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Upper Cook Inlet bracing for nearly 10 million sockeyes

July 24th 4:16 pm | Margaret Bauman Print this article   Email this article   Create a Shortlink for this article

Talk about the importance of getting a second opinion!

That's just what the Alaska Department of Fish and Game did on July 22, with its standard in-season assessment of the Upper Cook Inlet salmon fishery, which suggests that the run may reach 9.9 million wild Alaska sockeye salmon, or more.

The forecast was 6.4 million reds, said Pat Shields, acting state area management biologist for Upper Cook Inlet.

State fisheries managers for Upper Cook Inlet, now estimating that 6.7 million reds in that run would hit the Kenai River, boosted the in-river escapement for the Kenai River to 1.1 million to 1.35 million fish, up from 1 million to 1.2 million fish, based on the preseason estimate. They also increased fishing time for both the east side setnet fisheries and the drift gillnetters

All this activity has helped boost the statewide commercial salmon harvest through July 23 to some 71.3 million fish.

Processors have brought in extra tenders to Upper Cook Inlet and there are no limits at this time for deliveries to those tenders, as occurred briefly a week ago. Harvests have been robust, including the July 14 fishery, which recorded a record high catch per unit effort of more than 1,630 sockeye salmon per boat caught by 420 vessels.

Shield said that while there are some 580 drift gillnet permits for Upper Cook Inlet, only 420 vessels are fishing, but some may be fishing with double permits.

The only potential dark side for the commercial fishery is a concern about sport-fished king salmon. The state Division of Sport Fishing has put out an emergency order removing bait from the fishery beginning July 25 and also eliminated the one king salmon per permit allowed in the Kenai River dip net fishery, beginning July 24, Shields said. There are concerns about a late run on the Kenai River for kings, and if the sport fishery for king salmon on the Kenai River is closed, the east side commercial setnet fishery closes too, he said.

The statewide harvest total includes 22.3 million salmon caught through July 23 in Bristol Bay, among them 21.8 million reds, 42,000 kings, 427 chums and 2,000 pinks.

Here's a rundown on the rest of the harvests, from state preliminary harvest reports:

In Prince William Sound, harvesters have netted 17.5 million salmon, including 12.6 million pinks, 3.2 million sockeyes, 1.6 million chums, and 19,000 each of king and silver salmon. That includes the Copper River district, which has a total harvest to date of 1.9 million fish, including 1.9 million sockeyes, 19,000 kings, 12,000 chums, 8,000 cohos and 6,000 pinks.

For the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region, harvest totals stood at 693,000 fish, including 604,000 chums, 67,000 reds, 18,000 kings, 4,000 pinks and some 1,000 silvers.

Southeast Alaska has harvested 17.2 million salmon, including 13.3 million pinks, 2.8 million chums, 479,000 reds, 365,000 silvers, and 224,000 kings.

Kodiak has harvested 2.8 million salmon, including 1.8 million reds, 547,000 pinks, 449,000 chums, 29,000 silvers and 8,000 kings.

For Chignik, the total harvest through July 23 was 2.5 million salmon, including 2.2 million reds, 142,000 pinks, 105,000 chums, and about 3,000 each of kings and silvers.

Fishermen on the Alaska Peninsula had a total of 4.2 5 million salmon, including 2.5 million reds, more than 1 million pinks, 660,000 chums, 36,000 silvers and 7,000 kings.

 

Margaret Bauman can be reached at mbauman@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-348-2438.

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