Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Alaska Salmon Harvest Edges Toward 100 Million Fish

Commercial harvests of wild salmon from Alaskan waters through July 30 reached more than 98,700,000 fish, the latest preliminary report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shows. The catch includes 55,618,000 pink, 28,001,000 sockeye, 13,601,000 chum, 1,248,000 silver and 294,000 kings.

In Prince William Sound, the catch has reached 29,584,000 pink, 3,377,000 chum, 2,240,000 sockeye, 23,000 silver and 10,000 kings – a total of  35,234,000 fish.

Harvesters in Cook Inlet netted 3.4 million salmon, mostly in Upper Cook Inlet, including 2.7 million sockeye, 382,000 pink, 165,000 chum, 163,000 silver and 5,000 Chinooks.

In the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region, Yukon River fishermen have delivered 539,000 chum salmon, the bulk of them from the Lower Yukon.  On the Kuskokwim, fishermen have delivered some 117,000 chum, 14,000 silver and 2,000 kings to processors, and in Norton Sound, the catch included some 99,000 chum, 8,000 silver and 8,000 pink salmon.

Southeast Alaska harvests have reached more than 18 million pink, nearly 7 million chum, 793,000 silver, 519,000 red and 218,000 Chinook salmon.

On the Alaska Peninsula, the catch includes 6.2 million salmon, the bulk of them from the South Peninsula. Processors there received 2.6 million red, 2.6 million pink, 798,000 chum, 189,000 silver and 5,000 kings.

At Chignik, 2.6 million wild salmon have been delivered to processors, including 2.2 million sockeye, 237,000 pink, 121,000 chum, 19,000 silver and 3,000 kings, and at Kodiak, the fleet has delivered nearly 7.3 million fish, including 4.7 million pink, nearly 2 million red, 535,000 chum, 32,000 silver and 31,000 Chinooks.