Record Breaking Salmon Harvest This Year in Alaska

The commercial salmon harvest this year in Alaska has set an all-time record due primarily to huge returns of pink salmon. The latest statewide total from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game puts this year’s salmon harvest at over 269-million fish. The vast majority of the harvest, 216-million to be exact, was pink salmon. Over 84-million pinks were taken in the seine fisheries in Prince William Sound and another 47-million pinks were taken in the southern Southeast seine fisheries with another 38-million taken in the northern Southeast seine fishery. The pink harvest in the Kodiak area was well over 28-million fish. This year’s statewide sockeye harvest totaled over 29.5-million fish with over 15.7-million sockeye taken in the Bristol Bay fishery. The harvest in the Egegik District was 4.8-million sockeye and the harvest in the Naknek-Kvichak District was just over 5-million. The sockeye harvest in the Nushagak Dsitrict was over 3.1-million fish and the harvest down in the Ugashik District was just over 2.1-million sockeye. The sockeye harvest in the Alaska Peninsula region was over 2.9-million and the harvest in the Kodiak region was over 2.5-million fish. The statewide coho harvest was recorded at over 5.1-million fish and the statewide chum harvest was just over 18-million. The statewide king salmon harvest was about 307-thousand fish. This year’s total commercial salmon harvest in Alaska of over 269-million fish shattered the old record of nearly 222-million salmon recorded back in 2005. This year’s statewide pink harvest of over 216-million far exceeded the old record of 161-million pinks recorded in 2005.