Processors are paying more for commercial salmon this season than in recent years. As CoastAlaska’s Angela Denning reports, that has to do with international markets.
Next up, we check in with climate specialist Rick Thoman for this week’s weather Wednesday.
It’s been a stormy week on the water in Bristol Bay, with wind, waves, and relentless rain. In honor of this week’s weather Wednesday, tonight we bring you a tale of a gale in Egegik from fisherman Robin Samuelson around 1985.
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 431,050 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to 27,528,749 sockeye; the catch forecast bay-wide is 32.26 million sockeye. Escapement yesterday was 369,313 fish, bringing the total run so far to 42,183,923 fish. The forecast this year estimates a total run of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 68,826 fish on Tuesday, for a total season harvest of 8,781,749, with an average drift delivery of 282 sockeye. The forecasted harvest is 13.9 million sockeye. 74% of harvest has been caught by the drift fleet, 22.8% by Nushagak set netters, and 3.2% by set-netters in the Igushik.
The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 14,719,483 sockeye. Their pre-season forecast is an 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 9,259 sockeye on Tuesday, for a total of 3,075,998 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.
269 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 34,803 fish so far this season. The escapement goal range for chinook salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
553 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 169,231 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted 22,770 sockeye on Tuesday, making their total count 2,491,242 fish, with another 660 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 10,002 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 370,494 fish, with an additional 3,420 sockeye as of 6 a.m. this morning. They have an estimated run of 890,000 fish, and are within the escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
In Togiak, 12,841 fish were caught yesterday; their total season catch is 73,683 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 223 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crews counted 702 sockeye on Tuesday, making their total count 5,970 fish, plus another 90 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, 233,301 fish were caught yesterday, bringing their total catch to 5,445,948, with an average drift delivery of 734 sockeye. Their forecasted season harvest is 6.2 million sockeye. So far, 15.4% of the district’s catch has been from Kvichak set-netters, 15.8% from Naknek set-netters, and 68.9% by the Naknek-Kvichak drift fleet.
Tower crews on the Naknek River counted 4,206 fish, for a total of 870,528 fish so far. The Naknek river is within the escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million, and has an estimated inshore run of 3.9 million sockeye.
Kvichak crews counted 219,168 fish yesterday for a total of 3,047,496 sockeye so far. That’s within the Kvichak’s escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million fish. The estimated inshore run for the Kvichak is 3.9 million fish.
Yesterday, Alagnak towers counted 101,916 fish, for a season total of 1,231,368 fish so far. The Alagnak River’s forecasted run is for 3.2 million sockeye, and they are well past their minimum escapement goal of 210,000 sockeye.
The total run for Naknek-Kvichak is now 10,614,716 fish. The pre-season run forecast for the district is about 11 million fish.
Egegik
Egegik crews caught 70,794 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 440 sockeye. Their season total catch is 8,247,448 sockeye so far, which is well above their harvest forecast of 7.5 million sockeye. 83.1% of the harvest was caught by the drift fleet, and 16.9% by the set-netters.
36,924 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 1,874,514 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Overall, the total run for Egegik is 10,121,962 sockeye, surpassing the forecasted inshore run of 8.9 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled in 45,288 fish yesterday; their season’s total catch is now 4,979,921 sockeye, with an average drift delivery yesterday of 423 sockeye. Ugashik has exceeded the forecasted harvest of 4.3 million fish. 88.4% of the catch was caught by the drift fleets, and 11.6% was caught by set-netters.
24,990 fish were counted swimming past the Ugashik towers, bringing the total escapement to 1,543,188 fish. They have exceeded their escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye.
The Ugashik total run is 6,648,109 fish so far, having exceeded the forecasted inshore run of 5.2 million fish.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 362 permits on 247 boats. There should be 362 permits on 248 boats by Friday, and the number of DBoats will go down from 116 to 115.
The Ugashik District has 294 permits on 202 boats, which should move up to 296 permits on 203 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will rise from 92 to 93.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 688 permits on 502 boats. That will go up to 714 permits on 517 boats by Thursday. DBoats will go from 186 to 197.
In the Nushagak, there are 303 permits on 220 boats. In the next 2 days, that will decrease to 301 permits on 219 boats. DBoats will move down from 83 to 82.
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 1,670 active permits on 1,194 boats and 477 DBoats.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, 5,480 sockeye swam through the weir on Tuesday, for a season total of 418,415 sockeye. 1,941 fish were part of the early run, and 3,539 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 1,658 sockeye for a season total of 3,861,944 fish.
And no other species were caught, but the totals are as follows:
Chinook, 2,386; chum, 565,725; pinks, 1,408,761; cohos, 2,577.
A total of 5,841,393 million salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
