Coghill chum harvest at 1.8 M

Harvest of chum and sockeye salmon in the Coghill district of Prince William Sound reached an estimated 1,777,250 and 172,799 fish respectively as of July 16, exceeding the 10-year averages of 1.5 million chum and 150,000 reds, state fisheries biologists said.

Likewise in the Eshamy Main Bay district, drift gillnet sockeye harvests reached some 881,506 fish and chum harvests were at 121,199, compared with 10-year averages of 687,000 reds and 192,000 chums, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Purse seiners in the Prince William Sound Southwestern district had some 328,395 chums, 31,223 reds, 3,684 pinks, 335 cohos and 43 Chinook salmon, while purse seiners in the Montague district brought in some 427,508 chums, 125,489 humpies, 4,394 sockeyes, 499 silvers and 155 kings.

In the Prince William Sound eastern district, purse seiners delivered an estimated 1,054,670 humpies, 2,549 chums, 310 reds 68 silvers and five Chinooks.

The Copper River drift gillnet fishery to date had 30,649 sockeyes, 7,145 kings, 2,974 chums, 27 silvers and 19 pink salmon, constituting the second lowest harvest of red salmon there in the past 50 years, while Coghill district chum and Eshamy district sockeye harvests were tracking ahead of anticipated 1.74 million chums and 849,000 reds respectively.

The overall Prince William Sound harvest was estimated by ADF&G biologists at 5,024,877 salmon, including 2.7 million chums, 1.2 million humpies, 1.1 million sockeyes, 8 million Chinooks and 1.5 million silvers, up from an estimated 2.5 million chums, 1,022,779 sockeyes, 18,461 pinks, 7,829 Chinooks and 459 silvers on June 10.

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ADF&G’s blue sheet estimated statewide deliveries to processors at 45,121,000 salmon, including 33,865,000 sockeyes, 7,818,000 chums, 3,074,000 humpies, 223,000 cohos and 141,000 Chinooks.

Small boat fishermen on the Lower Yukon, after being held to dipnets only through July 4 by ADF&G for purposes of king salmon conservation, had delivered upwards of 393,000 keta salmon by June 16, while their larger boat counterparts on the Alaska Peninsula were

Meanwhile at Chignik, on the South Alaska Peninsula, the commercial sockeye fishery, which produced some 3,946 kings and 895,041 sockeyes a year ago, has been closed all season. Through July 16, Alaska Peninsula fishermen brought in 3.4 million salmon, including an estimated 2.1 million sockeyes, 791,000 chums, 427,000 humpies, 98,000 cohos and 13,000 Chinooks. A year ago, the annual harvest for the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands and Atka-Amlia Islands management areas included 12,683 kings, over 7 million sockeyes, 358,967 cohos, nearly 22 million humpies and over 2 million chums.

At Kodiak, deliveries to processors included 2,000 kings, for a total of nearly 841,000 salmon.  Last year’s commercial harvest at Kodiak included some 2.5 million reds, which was above the recent 10-year average of 2.2 million, but slightly below the forecast of 2,516,000 reds.

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