Pink Salmon Season Going Strong

Kayla Desroches/KMXT
The area-wide pink salmon opens again today.  After last year’s poor harvest, this season’s run is still looking strong.

According to an update from Alaska Department of Fish and Game Area Management Biologist James Jackson, fishermen harvested 1.5 million pink salmon during this last opener, which wrapped up July 24. That’s about 300,000 fish a day.

Jackson writes that the harvest number so far is 2.6 million, which is also the overall 5-year average for odd years.

The numbers on the west side are especially strong, and Jackson writes that the run is likely to peak in another 10 days to two weeks. Fish and Game projects a higher than average pink harvest by the end of the season.