Port Moller Test Fishery Update: Catches Dropped Off Sunday

The catch at the Port Moller Test Fishery dropped off substantially on Sunday. Sunday’s catch was just 17 sockeye. 13 of those fish were taken at station 10, which is the outermost station fished as part of the test fishery. Of those 13 sockeye, 10 were caught in the 5 1/8 inch mesh panels. The catch Sunday at station 2 was just 1 sockeye and just 2 sockeye were taken from station 4. The catch at station 6 was 1 fish and no sockeye were taken at station 8. Sunday’s paltry catch produced a daily replacement index number of 3, which pushed the cumulative index number up to 52. The daily traditional index number from Sunday’s fishing effort was just 1, which pushed the cumulative index number up to 120. That’s below the average traditional cumulative index number of 135 for June 15th and well shy of last year’s maximum number of 390. 11 times since 1990 the cumulative index number has been above this year’s index number of 120. 11 of the sockeye taken Sunday as part of the Port Moller Test Fishery were caught in the 5 1/8 inch mesh. The other 6 sockeye were taken in the 4 ½ inch mesh. The interpretation for Sunday’s catches was released late Sunday night by Scott Raborn with the Bristol Bay Science and Research Institute. He notes that the low replacement index observed thus far casts doubt on the sockeye run being early this year. He cautions that it’s too early in the season for a more definitive projection. However, Raborn writes that no substantial quantity of fish has passed through the test fishery. It looks like the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will release the first stock composition estimates from the Port Moller Test Fishery on Wednesday. Those estimates will cover the first 5 days of fishing effort from June 10th through the 15th. You can take a look at the data from the Port Moller Test Fishery on the website of the Bristol Bay Economic Corporation. BBEDC is the parent organization for the Bristol Bay Science and Research Institute, which run the Port Moller Test Fishery. The fishery has not yet missed any days due to bad weather and the fishery is scheduled to run through July 10th.