Over 1.3-Million Sockeye Harvested in Bristol Bay Through Thursday

Over 404,000-sockeye were harvested in the Bristol Bay commercial sockeye fishery on Thursday to push the season total to over 1.3-million fish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is only reporting part of the total catch so the actual harvest is likely bigger than what is being reported through Thursday. That’s because ADF&G can’t release catch information for the Ugashik, Nushagak or Togiak Districts due to confidentiality reasons. Fish and Game must have more than 2 buyers in a District to report the harvest numbers and those 3 districts don’t have the needed number of buyers up and running. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is releasing the most up to date escapement information and some of the harvest information in a partial daily run summary. The summary is being distributed via email and won’t be available online until the full daily run summaries are produced. Thursday’s commercial catch in the Egegik District was 194-thousand sockeye to push the season total in the Egegik District to over 878.4-thousand fish. Thursday’s commercial harvest in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 210-thousand sockeye to push the season total in the District to over 496.2-thousand fish. As noted earlier the Department of Fish and Game is not yet releasing harvest information in the Ugashik, Nushagak and Togiak Districts.  Now looking at the escapement information…. 45.3-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Egegik River on Thursday to push the season total to 182.6-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Egegik River is between 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 35-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. The Naknek River counting towers are up and running and the first full day of counting was Thursday. Just over 9-thousand sockeye were counted. The escapement goal for the Naknek River is between 800-thousand to 1.4-million fish. The Kvichak River counting towers were scheduled to become operational today. In the Nushgak District…. 60.5-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Nushagak River to push the season total to 72.5-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Nushagak River is between 370-thousand to 760-thousand fish. Sockeye escapement to the Wood River was counted on Thursday at over 7.2-thousand fish and the season total is 7.6-thousand sockeye. The escapement goal for the Wood River is between 700-thousand to 1.5-million fish. The counting towers on the Ugashik, Igushik and Togiak Rivers are not yet operational. The total run to the Egegik District, including harvest and escapement, is counted at just over 1-million fish. The total run thus far to the Naknek-Kvichak District is over 505-thousand sockeye and the run thus far to the Nushagak District is counted at just over 80-thousand fish. The total run to the Bay thus far, including harvest and escapement, is just over 1.6-million fish. Fish and Game reports that on Thursday there were on average 407-sockeye per drift delivery in the Naknek-Kvichak District. The number was 330 in the Egegik District.