Today's the big day: one of you caught the two billionth fish....now on to three!
You’ve done it, Bristol Bay. We’re pretty sure that somewhere out there in one of the five fishing districts, someone hauled in the 2 billionth commercially-caught salmon this afternoon.
Bristol Bay’s run for 2016 through Tuesday was 12.3 million salmon – about a quarter of the way to the forecast. Yesterday’s catch was 1.1 million, season total 8.6 million. Another 560,000 counted as escapement, and 3.2 million for all rivers counting so far this season.
How many boats are out there?
Ugashik: 263 permits on 204 boats.
Egegik: 357 permits on 284 boats.
Naknek-Kvichak: 618 permits on 503 boats, going up to 640 permits on 516 boats after a 48-hour wait.
Nushagak: 396 permits on 304 boats.
Togiak: 42 permits – 42 boats.
Tonight we check out those numbers and plenty more - including stock compositions from the Port Moller test fishery - hear who might have caught the two billionth fish, and check-in on westside management with Fish and Game's Tim Sands.
Letters from home to your friends and family in the Bay this summer? Email us here, or call 907-842-5281.
Have feedback, suggestions of something you'd like to hear, or a good hot tip? Email Dave or Molly, or call us on the news line: 907-842-2200.
Port Moller has posted several days of good daily indexes. Today, we received the estimates on where those fish were headed.
For July 1 and 2:
Egegik: 33.7 percent
Wood River: 19 percent
Ugashik: 13 percent
Naknek: 12 percent
Kvichak: 8.6 percent
North AK Peninsula: 6.2 percent
Nushagak 3.5 percent
Alagnak 2.2 percent
Igushik 1.2 percent
Togiak and Kuskokwim, 0.0 percent.
Stock composition for July 3 and 4:
Ugashik, 27.4 percent
Egegik, 24.1 percent
Naknek, 11.7 percent
Wood, 9.7 percent
Kvichak, 9.6 percent
Nushagak, 7.3 percent
North Peninsula, 7.2 percent
Alagnak, 1.4 percent
Igushik, 1.3 percent
Kuskokwim and Togiak back in the game, with 0.3 and 0.1 percent respectively.