In all Alaskan fisheries, good data is a critical part of management. But the collection of that data doesn't have to be left to just scientists. Within Bristol Bay’s sport fishery, there’s a new way for guides to report their catches and observations, to help build a robust record of Bristol Bay catches. KDLG's Jessie Sheldon reports.
Fish Facts is a regular 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... Range Expansion, and how climate change is driving salmon northward.
We have some fishy poetry to share this week by Maggie Parish. Parish is a second generation set-netter who's been fishing Bristol Bay since she was a child. She ran a drift boat for 5 years, but is now back to set-netting in Ugashik, and has this poem.
Messages to the Fleet
To Captain Brent Cathey on the F/V Independence:
Hey Snookums! Sure am excited about flying out and seeing you. I finally found that Barbra Streisand bootleg cassette you’ve been searching for and will bring it with me. Do you have enough prune juice, or should I bring some of that too? What about kale chips and Kombucha? I had some trouble transferring the title of your ‘78 Bronco to the non-profit, but they were thrilled to receive the donation. They said something about an auction, but I told them you’d be happy to have the extra space in your shop. I’ve gotten it so organized and declutterred since selling a couple of the snow machines. Okay, have to run - Ricardo, the new masseuse at the spa — is trying out a deep tissue massage package and asked if I could help him refine his technique. You know how I feel about continuing education!
Lots of love, see you in King Salmon!
— Montana Chick
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Sunday was 83,278 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to 29,121,465 sockeye; the catch forecast bay-wide is 32.26 million sockeye. Escapement yesterday was 65,370 fish, bringing the total run so far to 44,146,132 fish, surpassing the total run forecast of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 13,077 fish on Sunday, for a total season harvest of 8,955,522, with an average drift delivery of 188 sockeye. The forecasted harvest is 13.9 million sockeye.
The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 15,053,317 sockeye. Their pre-season forecast is an 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 4,782 sockeye on Sunday, for a total of 3,108,421 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.
No Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 35,600 fish so far this season. The escapement goal range for chinook salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
1,364 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 176,748 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted 9,072 sockeye on Sunday, making their total count 2,548,512 fish, with another 2,670 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 12,072 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 440,862 fish, with an additional 4,134 sockeye as of 6 a.m. this morning. They have an estimated run of 890,000 fish, and have surpassed the escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
In Togiak, no fish were caught yesterday; their total season catch is 103,277 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crews counted 3,306 sockeye on Sunday, making their total count 15,006 fish, plus another 1,182 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, 39,374 fish were caught yesterday, bringing their total catch to 6,033,336, with an average drift delivery of 303 sockeye. Their forecasted season harvest is 6.2 million sockeye.
Tower crews on the Naknek River counted 966 fish, for a total of 888,828 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 1,122 fish yesterday for a total of 3,069,270 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 12,588 fish, for a season total of 1,370,682 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 11,362,116 fish, which is above the pre-season run forecast of 10.98 million fish.
Egegik
Egegik crews caught 21,627 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 352 sockeye. Their season total catch is 8,754,764 sockeye so far, which is well above their harvest forecast of 7.5 million sockeye.
14,856 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 1,953,936 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Overall, the total run for Egegik is 10,708,700 sockeye, which is above the forecasted inshore run of 8.9 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled in 9,200 fish yesterday; their season’s total catch is now 5,274,566 sockeye, with an average drift delivery yesterday of 283 sockeye. Ugashik has exceeded the forecasted harvest of 4.3 million fish.
6,606 fish were counted swimming past the Ugashik towers, bringing the total escapement to 1,629,150 fish. They have exceeded their escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye.
The Ugashik total run is 6,903,716 fish so far, having exceeded the forecasted inshore run of 5.2 million fish.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, 15,715 sockeye swam through the weir on Sunday, for a season total of 489,523 sockeye. 3,116 fish were part of the early run, and 12,599 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 32,251 sockeye for a season total of 4,013,548 fish.
497 chinook were caught, their total season harvest is 2,067 so far.
Fleets caught 33,429 chum on Sunday, for a season total of 610,092.
64,226 pinks were caught the other day, their harvest is 1,482,080.
6,891 Cohos were caught on Sunday, their total is 9,857.
A total of 6,117,645 million salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
