A Sharp Increase in Harvest Wenesday in Bristol Bay

The sockeye harvest in Bristol Bay took a sharp turn upward on Wednesday but the harvest is still a couple of million short of the pre-season forecast. On Wednesday fishermen hauled in 719-thousand sockeye to push the season total to over 14.4-million fish. The District with the largest harvest is the Naknek-Kvichak District where fishermen hauled in another 490-thousand sockeye on Wednesday to push the season total to over 4.5-million fish. That’s still over a million fish short of the pre-season forecast. Wednesday’s harvest in the Ugashik District was 90-thousand fish to push the season total to 1.9-million sockeye. The harvest in the Egegik District on Wednesday was 60-thousand sockeye to push the season total to over 4.5-million fish. The harvest in the Egegik District is approaching the pre-season forecast of 4.7-million sockeye. Wednesday’s harvest in the Nushagak District was 49-thousand sockeye to push the total to over 3.1-million fish. The harvest Wednesday in the Togiak District was 30-thousand sockeye to push the season total to over 194.6-thousand fish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on Wednesday there were on average 1,004 sockeye per drift delivery in the Naknek-Kvichak District and the number in the Ugashik District was 411. The average number in the Egegik District was 189 and it was 134 in the Nushagak District. The number in the Togiak District was 204. Fish and Game confirms that the vessel count in Bristol Bay Wednesday morning was 1,259 and that’s expected to increase up to 1,377 in 48-hours. The count in the Egegik District is 275 vessels and there are 540 registered drift vessels in the Naknek-Kvichak District. The count in the Nushagak District is 232 and there are 136 registered drift vessels in the Ugashik District. The overall vessel count is expected to increase by 658 vessels in 48-hours. 118 of those vessels will be headed to the Naknek-Kvichak District. Now looking at escapement. Another 41.7-thousand sockeye were counted to the Ugashik River on Wednesday to push the total up to 324.6-thousand sockeye. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 250-thousand sockeye in the Ugashik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Wednesday’s count to the Egegik River was 97.5-thousand to push the season total to over 1-million fish. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 30-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Wednesday was a great day for sockeye escapement to the Kvichak River with a count of 232.3-thousand sockeye. That pushes the total to over 1.9-million. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 150-thousand sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Naknek River escapement was counted at 30.5-thousand sockeye to push the total to over 910-thousand fish. In the Nushagak District the escapement count to the Igushik River was counted at 13.7-thousand fish on Wednesday to push the total to over 329.7-thousand sockeye. Nushagak River sockeye escapement was counted at 13.7-thousand fish to push the season total to over 869.5-thousand fish. Wood River escapement was counted at 14.9-thousand to push the season total to over 1.1-million fish. Total escapement to the Togiak River is counted at 21.3-thousand fish. Now looking at the gear splits. In the Ugashik District the split is 92.6-percent drift and 7.2-percent set. In Egegik the split is 85.2-percent drift and 14.8-percent set. The split in the Naknek-Kvichak District is 84-percent drift, 8.2-percent Naknek set and 7.8-percent Kvichak set. In the Nushagak District the split is 78.8-percent drift, 16.4-percent Nushagak set and 4.8-percent Igushik set. The daily run summary can be found on the ADF&G Bristol Bay website and the summaries are posted at the Fish and Game offices in Dillingham and King Salmon.