A slow start to Kodiak’s salmon season, commercial opening this weekend

(Photo by Marvina Munch / USFWS)

Daysha Eaton/KMXT

Kodiak’s salmon season is off to a slow start. Until Wednesday, very few fish were counted in weirs.

That’s according to James Jackson, the Kodiak Commercial Salmon and Herring Area Management Biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“Earlier indicators are that things are a little late, and we had our traditional June 9 opening this year. Whereas in the past few seasons, because environmental conditions have been warm, we … have been having earlier openings, June 1, June 3, June 5. The traditional opening used to be on the 9th and I think that’s –in fact I know that’s what we’re going to be doing this year.”

Jackson says earlier indicators show that all the major runs will be later this year.

“Things are starting to percolate at Ayakulik,” said Jackson. “We had a nice move of fish down there over the weekend. And Karluk lagoon, the numbers don’t look really good past the weir, but there is a pretty significant buildup in the lagoon. There is probably close to 50,000-plus fish just holding in the lagoon, and sometimes they do that. And that might be just because the fresh water is a little colder than what their used to, and they’re probably holding.”

He says with regard the subsistence fisheries on the north end of the island with the smaller sockeye stocks, the Buskin and Litnik, it’s a combination of both a weak run and late run timing.

“The major age classes this year to the Buskin are coming off of those two really high escapement years that we had, the two highest escapement years that we had in the last 10 years. And that is not always good for small sockeye systems. The smolts tend to eat themselves out of house and home. And so, we had some early indicators that the run might be weak,” said Jackson. “You combine that with a late run timing, and you can see what we have right now, which is not a lot of fish past the weir.”

In addition, this year, Jackson explains the sockeye look small, which has been reported in other river systems across the state.

“The sockeye that we’ve had sampled at the weirs, they’re averaging around 440 to 480 millimeters, and they’re typically somewhere between 510 to 520,” said Jackson.

Jackson adds that since sockeye are plankton feeders, they’re very in tune with and affected by ocean conditions.

He says that the runs are only at 20 to 30 percent and his office will know a lot more about what the run looks like on Monday.

The 57-hour commercial salmon fishing period for the Northwest Kodiak District is set to open from noon Saturday and will run to 9 p.m. Monday, June 11.

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