Public Radio for Alaska's Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay Fisheries Report

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: June 29, 2022

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The Melinda Rae seen from Kanakanak beach riding waves. Taken June 25, 2022.
Brian Venua

Fishing slowed down a bit in most districts, but Egegik led Tuesday's harvest again with well over half a million salmon. The Nushagak District saw about half a million in escapement and Ugashik fishermen once again brought in some big deliveries. The bay-wide run so far is at 14.3 million salmon. That’s double what last year’s total run was at this date.

Silver Bay Seafoods agrees to pay fine for illegal dumping in Naknek River

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OBI faces a civil rights lawsuit for alleged employee acts of racism and sexual harassment in Egegik

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Weather Wednesday

Weather Wednesday 6/29/2022

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Messages to the fleet

Big shout out to the guys on the “Daga Bay” and a special note to Parker and August. Don’t forget to eat your veggies. Love you , dad. Sack em up boys !

From Paul on the F/V Sal -C

The numbers

Bristol Bay’s run ebbed slightly on Tuesday. Another 2.27 million sockeye come through for a season total of about 14.3 million salmon so far.

Fishing slowed down a bit as well. Fisherfolk caught about 1.3 million sockeye on Tuesday. The total harvest is at 9.17 million fish. Another 741,605 salmon evaded those nets and made upriver, for a bay-wide escapement of 4.8 million salmon.

Nushagak District

A little over 900,000 fish came through the Nushagak District on Tuesday for a season total run of 7.7 million sockeye so far.

Nushagak fishers caught 400,000 salmon. The season total harvest is now 3.9 million. Average sockeye per drift delivery was down to 357.

Between the district’s three rivers, 507,413 fish escaped for a cumulative escapement of 3.8 million so far.

Nushagak River

The Nushagak River had about 221,708 fish escape for a season total so far of 2.3 million fish – double the upper escapement goal of 900,000.

Kings had a push of 1,922 fish past the sonar, which brings the season’s count to 40,349.

4,501 chum made it up on Tuesday, for a total of 58,249.

Sockeye escapement dropped back down to about 215,285 yesterday. The total so far is at 2.2 million reds – more than double the upper end escapement goal of 900,000.

Wood River

The Wood saw similar numbers on Tuesday: 277,926 fish made it through and another 32,886 were counted this morning. The Wood’s total escapement so far is now 1.6 million fish, which is nearing the river’s upper goal of 1.8 million sockeye.

Igushik River

Igushik escapement numbers keep growing: 14,202 fish swam past the counting tower on Tuesday, nearly doubling the season’s escapement so far. The tower crew logged an additional 6,630 sockeye this morning. Escapement in that river totals at 36,606 salmon

Togiak

Togiak fishers caught about 3,000 fish on Tuesday for a total of 6,566 so far. No escapement counts from Togiak yet.

Naknek-Kvichak District

Over to the east in the Naknek-Kvichak District, about 310,000 fish came through with another 150 estimated in the Kvichak River; the total run there is 1.8 million salmon.

The fleet harvested 181,000 fish, and drifters brought in an average of 447 sockeye per drift delivery. The district’s total catch is at 1.2 million. Escapement between the rivers was at 137,562 for a total of 453,468.

Naknek River

The Naknek River’s daily escapement was 53,934 fish for a total count of 296,562. The Naknek’s lower-end escapement goal is 800,000 fish.

Kvichak River

The Kvichak River had 83,628 salmon pass through – the district’s highest count of the day. The cumulative escapement is at 156,906 and an estimated 150,000 fish are swimming up the river. Its lower escapement goal is 2 million.

Alagnak River

No numbers for the Alagnak on Tuesday.

Egegik 

Over in Egegik, 672,086 salmon came through the district with another 120,000 estimated in the river. The district’s total run so far is at 4.3 million.

Egegik’s fleets hauled in 578,000 with an average of 1,075 sockeye per drift delivery. The total harvest so far is at 3.7 million fish. Escapement for Egegik was 94,086 on Tuesday for a total of 564,708 this year.

Ugashik 

Over to Ugashik, 132,544 fish came through the district for a season total of 371,209.

Fisherfolk caught about 130,000 with an average drift delivery of 2,571 sockeye. The total harvest is at 366,943 sockeye.

Ugashik’s tower started counting this week, and its escapement doubled on Tuesday as 2,544 fish swam through with a running total of 4,266 salmon.

Registrations as of: June 29 9:00 a.m. and July 1 9:00 a.m.

Across the bay, there are over 1,600 permits registered to fish on almost 1,300 boats. Those numbers are set to go up over the next two days.

Egegik’s fleet is going to grow slightly– from 345 permits to 368. 272 vessels are registered to fish in Egegik. There will be a total of 293 vessels on Friday morning. D-boats will go from 73 to 75.

The Naknek-Kvichak District is growing as well. There are 258 permits now and that number will rise to 277 by Friday. Today there are 224 boats in the water and that will go up to 240. The number of D-boats will go from 35 to 38.

The Nushagak District has the biggest fleet right now with 926 permits registered to fish on 686 boats, 241 of which are D-boats. By Friday, those numbers will rise to 929 permits on 688 boats. 242 of them will be D-boats.

The Togiak District is holding steady at 27 permits on 27 boats.

Ugashik fishers will see their fleet almost double in the next two days from 55 permits on 43 boats to 97 permits on 73 boats. The number of D-boats will double from 12 to 24.

Chignik Weir Counts 

We didn’t get an update from the Chignik River Weir, so the numbers there are the same as yesterday. 178,302 Early Run sockeye have escaped so far, the Late Run sits at 6,810. So far only 6 Chinook have been counted there this year.

Area M 

Now for a look at Area M’s intercept fishery harvest numbers.

Fishermen there caught a total of 269,399 fish for season total harvest of about 6.3 million.

221,947 sockeye were caught for a season total so far of 4.6 million fish. 32,866 pinks were harvested for a season total of 1.16 million salmon. 14,470 chums fell to their nets for a season total so far of 529,787 fish. 113 Chinook were harvested for a total of 3,519 and 3 coho were caught for 164 silvers.

Port Moller Test Fishery

Over to the Port Moller Test Fishery now. Technician Scott Raborn said in an update on Tuesday that catch and escapement will total about 7 million salmon over the next few days with an average run of about 1.8 million fish per day. That’s assuming there’s around a week of travel time from Port Moller to the bay’s commercial districts.

Most of the run is expected to go to the Nushagak District, with an estimated 4 million sockeye headed that way. Egegik should expect 1.5 million in the coming days and the Naknek-Kvichak District will see a bit over 1 million.

Stations 2, 14, 20, and 24 caught zero fish.

Station 4 caught 1 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 1 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 5.

Station 6 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 1 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 3.

Station 7 caught 5 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 5 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 26.

Station 8 caught 10 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 11 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 45.

Station 9 caught 31 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 43 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 123.

Station 10 caught 1 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 2.

Station 12 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 1 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 4.

Station 16 caught 24 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 30 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 116.

Station 18 caught 19 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 23 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 90.

Station 22 caught 3 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 2 more in the 5 ⅛. Their catch index is 13.

Get in touch with the team at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.

Brian Venua grew up in Dillingham and attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. He got his start in journalism at KDLG in 2020, interviewing and writing for the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report and signed on as a full-time host and reporter later that year.
Corinne Smith is an award-winning reporter and producer who grew up in Oakland, California. She's reported for KFSK in Petersburg, KHNS in Haines, and most recently KBBI in Homer. This is her second season as a fisheries reporter, and now returns as director of the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report.
Izzy Ross is the news director at KDLG, the NPR member station in Dillingham. She reports, edits, and hosts stories from around the Bristol Bay region, and collaborates with other radio stations across the state.