Alaska Salmon Harvest Tops 265 Million Fish

Commercial salmon fishing in Alaska hit a new harvest high in 2013, with a record 266,266,000 fish delivered through Sept. 10, exceeding the previous record of 221.9 million salmon caught in 2005.

The harvest of 214,387,000 pink salmon also exceeded the previous record of 161 million humpies in 2005.

This is the fifth time that the overall harvest has exceeded 200 million salmon. That total was also exceeded in 2007, 2005, 1999 and 1995, noted Geron Bruce, assistant director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Commercial Fisheries.

Click Here for Advertising Information

The state agency will soon be posting the 2013 updates on the salmon season at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyfisherysalmon.salmoncatch. The data is separated out by region and species, including average weight and price per pound, the number of fish, number of pounds and estimated value.

Last year’s overall salmon harvest totaled 123,837,000 fish, which weighed in at 630,891,000 pounds and had an estimated value of $505,769,000, according to the state’s statistical report.

For the 2013 season, Southeast Alaska had the largest volume by area, with a catch of 101,982,000 fish, including 87,805,000 humpies, 10,156,000 chum, 2,900,000 silver, 896,000 sockeye and 225,000 Chinook salmon.

Prince William Sound was second in volume, delivering more than 94,090,000 fish, including 87,850,000 humpies, 3,455,000 chum, 2,280,000 red, 494,000 coho and 10,000 king salmon.

The Westward region, including the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, Chignik and Kodiak, brought in 36,850,000 humpies, 7,847,000 sockeye, 2,034,000 chum, 526,000 silver and 44,000 kings, for a total of 47,301,000 fish.

Bristol Bay had 16.6 million salmon, including 15,711,000 sockeye, 756,000 chum, 138,000 coho and 18,000 kings.

For Cook Inlet, the total of 5,093,000 fish included 2,724,000 red, 1,873,000 pink, 257,000 silver, 233,000 chum and 5,000 kings.

The Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region brought in 1,561,000 fish, including 1,231,000 chum, 268,000 coho, 51,000 sockeye, 8,000 pink and 2,000 king salmon.