August 7, 2018 — Commercial salmon harvests in Prince William Sound topped the 15.4 million mark through July 31, up by three million fish over the previous week, compared to 20.4 million delivered by the same time a year ago.
All five species of Pacific salmon are running below the catch rate or the same statistics week one year ago.
The pink salmon harvest has reached nearly 11 million fish, compared to 13 million at this time in July of 2016, and this year’s forecast of 32.7 million humpies.
Deliveries of sockeyes have reached 1.3 million fish, compared to a year-to-date harvest in 2017 of 1.4 million, and the keta harvest stood at 3.2 million fish, compared to a catch of 5.4 million chums through the same time last year.
On the bright side, the Copper River district was opened for commercial fishing on July 26, and deliveries from that district have reached an estimated total of nearly 40 thousand sockeyes, 7,160 Chinooks, 6,093 humpies, 3,220 chums and 753 cohos, according to the latest reports from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s the second lowest harvest to date in half a century for those reds.