Kodiak Pink Harvest Exceeds Forecast; Still Coming Strong

Jay Barrett/KMXT

Kodiak area fishermen are still pulling in nets full of pink salmon. ADF-&-G’s figures for Monday’s harvest again showed over one million humpies landed.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyfisherysalmon.bluesheet 

That pushed the Kodiak season harvest well over 25-million, which is far more than Fish and Game’s preseason forecast. Fishery managers expected harvests of about 7.4-million hatchery pinks and 6.9-million natural run pinks.

With statewide sockeye salmon returning in smaller numbers than projected, the larger than projected pink runs here and in Prince William Sound have salvaged preseason total salmon harvest projections. The preseason expectation for reds was 58.7-million, but the statewide harvest total is 52.6-million and is not expected to reach projections.

Kodiak area red salmon catches have been around 20,000 per day for the last couple weeks, but took a dive to below 10,000 the last couple of days. The season total is just over 2.5-million.

Silvers and dogs are still being caught in the thousands, with about 6,000 chum and 4,000 coho caught Monday. Season total harvest locally have silvers at over 254,000 and chum around 700,000.

Five tardy king salmon were delivered Monday, bringing the season catch of the big fish to 6,962.