Sockeye Harvest Tops 11-Million

Commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay hauled in another 1.2-million sockeye on Monday to push the season total to over 11-million. The district that still leads the way in Bristol Bay is the Naknek-Kvichak District where fishermen hauled in 700-thousand sockeye on Monday to push the District total up to 4.6-million. Next up is the Nushagak District where fishermen hauled in another 365-thousand sockeye on Monday. That pushes the district total up to 3.3-million. Monday’s harvest in the Egegik District was 165-thousand sockeye to push the total to just over 3.1-million. Another 10-thousand sockeye were taken in the Togiak District on Monday to push the total up to nearly 24-thousand fish. The total in the Ugashik District is nearly 76-thousand sockeye. Now looking at escapement. Another 17.6-thousand sockeye were counted to the Ugashik River Monday to push the total up to 23-thousand. However, Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 200-thousand sockeye in the Ugashik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. Monday’s escapement to the Egegik River was 103.5-thousand to push the season total up to nearly 797-thousand sockeye. Fish and Game is estimating that there are another 50-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted as escapement. The escapement goal for the Egegik River is between 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. The largest daily escapement number recorded Monday was the 487.2-thousand to the Kvichak River. That pushes the total up to 1.3-million and Fish and Game estimates that there are another 800-thousand sockeye in the Kvichak River that have not yet been counted as escapement. The escapement goal for the Kvichak River is 2.65-million fish. The sockeye escapement to the Naknek River on Monday was nearly 141-thousand fish to push the total up to 929.3-thousand. That means that the Naknek River has met its escapement goal range of between 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. The escapement count Monday to the Igushik River was 20.6-thousand to push the total up to 65.8-thousand. Nushagak River sockeye escapement was counted at 28.7-thousand fish to push the total to 372.3-thousand. That means that the Nushagak River has met its escapement goal of between 370-thousand to 840-thousand sockeye. The only river in Bristol Bay that has exceeded the established escapement goal is the Wood River where another 158.5-thousand sockeye were counted Monday to push the total up to 1.7-million fish. That’s over 200-thousand sockeye over the upper end of the escapement goal. The total run to Bristol Bay through Monday was nearly 17.5-million sockeye. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that on-average there were 381 sockeye per drift delivery Monday in the Egegik District. The average number in the Naknek-Kvichak District was 1,171 and 391 in the Nushagak District. The average number in the Togiak District was 112. Fish and Game confirms that there are currently 422 driftnet permits registered to fish in the Egegik District on 346 vessels. The permit count is expected to increase to 425 in 48-hours and the vessel count should increase by just 3. Currently there are 76 D-boats in the Egegik District and that number is expected to remain unchanged in 48-hours. The permit count in the Naknek-Kvichak District is 602 and the vessel count is 501. The number of permits is expected to increase substantially in 48-hours up to 707 and the number of drift vessels in the District is expected to increase to 575. Currently there are 101 D-boats in the Naknek-Kvichak District and that’s expected to increase up to 132 in 48-hours. Currently there are 453-driftnet permits registered to fish in the Nushagak District on 377 vessels. The permit count is expected to decrease by 2 in 48-hours while the vessel count is anticipated to drop by just one drift vessel. Currently there are 76 D-boats registered to fish in the Nushagak District and that is expected to drop by 1 in 48-hours. The vessel and permit count in the Togiak District is 61. The permit count in the Ugashik District is 22 but that’s expected to increase up to 77 in 48-hours. Currently there are 21-driftnet vessels registered to fish in the Ugashik District but that’s expected to increase up to 62 in 48-hours. Currently there is just 1-D-boat fishing the the Ugashik District but that’s expected to increase up to 15 in 48-hours. Now looking at the currently sector splits. In the Ugashik District the split is 62.8-percent drift and 37.2-percent set. The split in the Egegik District is 89.4-percent drift and 10.6-percent set. In the Naknek-Kvichak District that split is 80.1-percent drift, 10.7-percent Naknek set and 9.2-percent Kvichak set. In the Nushagak District the split is 74.7-percent drift, 18.9-percent Nushagak set and 5.5-percent Igushik set. Once again the total sockeye harvest in Bristol Bay currently exceeds 11-million.