Over 1.3-Million Sockeye Harvested Wednesday in Bristol Bay

Commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay caught nearly 1.4-million sockeye in Bristol Bay on Wednesday to push the total for the season to just over 2-million. The district with the largest catch on Wednesday was the Naknek-Kvichak District where 594-thousand sockeye were caught. That pushes the district total to nearly 1-million fish. The catch in the Nushagak District was 496-thousand to push the district total up to 555.8-thousand sockeye. Wednesday’s catch in the Egegik District was 305-thousand. That pushes the season total up to 494.5-thousand. Wednesdays' catch in the Togiak District was 4.6-thousand sockeye to push the total to over 11-thousand. The total catch in the Ugashik District is 4.5-thousand so far this season. Looking now at escapement. 25-thousand sockeye were counted in the Egegik River on Wednesday to push the season total up to 239-thousand. However, Fish and Game is estimating that another 100-thousand sockeye are in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Wednesday’s escapement count to the Kvichak River was 70-thousand. That pushes the season total to 78.5-thousand. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are another quarter of a million sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Escapement to the Naknek River was counted at 31.5-thousand fish on Wednesday to push the total up to 304-thousand sockeye. Escapement to the Wood River Wednesday was counted at 207.5-thousand sockeye to push the total up to 302.5-thousand. Nushagak River sockeye escapement was counted at 37.5-thousand to push the total up to nearly 112-thousand. The total run to Bristol Bay so far this season is 3.4-million including harvest, escapement and the in-river estimates for the Egegik and Kvichak Rivers. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on average there were 795 sockeye per drift delivery in the Egegik District Wednesday. The number in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 655 and it was 622 in the Nushagak District. The average sockeye per drift delivery number in the Togiak District was 61. Fish and Game reports that there are currently 372 drift vessels registered to fish in the Egegik District, 468 in Naknek and 469 in the Nushagak District. Catches as part of the ongoing Port Moller Test Fishery dropped off considerably Wednesday with just 91-sockeye harvested. 79 of those fish were taken at station 8. That catch at station 10 was 5 fish and just one sockeye were taken at station 1. No fish were taken at station 4 and 6 fish were harvested at station 2. The daily replacement index number was just 19. That pushed the cumulative number up to 344. Wednesday’s daily traditional index number was 82. That pushes the cumulative index number up to 835. In 8 of the last 24 years the cumulative traditional index number has been lower than the 835 recorded this year through June 25th.