Fishermen may have heard word of a new food truck here in Dillingham—welcome news if you’re getting tired of boat food. KDLG’s Ryan Berkoski stopped by for a bite.
Next up, we check in with climate specialist Rick Thoman for this week’s weather Wednesday, who pulls back the curtain on some unusual temperature and precipitation trends across Bristol Bay.
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 Tuesday was 1,781,993 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to 19,736,281 sockeye; the catch forecast bay-wide is 32.26 million sockeye. Escapement yesterday was 730,860 fish, bringing the total run so far to 31,039,260 fish. The forecast this year estimates a total run of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 514,295 fish on Tuesday, for a total season harvest of 7,132,643 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 833 sockeye. 75% of harvest has been caught by the drift fleet, 21.8% by Nushagak set netters, and 3.1% 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 12,626,936 sockeye. Their pre-season forecast is an 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 42,618 sockeye on Tuesday, for a total of 2,964,801 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.
1,337 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 31,754 fish so far this season. The escapement goal range for those chinook salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
1,499 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 155,194 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted 69,030 sockeye on Tuesday, making their total count 2,229,426 fish, plus another 18,528 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 19,452 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 300,066 fish, with an additional 4,985 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, about 7,409 fish were caught yesterday; their total season catch is now 38,609 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 71 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crews counted 234 sockeye on Tuesday, making their total count 474 fish, plus another 438 sockeye past the tower 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
In the Naknek- Kvichak district, 579,282 fish were caught yesterday, bringing their total catch to 2,458,299 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 926 sockeye. So far, 22.7% of the district’s catch has been from Kvichak set-netters, 17.3% from Naknek set-netters, and 60.0% by the Naknek-Kvichak drift fleet. Their forecasted season harvest is 6.2 million sockeye.
Towers crews on the Naknek River counted 93,366 fish, for a total of 662,424 fish so far. The Naknek river has an escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million, and an estimated inshore run of 3.9 million sockeye.
Kvichak crews counted 288,726 fish yesterday for a total of 1,953,966 sockeye so far. That’s almost at the lower end of the Kvichak’s escapement goal range, which is 2 million to 10 million fish. The estimated inshore run for the Kvichak is 3.9 million fish.
Yesterday, Alagnak towers counted 106,458 fish, for a season total of 655,062 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 6,129,751 fish. The pre-season run forecast for the district is about 11 million fish.
Egegik
Egegik crews caught 458,883 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 800 sockeye. Their season total catch is 6,399,985 sockeye so far. 82.8% of the harvest was caught by the drift fleet, and 17.2% by the set-netters. Their harvest is forecasted at 7.5 million sockeye.
69,306 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 1,475,046 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Overall, the total run for Egegik is 7,925,031 sockeye, well on its way to the forecasted inshore run of 8.9 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled in 222,124 fish yesterday; their season’s total catch is now 3,706,745 sockeye so far, with an average drift delivery yesterday of 980 sockeye. 87.4% of the catch was caught by the drift fleets, and 12.6% was caught by set-netters. The forecast predicts a harvest of 4.3 million fish.
41,670 fish were counted swimming past the Ugashik towers, for a total escapement of 411,714 fish. Their escapement goal range is 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye.
The Ugashik total run is 4,318,459 fish so far, fast approaching the forecasted inshore run of 5.2 million fish.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 409 permits on 285 boats. That will decrease to 407 permits on 283 boats by Friday, and the number of DBoats stay the same, at 125.
The Ugashik District has 311 permits on 208 boats, which will increase to 330 permits on 225 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go up from 103 to 105.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 409 permits on 301 boats. That will have a BIG jump up to 546 permits on 398 boats by Friday. DBoats will go from 108 to 148.
In the Nushagak, there are 384 permits on 276 boats. In the next 2 days, that will decrease to 380 permits on 273 boats. DBoats will move down from 108 to 107.
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 1,536 active permits on 1,093 boats and 444 DBoats.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, 5,218 sockeye swam through the weir on Tuesday, for a season total of 373,508 sockeye. 3,294 fish were part of the early run, and 1,924 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 42,176 sockeye for a season total of 3,541,659 fish.
90 chinook were caught, their total season harvest is 1,444 so far.
Fleets caught 25,560 chum on Tuesday, for a season total of 515,122.
52,629 pinks were caught the other day, their harvest is 1,380,319.
887 Coho were caught on Tuesday, their total is 1,431.
A total of 5,439,975 million salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
The crew there says rough weather on the transect is holding up their genetics processing, so the stock composition estimates for July 6-7 likely won't be done until tomorrow.
A stronger catch index from the test fishery yesterday. Their crew says that could point to a later and larger run than anticipated, but big catch indices late in the season don’t always equal big catches in the districts.
From the transect to the district, they say Ugashik fish take 8.2 days, Egegik fish take 8.7 days, and Nushagak/Wood fish take 8.6 days. Fish on their way to the Naknek/Kvichak take just 7.3 days.
For Port Moller catches on Tuesday, no fish were caught at Station 20. Station 24 was not fished.
Station 2 caught 25 fish in the small net and 3 fish in the big net. That catch index is 60.
Station 4 caught 41 fish in the small net and 15 fish in the big net. That catch index is 105.
Station 6 caught 51 fish in the small net and 46 fish in the big net. That catch index is 188.
Station 8 caught 100 fish in the small net and 50 fish in the big net. That catch index is 225.
Station 10 caught 2 fish in the small net and 21 fish in the big net. That catch index is 49.
Station 12 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 3.
Station 14 caught 2 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 8.
Station 16 caught 2 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 4.
Station 18 caught 0 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 22 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 Tuesday was 54. The average length of fish caught in the small mesh was 502mm, and in the big mesh, 520mm.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
