This spring, United Tribes of Bristol Bay executive director Alannah Acaq Hurley was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. This international award recognized Hurley’s work to protect Bristol Bay’s salmon runs from Northern Dynasty Minerals' proposed Pebble Mine. While supporters of the mine say their operations will bring jobs to the region, opponents say those jobs are not worth jeopardizing the region’s ecosystem. Further oral arguments on the litigation of Pebble Mine will take place on Thursday June 25th, at the U.S. District Count for Alaska in Anchorage.
Messages to the Fleet
I want to say hey to the Wall Family down by Coffee Point. Hope you guys get a chance to visit the other side of the Bay this year. See you when you get back to Kodiak, I've got another book for you. From Brian and Amelia
The Numbers
The bay-wide daily catch on Thursday was 31,167 fish harvested across all districts, bringing the cumulative catch to 151,668. The total run as of yesterday was 199,369 fish, and cumulative escapement is at 47,701.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 3,354 fish on Thursday, for a total of 5,603 fish. The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 50,646 fish.
In the Nushagak District, the pre-season forecast is an 18.39 million fish run with a potential surplus of 13.9 million fish.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 12,957 sockeye on Thursday, for a total of 39,307 sockeye up the Nushagak so far, with another 10,000 past the sonar this morning.
877 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar yesterday; their total is 4,590 so far this season. 6,702 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 24,855.
The Nushagak River is estimated to see an 11.1 million fish run this season, with an escapement goal range of 370,000 to 2.6 million fish.
The escapement goal range for king salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
Wood River
Counts are also coming in from the Wood River tower.
4,638 sockeye passed the counting tower on Thursday for a total so far of 5,736, plus another 1,200 past the tower as of 6 am this morning.
The Wood River is estimated to see a 6.43 million fish run this season, with an escapement goal range of 700,000 to 2.8 million fish.
Igushik River
Igushik counts are scheduled to begin on June 25th, with an estimated run of 890,000 fish, and an escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
No Togiak escapement counts yet, the district’s tower crews are scheduled to begin around July 4th. The Togiak River’s forecasted inshore sockeye run this season is 530,000 fish, with an escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000 fish.
Naknek-Kvichak
No catch or escapement counts are available for the Naknek-Kvichak District yet, but the pre-season run forecast for the district is around 11 million fish, with a projected surplus of 6.2 million sockeye.
The Naknek towers went up yesterday and are expecting to have escapement counts starting soon.
The Naknek’s river has an estimated inshore run of is 3.9 million sockeye, and the escapement goal range is 800,000 to 2 million fish.
The Kvichak River’s estimated run is also 3.9 million fish, and their escapement goal range is at 2 million to 10 million fish.
The Alagnak River’s forecasted run is about 3.2 million sockeye, with an escapement goal of a minimum of 210,000 sockeye.
Egegik
No fish caught yesterday in Egegik, but their season total catch is at 38,784 fish.
2,340 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement up to 2,658 fish so far.
In Egegik, the forecasted inshore run is for 8.9 million fish. The escapement goal range for the Egegik River is 800,000 to 2 million fish, leaving a potential surplus of 7.5 million for harvest.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled 27,813 fish in yesterday, bringing their season’s catch to 107,281 fish.
No escapement numbers yet, but the Ugashik inshore run is forecasted at 5.2 million fish. The escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million, leaving a potential surplus of 4.3 million fish for harvest.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 179 permits on 121 boats. That will increase to 187 permits on 126 boats by Sunday, and the number of DBoats will increase from 58 to 61.
The Ugashik District has 155 permits on 98 boats, which will increase to 157 permits on 99 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go from 57 to 58 by Sunday.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 22 permits on 19 boats. That will stay the same in the next two days. DBoats will stay steady at 3.
In the Nushagak, there are 32 permits on 26 boats. In the next 2 days, that will become 34 permits on 27 boats. DBoats will move up from 6 to 7.
The Togiak District has 7 permits on 7 boats, which should stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 395 active permits on 271 boats and 124 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, the latest counts are from Wednesday June 17th, when 54,910 sockeye swam through the weir for a season total of 137,906. We’ll have more updates from Chignik this season.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 204,317 sockeye for a season total of 1,185,196 fish.
Only 46 chinook were caught yesterday, bringing the total season harvest to 831 thus far.
Fleets caught 39,680 chum on Thursday, for a total of 278,426 fish.
And 136,150 pinks were caught the other day, bringing their harvest to 674,515 fish.
No cohos were caught on Thursday, their total is 486 fish.
A total of about 2.14 million fish across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season. The majority of commercial harvests have been caught on the South Peninsula by South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fleets.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The test fishery crew analyzed 190 fish for the stock composition estimate for June 16-17.
North Peninsula 0.9%
Ugashik 0.8%
Egegik 18.5%
Naknek 0.3%
Alagnak 0.3%
Kvichak 6.0%
Nushagak 31.5%
Wood 40.7%
Igushik 0.8%
Togiak 0.1%
Kuskokwim 0.3%
Port Moller crews say yesterday’s high catches widening inshore dramatically increased the Daily Catch Index. Because of that, and yesterday’s stock composition estimates, they say the run timing is right on track with the pre-season forecast.
For Port Moller catches on Thursday, no fish were caught at Stations 2, 14, and 18.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛ inch.
Station 4 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 6 caught 91 fish in the small net and 46 fish in the big net. That catch index is 283.
Station 8 caught 119 fish in the small net and 42 fish in the big net. That catch index is 333.
Station 10 caught 36 fish in the small net and 55 fish in the big net. That catch index is 188.
Station 12 caught 43 fish in the small net and 28 fish in the big net. That catch index is 142.
Station 16 caught 0 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 20 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 22 caught 0 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 4.
Station 24 caught 0 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Overall, the average catch index for Thursday was 80. The average length of fish caught in the small mesh was 509mm, and 528mm for fish in the big mesh.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
