ANCHORAGE, Alaska — September 3, 2013 — The commercial salmon catch in Alaska reached a record 260 million for the 2013 season as of last week, up from 221 million in 2005, officials said.
During the last week of August, commercial fishermen netted about 24 million salmon, according to a state Fish and Game Department estimate.
Much of this year's catch came from Southeast Alaska, with 98.4 million salmon, most of them pinks, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported.
Statewide, the harvest of 209.5 million pinks nearly doubled the state's forecast of 117.8 million. It also exceeded the department's forecast of 178 million for all salmon species in 2013.
The coho harvest neared the forecast of 3.9 million, with an estimated 3.5 million fish caught. Alaska's coho runs were continuing, though river dynamics were influencing returns at the northern end of Cook Inlet.
On Kodiak's Ayakulik River, the run remained strong, with 10,180 cohos counted through Aug. 26, more than double the 2012 count by that time and nearly five times the 2011 number. On the Buskin River, 727 fish were counted through Aug. 26, nearly double the 2012 count by that point.