Kodiak Pink Harvest Breaks 2013 Record

Jay Barrett/KMXT

Kodiak’s pink salmon harvest set a new record, with total landings of 31,332,300 through Monday. That surpasses the parent year of this year’s run, which had a catch of 28.16-million in 2013.

In the surrounding areas the catch was even more impressive. Prince William Sound fishermen alone have harvested 97-million, which is 6-million more than their 2013 record year.

Meanwhile along the Alaska Peninsula, landings were nearly double the previous record with a catch of 15.2-million. Set once again set in 2013, the old record was 7.8-million.

Overall, using Friday’s catch figures, 177-million pinks have been caught in Alaska this summer, which ranks it third all time. 2013, unsurprisingly, was the statewide record season, but this year the humpies didn’t cooperate in Southeast Alaska, with a relatively disappointing catch of 30.7-million, just over half what were expected. The fishing season of 1994 ranks second all-time.

No records for sockeye salmon this year, though the catch statewide has exceeded last years – in numbers if not in tonnage. Fish and Game is reporting 52.8-million reds harvested, with Kodiak contributing just over 2.7-million of that total.

Bristol Bay, though nearly 5-million below forecast, did wind up with a harvest of 35.8-million sockeye, though the fish were uniformly smaller than usual.

Reports from Japan published in Undercurrent News however, indicate about 70-percent of those smaller, 2- to 4- pound sockeye have already sold

Overall, the all-species harvest statewide is 247-million.