ADF&G Fish Report: Silver runs still very poor, pinks are average
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 14 kings, 6,000 chums, 261,000 pinks, 465 sockeyes and 5,500 silvers.
Three commercial silver salmon openings in Norton Sound had poor catches and there may or may not be another opening this season in some of the subdistricts. This season the chum and silver runs were very poor, and the pink run although much lower than the record runs of the last five years was average for an oddnumbered year. Only in the early 2000s were the chum harvests lower than this year. This year’s silver harvest is the poorest since 2002 and ranks 12th lowest on record. Pinks were the only bright spot this year with the 5th highest harvest on record. The water levels have been dropping and the department and NSEDC plans to get some of the escapement counting projects operational if the water levels continue to drop.
Unalakleet Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 6 kings, 780 chums, 166,000 pinks, 100 sockeyes and 1,500 silvers caught by 40 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Gillnet fishing is open 7 days a week, but beach seining is closed.
North River Tower – Camp J.B. Escapement goal: Silvers 550-1,100 (aerial survey goal). NSEDC project.
Project may be operational next week if water levels drop. The usual third quarter point of silver passage is the last week of August.
Shaktoolik Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 5 kings, 1,000 chums, 63,000 pinks, 120 sockeyes and 2,000 silvers caught by 22 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Gillnet fishing is open 7 days a week, but beach seining is closed.
Shaktoolik Tower – NSEDC project.
Project may be operational later in the week or next week if water levels drop.
Norton Bay Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 50 chums, 10,000 pinks, 8 sockeyes and 160 silvers by six permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing is open 7 days a week.
Inglutalik and Ungalik towers are finished for the season.
Elim Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 450 chums, 7,000 pinks, 40 sockeyes and 900 silvers by 12 permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Open 7 days a week.
Kwiniuk River Tower – Camp Joel - Escapement goal: Silvers 6501,300 (aerial survey goal). Fish & Game project.
Project may be operational later in the week if water levels drop. The usual third quarter point of silver passage is the last week of August.
Golovin Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 3,500 chums, 14,000 pinks, 175 sockeyes and 500 silvers by eight permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Open 7 days a week.
Nome Subdistrict
Commercial Fishing: Cumulative catch is 3 kings, 250 chums, 50 pinks, 30 sockeyes and 400 silvers by six permit holders.
Subsistence Fishing: Net fishing schedule in all fresh water subsistence areas is from 6 p.m. Wednesday until 6 p.m. Monday. The marine waters are open 7 days a week. Beach seines are no longer a legal gear to harvest salmon.
Nome River Weir - Fish & Game project.
Project may be operational next week if water levels drop and the upcoming rains this weekend.
Snake River Weir - NSEDC project.
Weir was fish tight Monday afternoon and 9 pinks were counted. The last time the weir was fish tight was July 26. The usual midpoint of silver passage is the end of August.
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.
The weir was pulled out for the season on August 18. Cumulative counts were 13 kings, 2,618 chums, 749 pinks, 3,721 sockeyes and 54 silvers. There were no counts for 11 days when the weir was submerged starting in late July and maybe 500 sockeyes passed. Aerial surveys of Salmon Lake have confirmed the number of sockeyes fell well short of the low end of the escapement goal.
Kotzebue
Cumulative catch is 81,000 chums by 50 permit holders. The commercial fishery will end after Friday’s fishing period. This year’s harvest is well below last year’s harvest of 150,000 chums and is the lowest harvest since the early 2000s.
Kobuk River Test Fish - Fish & Game project.
The project was pulled on August 10. The test fish crew was not able to catch any fish since July 28 because of high water.