ADF&G Fish Report: Record pink harvest, poor chum run
Norton Sound Salmon
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 1 king, 4,300 chums, 246,000 pinks, 250 sockeyes and 180 silvers.
The pink salmon commercial harvest of 246,000 fish is a record catch for an odd-numbered-year and the best harvest since 1998. Although the pink salmon harvest is the highest in over 20 years the Norton Sound pink run was average for an odd-numbered-year. The difference is that for the first time in the 2000s there was major buyer capacity allowing for more commercial fishing time. Chum salmon runs were weak for the second year in a row despite the good parent-year escapements in 2016 and 2017. Silvers are appearing in the commercial catch and have been passing the escapement counting projects and the department will shift to silver salmon management next week. Weights for chum, sockeye and silvers in the commercial catch have been much lower than average.
Unalakleet Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 1 king, 370 chums, 160,000 pinks, 40 sockeyes and 50 silvers caught by 35 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing is open 7 days a week with all kings required to be released when beach seining.
Unalakleet River Floating Weir – Cooperative project; Fish & Game, United States BLM and NSEDC. Major funding provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Office of Subsistence Management.
Cumulative counts are 487 kings, 14,000 chums, 1,300 sockeyes and 1,100 silvers. King passage is 9th lowest in 10 year of counts and the average historical 95 percent point of passage is now. This is the lowest chum count in the 11-years project history. Previous lows were 32,000 chums in 2016 and 39,000 in 2014. The average historical third quarter point for chum passage is now.
North River Tower – Camp J.B. Escapement goals: King 1,2002,600; Chum-No goal established; Pink 25,000; Silver 550-1,100 (aerial survey goal) – NSEDC project.
Cumulative counts are 825 kings, 800 chums, 350,000 pinks, 6 sockeyes and 200 silvers. The average historical 95 percent point for king passage is now. The chum count is a historical low in the 26-year project history and the average historical third quarter point is now. Last year was the second lowest chum count by this date with 800 chums. The pink count is fourth highest in 13 years of odd-numbered year counts, but well below the two million pinks counted by this time in 2019. The pink average historical third quarter point is now.
Shaktoolik Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 440 chums, 61,000 pinks, 75 sockeyes and 80 silvers caught by 20 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing is open 7 days a week with all kings required to be released when beach seining.
Shaktoolik Tower – No escapement goals yet established – NSEDC project.
Cumulative counts are 933 kings, 9,000 chums, 700,000 pinks, 100 sockeyes and 600 silvers. The king count ranks fifth out of eight years of counts. King passage is usually well past 95 percent now. Chums are about the same as last year and well below the previous six years. Pinks should be near the 90 percent point of passage now and with four years of odd-numbered-year counts to compare they are above the 400,000 pink count in 2015, but well below the 2019 count of 4 million pinks and 2017 count of 1.6 million.
Norton Bay Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 23 chums, 7,600 pinks, 2 sockeyes and 6 silvers by 3 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing is open 7 days a week.
Inglutalik River Tower – Cooperative project; NSEDC with assistance from Fish & Game.
Cumulative counts are 250 kings, 3,100 chums, 200,000 pinks, 15 sockeyes and 9 silvers. Kings counts are like recent years. Chums are well below other years except for last year. The next lowest count in 2019 had 24,000 chums by now. The pink count is like 2019 and only two other years had higher counts in 10 years of counting with the 2017 count of 1.3 million pinks being the highest count by now.
Ungalik River Tower – No escapement goals yet established – NSEDC project.
Cumulative counts are 321 kings, 16,000 chums, 620,000 pinks, 4,400 sockeyes and 3 silvers. This is the third year of the project.
Elim Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 300 chums, 6,000 pinks, 20 sockeyes and 17 silvers by 10 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Open 7 days a week.
Kwiniuk River Tower – Camp Joel - Escapement goals: King 250; Chum 9,100 – 32,600; Pink 8,400; Silver 650-1,300 (aerial survey goal). Fish & Game project.
Cumulative counts are 210 kings, 3,600 chums, 52,000 pinks, 72 sockeyes and 222 silvers. Kings and chums are usually past the 95 percent of passage by now. Chums are at a record low in 57 years of tower counts and trailing by 1,000 chums to last year’s previous record low run with a final count of 5,000 chums. This year and last year are like the 2012 and 2013 chum runs that had the previous record low tower counts of 5,600 chums each year. Pinks are tracking like a normal odd-numbered-year run and much lower than the recent record year runs. The average historical third quarter point of pink passage is now.
Golovin Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 3,200 chums, 11,000 pinks, 110 sockeyes and 30 silvers by 8 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Open 7 days a week.
Nome Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: No upcoming fishing periods.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing schedule in all freshwater subsistence areas and the marine waters west of Cape Nome is open from 6 p.m. Wednesday until 6 p.m. Monday. East of Cape Nome the marine waters are open 7 days a week.
Eldorado River Weir - Escapement goal: Chum 4,400 – 14,200 – NSEDC project.
Project pulled. Cumulative counts were 15 kings, 5,627 chums, 5,270 pinks, 48 sockeyes and 10 silvers. The chum passage was the fourth lowest in the 2000s. The pink count was the fourth highest in 14 years of odd-numbered-year counts, but only one-tenth of the pinks that were in 2019.
Nome River Weir - Escapement goal: Chum 1,600 – 5,300; Pink 3,200 – Fish & Game project.
Cumulative counts are 1 king, 170 chums, 3,500 pinks and 6 sockeyes. Chum count is one of the lowest and the third quarter point of chum passage is usually the end of July. Pinks are tracking like a normal odd-numbered year and much lower than the recent year’s record runs. The average third quarter point for pinks is usually the end of the month.
Snake River Weir - Escapement goal: Chum 2,000 – 4,200 – NSEDC project.
Cumulative counts are 1 king, 560 chums, 4,000 pinks and 60 sockeyes. Chum counts are now ahead of last year’s count, but well below the 2,000 chum average now. The average third quarter point of passage is usually now. Pinks are tracking much lower than the recent year’s record runs, but ranks 6th highest for the 14 odd-numbered-year counts. The average third quarter point is usually in early August.
Solomon River Weir – No escapement goals yet established – Fish & Game project.
Project pulled. Cumulative counts were 3 kings, 73 chums, 2,600 pinks and 4 silvers.
Port Clarence District
Subsistence fishing is open 7 days a week, except all net fishing is closed on the Pilgrim River.
Pilgrim River Floating Weir: Escapement goal: Sockeye 6,800 – 36,000 – NSEDC project.
Cumulative counts are 10 kings, 1,300 chums, 600 pinks, 3,400 sockeyes and 4 silvers. Sockeye average third quarter point is usually near the end of July. If weir counts improve subsistence net fishing will reopen with the season catch limit remaining at 25 sockeyes. The last time net fishing was closed on the Pilgrim River was 2014 and after a two-week closure it was reopened. This year the closure was a week later than in 2014 and the first day of the closure, last Friday, there were 212 sockeyes counted through the weir and next three days the sockeye passage through the weir dropped to less than 100 daily so unless there is an increase in sockeye numbers, the Pilgrim River would not reopen to nets. If the lower end of the escapement goal is not reached this year, hindsight would be that the department waited too long before pulling the nets.
Kotzebue
Cumulative catch is 15,000 chums by 30 permit holders. The run has dropped well below average and the department has continued to limit commercial fishing time.
Kobuk River Test Fish - Fish & Game project.
The test fish cumulative catches are 30 chums and 130 sheefish. The chum catch is like last year’s catch but has been falling off.