August 19, 2015 — Alaska’s salmon season so far has been characterized by ups and downs, and it will be a stretch for the total catch to make the forecasted 221 million fish.
“It just depends on how these late-returning pink salmon at Prince William Sound perform, and whether or not pinks pick up at Southeast. It’s possible, but we would still have to harvest around 30 million more salmon,” mused Forrest Bowers, Deputy Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division.
One of the biggest fish stories of the season, of course, was the surprising double runs of sockeye salmon (reds) to Bristol Bay. As soon as a slow-going first run petered out and the fishery was declared a bust, a surge of late reds caught everyone by surprise and pushed the catch to nearly 36 million fish.
Alaska’s sockeye salmon fishery sometimes accounts for almost two-thirds of the value of the total salmon harvest. A statewide tally of 51.5 million by Aug. 14 makes it unlikely the sockeye harvest will reach the projected take of 58.8 million fish.
Reds might be the big money fish, but pinks are fishermen’s bread and butter, and Prince William Sound scoops the story there. Record returns to some hatcheries and better-than-expected wild pink salmon returns have pushed catches above 75 million — and the humpies are still coming home. Will it top the Sound’s record 93 million pinks taken in 2013?
Conversely, the much-anticipated pink salmon boom at Southeast Alaska has yet to materialize with the catch nearing 23 million.
“There’s still a bit of fishing time remaining, and the harvest will continue to tick upward, but right now it doesn’t look like we’ll hit that forecast of 58 million pinks,” Bowers said.
The statewide catch forecast for pinks this year is 140 million; the take by mid-August was 128 million fish.