With the hustle and bustle of fishing season, it can be easy to forget that not everything belongs in the trash can. And some garbage, like old webbing, often sits around for years. One organization has found a creative way to deal with the mess and keep Bristol Bay a little cleaner than it was before. Fishermen can drop off your used, clean webbing for recycling at the Dillingham boat yard or the Curyung Maintenance building. In Naknek, nets go to the AML boatyard across from the city dock. KDLG’s Ryan Berkoski has more.
Next up, fish facts! Our recurring segment on fish ecology, research, and conservation - where we take a deep dive into the salmon life cycle, from the open ocean to home streams and rivers.
This week... Homing!
Messages to the Fleet
No messages to the fleet tonight. If you’d like to send a message to the fleet, give us a call at 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Sunday was just 1,419,158 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to about 16,804,479 sockeye; the catch forecast bay-wide is 32.26 million sockeye. Escapement yesterday was 737,596 fish, bringing the total run so far to 26,944,183 fish. The forecast this year estimates a total run of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 532,008 fish on Sunday, for a season total of 6,346,916 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 746 sockeye. 75% of harvest has been caught by the drift fleet, 21.8% by Nushagak set netters, and 3.3% by set-netters in the Igushik. The forecasted harvest is 13.9 million sockeye.
The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 11,590,276 sockeye. Their pre-season forecast is a 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 34,264 sockeye on Sunday, for a total of 2,885,678 sockeye up the Nushagak so far.
The Nushagak River is estimated to see an 11.1 million fish run this season, and they are past their escapement goal range of 370,000 to 2.6 million fish.
1,284 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 29,810 fish so far this season. The escapement goal range for king salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
446 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 151,329 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted 57,258 sockeye on Sunday, making their total count 2,112,834 fish, plus another 18,264 sockeye past the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The Wood River is estimated to see a 6.43 million fish run this season, and they are within their escapement goal range of 700,000 to 2.8 million fish.
Igushik
Igushik crews counted 35,010 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 244,848 fish, with an additional 15,036 sockeye as of 6 a.m. this morning. They have an estimated run of 890,000 fish, and an escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
In Togiak, no fish were caught yesterday, their total season catch sits at 24,155 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 100 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crew began at midnight last night, counting 228 sockeye past the towers as of 6 a.m. this morning.
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.
Naknek-Kvichak
No fish were caught in the Naknek-Kvichak District yesterday, leaving their total catch at 1,740,766 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 552 sockeye. So far, 25% of the district’s catch has been caught by Kvichak set-netters, 21.6% by Naknek set-netters, and 53.4% by the Naknek-Kvichak drift fleet. Their forecasted season harvest is 6.2 million sockeye.
A good push of spawners in the Naknek River yesterday, with tower crews counting 96,936 fish, for a total of 521,568 fish so far. The Naknek river has an estimated inshore run of 3.9 million sockeye, and the escapement goal range is 800,000 to 2 million.
Kvichak crews counted 252,906 fish yesterday for a total of 1,369,134 sockeye so far. Their estimated run is 3.9 million fish, and their escapement goal range is at 2 million to 10 million.
Yesterday, Alagnak towers counted 91,884 fish, for a season total of 443,736 fish so far. The Alagnak River’s forecasted run is for 3.2 million sockeye, and they are past their minimum escapement goal of 210,000 sockeye.
The total run for Naknek-Kvichak is 4,675,204 fish so far. The pre-season run forecast for the district is about 11 million fish.
Egegik
Egegik brought in the most fish of the districts yesterday. Their crews caught 538,901 fish, with an average drift delivery of 926 sockeye. Their season total catch is 5,448,285 sockeye so far. 82.9% of the harvest was caught by the drift fleet, and 17.1% by the set-netters. Their harvest is forecasted at 7.5 million sockeye.
97,878 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement of 1,311,426 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Overall, the total run for Egegik sits at 6,909,711 sockeye, and the forecasted inshore run is for 8.9 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled in 348,249 fish yesterday; their season’s total catch is 3,244,357 sockeye so far, with an average drift delivery yesterday of 1,383 sockeye. 88% of the catch was caught by the drift fleets, and 12% was caught by set-netters. The forecast predicts a harvest of 4.3 million fish.
71,460 fish were counted passing by the Ugashik towers, for a total escapement of 300,480. Their escapement goal range is 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye.
The Ugashik total run is 3,744,837 fish so far, with a forecasted inshore run of 5.2 million fish.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 404 permits on 281 boats. That will increase to 408 permits on 283 boats by Wednesday, and the number of DBoats will bump up from 123 to 125.
The Ugashik District has 327 permits on 217 boats, which will increase to 353 permits on 235 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go up from 110 to 118.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 333 permits on 253 boats. That will increase to 407 permits on 300 boats by Wednesday. DBoats will go from 80 to 107.
In the Nushagak, there are 496 permits on 362 boats. In the next 2 days, that will decrease to 427 permits on 304 boats. DBoats will move down from 134 to 123.
The Togiak District has 23 permits on 23 boats, which will stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,583 active permits on 1,136 boats and 447 DBoats.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, the crew saw a nice bump in escapement over the weekend. 19,168 sockeye swam through the weir on Sunday, for a season total of 339,696 sockeye. About 13,541 fish were part of the early run, and 5,627 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 71,764 sockeye for a season total of 3,444,843.
8 chinook were caught, their total season harvest is 1,343 thus far.
Fleets caught 40 chum on Sunday, for a total of 486,546.
And no pinks were caught the other day, their harvest is 1,325,697.
No Coho was caught on Sunday, their total is 503.
A total of 5,258,932 million salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
Port Moller’s 10th stock composition was just released, covering July 4-5.
North Peninsula 1.0%
Ugashik 7.1%
Egegik 16.4%
Naknek 15.4%
Alagnak 9.2%
Kvichak 23.8%
Nushagak 4.3%
Wood 8.5%
Igushik 6.3%
Togiak 7.4%
Kuskokwim 0.5%
The crew says that they are starting to reach the tail end of their season at the test fishery but that their data along with observed catch and escapement counts indicate that the bay is on track for hitting the pre-season forecast.
For Port Moller catches on Sunday, no fish were caught at Stations 2, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20. 14, 18, and 20, and Stations 22 and 24 were not fished.
Station 4 caught 1 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 6.
Station 6 caught 4 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 12.
Station 8 caught 15 fish in the small net and 36 fish in the big net. That catch index is 102.
Station 10 caught 18 fish in the small net and 49 fish in the big net. That catch index is 130.
Station 22 caught 1 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 4.
Station 24 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Overall, the average catch index for Sunday was 21. The average length of fish caught in the small mesh was 475mm, and 505mm for fish in the big mesh.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
