PWS commercial salmon harvest exceeds 12 M

Daily updates on the Prince William Sound in-season harvest estimates from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game boosted the total commercial salmon harvest total to over 12 million fish as of July 24.

Upwards of 8 million humpies, 2.8 million chums, 1.2 million sockeyes, nearly 8,000 kings and nearly 4,000 cohos have been delivered to processors.

The Coghill drift gillnet fishery continued to lead with deliveries that include 1,796,680 chums, 184,179 sockeyes, 79,080 humpies, 846 cohos and 467 Chinooks.

Drift gillnetters in the Eshamy Main Bay district have harvested an estimated 921,475 sockeyes, 129,603 chums, 73,411 humpies, 435 silvers and 111 kings.

Purse seiners in the Prince William Sound Southwestern district have caught some 339,272 chums, 69,190 pinks, 32,035 sockeyes, 4005 cohos and 44 kings, while in the Montague district purse seiners 439,078 chums, 305,028 pinks, 4,852 sockeyes, 565 cohos and 155 Chinooks. In the Prince William Sound Eastern district, harvests of pink salmon reached 7.2 million fish, plus some 12,480 chums, nearly 3,000 sockeyes, nearly 2,000 cohos and 10 kings.

Statewide harvests of wild salmon exceeded 65 million fish through July 24, with total catches in excess of 44 million reds, 10 million pinks, 9 million chums, 471,000 cohos and 182,000 kings.

Advertisement

Bristol Bay’s harvest now exceeds 40 million wild salmon, including nearly 39 million sockeyes. The bulk of the Bristol Bay harvest this season has come from the Nushagak district, where harvesters delivered nearly 25 million fish, including 24 million sockeyes.

Kodiak processors have received just over 1 million wild salmon, while in the Alaska Peninsula deliveries now exceed 4.4 million fish. Southeast Alaska’s harvest stood at 3.3 million salmon.

In the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwin region, the catch stood at 978,000 salmon, including 473,000 keta salmon harvested by small boat fishermen in the Lower Yukon, along with some 36,000 humpies.

Retail prices for fresh wild Alaska sockeye fillets ranged from $17.99 a pound at Pike Place Market in Seattle to $9.99 a pound at Costco stores in Anchorage.

Advertisement