Alaska Commercial Salmon Forecasts Project a 2012 Decrease

The new run forecasts and harvest projections for 2012 Alaska salmon fisheries predict a decrease in overall commercial salmon catches in 2012 due to the projected decrease in pink salmon harvests. The report says the 2012 total commercial salmon catch projection of 132.1 million fish is expected to include 120,000 king salmon in areas outside southeast Alaska, 38.4 million sockeye salmon, 4.3 million coho salmon, 70.2 million pink salmon and 19.1 million chum salmon. The projected pink salmon harvest is about 40 percent lower than the harvest of 116 million pinks last year.

The projected sockeye salmon harvest is about 4 percent lower than last year’s catch, while the projected chum salmon harvest is some 12 percent higher than in 2011.

Last year the Alaska all-species salmon harvest totaled 177.1 million fish, about 26.4 million less than the preseason forecast of 203.5 million fish. The combined harvest included 468,000 Chinook salmon, 40 million sockeyes, 3.5 million cohos, 116.1 million pinks and 17 million chums.

In Bristol Bay, the 2011 inshore sockeye salmon run of some 30.3 million fish and catch of 21.9 million reds ranked 14th over the 20 year period fro 1991 through 2010 and was 18th below the average run of 37.1 million sockeyes for those years.

At Kodiak, the commercial harvest of 18,615 kings, 2.3 million sockeyes, 190,483 cohos, 16.6 million pinks and 824,562 chum salmon totaled 20 million salmon of all species, which was below the previous 10-year average of 24.3 million salmon.

In southeast Alaska and the Yakutat region last year total harvests included 346,000 kings, 1.2 million reds, 2.3 million silvers, 59.1 million pinks, and 10.7 million chum salmon. With strong pink and chum salmon harvests, average pink and chum salmon weights, and strong prices, the ex-vessel value of $200 million was a record for that region since statehood.

The full report is at www.adfg.alaska.gov/FedAid/PDFs/SP12-01.pdf