This year’s Bristol Bay sockeye run is coming to a close, and it just surpassed the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s pre-season forecast of 44 million fish. But a few things stood out this year, including unusually early run timing. KDLG’s Jessie Sheldon spoke with biologists around the bay to get a better picture of the season.
Crews are getting off the water from fishing across the bay to break down their operations for the season and catch up on sleep. KDLG went down to the Dillingham harbor to check in with crews to see how they’re feeling about the 2026 sockeye season – and has this audio postcard.
Last but not least, we have a song to share that spotlights a piece of Bristol Bay “fishtory”.
In the 80s and early 90s, the commercial herring fishery in Togiak was big business, with processors purchasing the fish at over $1,000 a ton. Fish were primarily harvested for their eggs, and sold as high end herring sac roe, mostly to Japanese buyers. But Japanese interest in the product has since declined. In 2019, processors paid just $75 a ton for Togiak herring.
2023 was the first year in decades with no commercial herring fishery in Togiak. Today, the state department of Fish and Game still sets herring quotas, as other fisheries in the state are dependent on these stats. But this year was the 4th year in a row with no commercial harvest or openings.
This year’s Togiak Guideline Harvest from Fish & Game notes that the missing piece is the commercial interest, and not the fish.
Joe Hunt is a writer and musician who lived in Alaska for 17 years. He worked for the Anchorage Times covering natural resource issues and commercial fishing. While reporting on the state’s fisheries, Hunt felt inspired not only to write news, but to write music.
His 1989 song, “All for the herring,” is about the heyday of Togiak’s commercial herring fishery.
You can the song on YouTube, where it is accompanied by 1980s camcorder footage from the peak of the commercial fishery, shot on the back deck of a seiner.
Messages to the Fleet
No messages to the fleet tonight. If you’d like to send a message to the fleet, try us next year at 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Thursday was 13,929 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to 29,455,520 sockeye; which is below the harvest forecast of 32.26 million sockeye by 2.8 million. Escapement yesterday was 49,631 fish, making baywide escapement 15,246,484; which is above the escapement forecast of 11.79 million fish by 3.4 million.
And the Bristol Bay total run is 44,702,004 fish, which is about 600,000 above the total inshore run forecast of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 2,542 fish on Thursday, for a total season harvest of 8,985,676, with an average drift delivery of 34 sockeye. That is 4.9 million below the forecasted harvest of 13.9 million sockeye.
The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 15,195,422 sockeye, which is 3.2 million below the pre-season forecast of an 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted 8,423 sockeye on Thursday, for a total of 3,131,794 sockeye up the Nushagak so far. The Nushagak River was estimated to see an escapement of 2.05 million fish run this season, and they ended up above that by about 1 million fish. And they surpassed their escapement goal range of 370,000 to 2.6 million fish.
0 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 35,944 fish so far this season. And they are about 19,000 below their escapement goal range of 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
3,428 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 186,530 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted about 6,798 sockeye on Thursday, making their total count 2,574,438 fish, with another 2,682 sockeye past the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The Wood River was estimated to see an escapement of 2.27 million fish this season, which they were above by around 330,000 fish. But they are within their escapement goal range of 700,000 to 2.8 million fish.
Igushik
Igushik crews counted 14,232 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 503,514 fish, with an additional 6,054 sockeye as of 6 a.m. this morning.
Igushik exceeded the escapement forecast of 210,000 fish, and they surpassed the escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Note that previous reports had included a Nushagak forecast of 11.1 million sockeye, Wood River forecast of 6.43 million sockeye, and an Igushik forecast of 890,000 sockeye. These were for the inshore runs: accounting for both escapement AND harvest.
Togiak
In Togiak, 441 fish were caught yesterday; their total season catch is 126,763 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 151 sockeye. They were about 200,000 fish below the harvest forecast of 370,000 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crews counted 6,330 sockeye on Thursday, making their total count 36,090 fish, plus another 1,284 sockeye past the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning. They are about 83,000 fish below the escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000, and did not make it to the escapement forecast of 160,000 fish.
The total run for Togiak this season was 162,853 fish, putting them below their forecasted inshore run of 530,000 fish by about 367,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
In the Naknek-Kvichak district, 5,544 fish were caught yesterday, bringing their total catch to 6,129,324, with an average drift delivery of 239 sockeye. They nearly made it to their forecasted season harvest of 6.23 million sockeye.
The Naknek River wound up with an escapement of 892,326 fish. They are within the escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million, but below the escapement forecast of 1.1 million.
Kvichak crews counted 726 fish yesterday for a total of 3,074,502 sockeye. That’s within the Kvichak’s escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million fish and above the estimated forecast of 2.02 million fish.
Yesterday, Alagnak towers counted 7,764 fish, for a season total of 1,403,406 fish. They ended up well above the minimum escapement goal of 210,000 sockeye, but below the forecasted escapement of 1.63 million sockeye.
The total run for Naknek-Kvichak is nearly 11,499,558 fish, which is above the pre-season run forecast of 11 million fish by 500,000.
Egegik
Egegik crews caught 5,402 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 376 sockeye. Their season total catch is 8,872,578 sockeye, which is well above their harvest forecast of 7.53 million sockeye by over 1.4 million fish.
Only 672 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 1,982,724 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish, and above their forecasted escapement of 1.4 million sockeye by about 600,000.
Overall, the total run for Egegik is 10,855,302 sockeye, which is above the forecasted inshore run of 8.93 million fish by nearly 2 million.
Ugashik
Ugashik ended up with a total catch of 5,341,179 sockeye, and they exceeded the forecasted harvest of 4.26 million fish by 1 million.
4,686 fish were counted swimming past the Ugashik towers, bringing the total escapement to 1,647,690 fish. They have exceeded their escapement goal range of 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye and their escapement forecast of 950,000 fish by almost 700,000 fish.
The Ugashik total run is 6,988,869 fish, having exceeded the forecasted inshore run of 5.21 million fish by 1.8 million.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, 10,952 sockeye swam through the weir on Thursday, for a season total of 561,095 sockeye. 1,252 fish were part of the early run, and 9,700 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 32,842 sockeye for a season total of 4,097,465 fish.
86 chinook were caught, their total season harvest is 2,156 so far.
Fleets caught 13,876 chum on Thursday, for a season total of 626,093.
85,404 pinks were caught the other day, their harvest is 1,570,012.
2,108 Cohos were caught on Thursday, their total is 12,273.
A total of 6,308,000 salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season
If you’d like to get in touch, give feedback about this season’s Fisheries Report, or share some perspective or tips for next year’s report, give us a call 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
