Over 1.8-Million Sockeye Harvested So Far in Bristol Bay

The commercial sockeye harvest in Bristol Bay has topped 1.8-million with another 417-thousand fish added to the total on Friday. The Egegik District boasts the most impressive harvest thus far with another 195-thousand sockeye taken on Friday to push the district total to just over 1-million fish. Next up is the Naknek-Kvichak District where fishermen harvested 70-thousand sockeye on Friday before the district closed at 9-am. That pushes the season total to over 565.8-thousand sockeye. Friday was a big day in the Ugashik District with a harvest of 152-thousand fish to push the season total to over 172.9-thousand sockeye. So far the harvests in the Nushgak and Togiak Districts are not yet being reported by Fish and Game. Now for a look at the latest escapement numbers. In Egegik another 47.4-thousand sockeye were counted on Friday to push the season total to 230.1-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Egegik River is between 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates that there are another 40-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted. The total run to the Egegik District is now counted at over 1.3-million sockeye. Fish and Game is reporting that another 14.8-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Naknek River on Friday to push the season total to nearly 24-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Naknek River is 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. Friday was the first day of counting escapement to the Kvichak River and just 894-fish were counted. The total run thus far to the Naknek-Kvichak District is over 590.6-thousand sockeye. The escapement towers are not yet up and running in the Ugashik and Togiak Districts. Friday’s sockeye escapement to the Nushagak River was counted at 160.8-thousand fish to push the season total to over 233.3-thousand fish. Sockeye escapement to the Wood River was counted at 79.5-thousand fish on Friday to push the total to over 87.2-thousand. If you add the escapement through 6-am Saturday morning the total to the Wood River climbs to over 106-thousand sockeye. The total run thus far to the Nushagak District is just 320.6-thousand sockeye. However, Fish and Game is not yet reporting the harvest numbers from the Nushagak District. The total run to Bristol Bay through Friday is over 2.4-million fish. The preseason forecasts anticipates a run this year of over 26.3-million fish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on Friday there were on average 964 sockeye per drift deliver in the Ugashik District. The number in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 424 sockeye per drift delivery. In Egegik there were on average 336-sockeye per drift delivery. Friday’s daily traditional index number from the Port Moller Test Fishery was 152, which pushes the cumulative traditional index number up to 962. That is still the highest cumulative index number on record through June 21st. The previous high was 878 recorded back in 1995. That year the run came in at over 61-million sockeye. The average cumulative index number for this point in the season is 532. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is not yet producing a full daily run summary. Instead they are producing a partial summary that is only being distributed via email. It is not yet available on the Fish and Game website.