Over 2-Million Sockeye Harvested Thursday in Bristol Bay

The sockeye harvest in Bristol Bay topped 2-million on Thursday to push the season total to 4.1-million. Over 860-thousand sockeye were taken in the Egegik District on Thursday to push the season total up to 1.3-million. Thursday’s catch in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 663-thousand sockeye to push the district total up to 1.6-million. The catch in the Nushagak District was 511-thousand sockeye to push the district total up to 1.1-million. The catch in the Togiak District was 2-thousand to push the district total up to 13-thousand. Now looking at escapement…. Nearly 56-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Egegik River on Thursday to push the season total up to 295-thousand. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are another quarter of a million sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Sockeye escapement was counted at 181-thousand Thursday to the Kvichak River. That pushes the total up to 259.5-thousand sockeye. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are 300-thousand sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. The escapement to the Naknek River was 48.7-thousand sockeye on Thursday. That puts the total for the Naknek River at over 352.8-thousand fish. The biggest escapement number recorded Thursday was the 583.3-thousand recorded to the Wood River. That puts the total up to 885.8-thousand sockeye. The sockeye escapement to the Nushagak River was 98.4-thousand to push the season total up to 210.3-thousand. Just 12 sockeye were counted as escapement on Thursday to the Igushik River. That puts the season total up to 360 fish. The total run to Bristol Bay through Thursday is 6.7-million sockeye. That includes harvest, escapement and the in-river estimates for the Egegik and Kvichak Rivers. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notes that there were on average 1,377 sockeye per drift delivery Thursday in the Egegik District. The number in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 720 and it was 451 in the Nushagak District. The average sockeye per drift delivery number in the Togiak District was 37. Fish and Game confirms that there are currently 375 drift vessels registered to fish in the Egegik District, 472 in the Naknek District and 465 in the Nushagak District.