ALASKA — August 20, 2012 — Commercial harvests picked up steam again for the week ending Aug. 17, as the humpy catch rose to nearly 54.8 million fish, boosting the statewide harvest to more than 107 million salmon of all species.
The cumulative total was a jump over 17,166,000 fish over the previous week, with harvests of 15,758,000 pinks, 870,000 chum, 277,000 coho, 253,000 sockeye and 7,000 kings, according to the statewide preliminary salmon catch blue sheet.
The preseason statewide forecast was for 132.1 million salmon of all species.
In Prince William Sound, the overall harvest rose to nearly 30 million salmon of all species, including 22,597,000 pink, 3,705,000 reds, 3,641,000 chum, 15,000 silver and 12,000 king salmon. The Prince William Sound general seine harvest rose over a seven-day period from 16,960,000 to 20,660,000 pink salmon, and red, chum and silver salmon harvests were also up slightly. Weather has not appeared to limit fishing effort in Prince William Sound so far this season. State biologists anticipated that the purse seine fishing effort would be focused this week on Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp.’s remaining pink salmon run.
At Kodiak, where the overall harvest rose from 11,998,000 to 16,657,000 salmon of all species, the big boost came in the humpy harvest, which rose from 9,439,000 to 13,914,000 fish.
In Southeast Alaska, the overall salmon harvest rose from 18.7 million to 26 million fish. The big jump was in the humpy harvest, which rose from 9 million to 25.8 million fish. Harvests of other salmon also rose, from 8,2133,000 to 8,599,000 chum, from 741,000 to 909,000 silvers, from 629,000 to 703,000 reds and from 143,000 to 150,000 Chinooks.
State biologists said that based on recent past even-year harvests the regional pink salmon return should now be at the peak for the season. During the past several openings pink salmon harvests in the northern districts have sharply declined, but harvests in southern districts have continued to be strong.
Read the full story at the Cordoba Times.