’ll do next. KDLG talked with Justin Taufaasau outside the fishermen’s lounge at the PAF boatyard in Dillingham. This was his first summer working for a processor.

As processors wind down, workers look forward

Taufaasau spent his time working in an egg room, where workers process salmon eggs.

As processors wind down, workers look forward (2)

In Bristol Bay, fishing means family

For the few short weeks of the fishing season, fishing crews can become like family. AND whether commercial or subsistence, many crews ARE family. And those families are passing on fishing wisdom to the next generation. Today, we heard from people about what they’ve learned while fishing with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins.

In Bristol Bay, fishing means family

Messages to the fleet

We have one message to the fleet tonight:

To Aaron Kirska on the Fishing Vessel Eagle 2 in Igigik. Aaron, your wife says please give her a call. It’s not an emergency, but it is important.

The Numbers

The baywide catch on Tuesday was 337,660 fish, bringing the total season catch to 30,501,409 according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Cumulative escapement is at 19,585,616 so far. The total run as of Tuesday, July 23 was estimated at 50,087,025 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 27,338 fish on Tuesday, for a total of 11,806,936. That’s around 50% higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 7.9 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 309 sockeye. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 18,557,310, 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 3,635 sockeye on Tuesday, for a total of 1,692,998 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.

35 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 41,726 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.

5,828 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 294,923.

Igushik

The Igushik tower crew counted 6,564 fish yesterday, for a total of 652,722 so far, with an additional 2,004 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning. That’s over triple the Igushik’s preseason escapement estimate of 210,000 fish.

Togiak

Fishing crews in Togiak caught 26,881 fish on Tuesday, for a total catch of 322,367 so far. That’s over halfway to the pre-season catch forecast of 500,000 fish, with an average drift delivery of 241 sockeye.

The Togiak tower crew counted 16,032 fish on Tuesday, for a season total of 168,234 spawners, with another 4,064 fish counted as of 6 a.m. this morning, bringing the total run this season to 491,000 490,601.

The Togiak River is about two thirds of the way to its forecasted run of 680,000 fish, and it is within its escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.

Naknek-Kvichak

Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught 178,307 fish yesterday; the season’s total catch stands at 9,044,291 fish. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of around 7.6 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 455 sockeye. 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 Kvichak tower crew counted 20,532 fish yesterday, bringing their season total to 6,580,980. The Kvichak River is within the escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million.

Around 18,800 18,786 fish were counted swimming in the Alagnak River yesterday, making their total 2,319,390. The Alagnak River is well past its minimum escapement goal of 210,000.

The total season run for Naknek/Kvichak is 18,870,773 so far. That’s above the preseason estimate of a 15 million sockeye run.

Egegik 

Egegik fleets brought in 79,353 fish yesterday, making their total catch 5,095,373. That’s past the pre-season catch forecast of 4.3 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 541 sockeye. Egegik drifters have caught 77% of the total catch this season, and setnetters have caught 23%.

942 spawners were counted passing the towers in Egegik yesterday, making the season’s total escapement 1,112,448 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 6,207,821, which is well above the preseason run forecast of 5.5 million sockeye salmon.

Ugashik

Ugashik fleets brought in 25,781 fish yesterday, making the cumulative catch 4,232,442. That’s higher than the pre-season catch forecast of 3.6 million fish, with an average drift delivery of 306 sockeye. Ugashik drifters have caught 88% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 12%.

Around 25,062 fish were counted passing the Ugashik counting tower on Tuesday, bringing total escapement to 1,728,078, 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 5,960,520, surpassing the preseason forecast for this year’s total run size of 4.6 million.

Chignik River weir

At the Chignik River weir, 17,187 sockeye swam through the weir on Tuesday, for a season total of 543,564 so far.

1,731 fish were part of the early run, and 15,456 fish were part of the late run.

Area M

Over in Area M, fleets harvested 29,088 sockeye on Tuesday for a season total of 2,245,590.

700 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday. Their season harvest is 6,682.

8,176 chum were caught yesterday. Their season harvest is 502,151.

11,545 coho were caught on Tuesday. Their season total is 43,489.

And 72,308 pinks were caught. The pink’s season total is 418,868.

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.

Meg Duff is a fisheries reporter for KDLG's Bristol Bay Fisheries Report. She is also a freelance journalist, writing and making audio stories for publications like Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, Outside, Slate and Yale Climate Connections. Meg has a master's in journalism from New York University.
Ryan Berkoski just finished his freshman year at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho. This summer, Ryan is working as an announcer at KDLG running Open Line, thanks to generous funding from BBEDC.