Salmon arrival slow, second opener starts Friday

First opener June 6-9 was ‘lackluster.’ 

No need to worry yet, says ADF&G. Sometimes fish are late, though a late return usually indicates a weak return.

Friday’s two-and-a-half-day opener is hoped to net fishermen between 30 and 50,000 fish.

 

The second commercial salmon opener of the year is set for today in a season that is starting slow.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Area Salmon Management Biologist James Jackson said Thursday the majority of the island’s west side this time of the year is managed based on Karluk River early run sockeye escapement. In other words, how many red salmon pass through the Karluk weir..

“Escapement is about where we like to be, we like to be at about at this date at maybe 100,000 fish past the weir and we’re about 90, so we’re in the range where we like to be.”

The first salmon opener on the west side, from the 6th through the 9th last week, was not encouraging.

“We were hoping to catch somewhere between 20 to 30,000 sockeye. That usually gives us a good gage of how many fish are kinda in the pipeline, coming to Karluk. And I think we only caught around 16, which was a little lackluster.

So we’ve had a little bit of a longer closure than we usually do on the west side. It’s been closed for four days. We’re going to reopen on Friday for another two-and-a-half-day opener. We hope to in this next opener catch somewhere between 30 and 50,000 fish. If it’s a little lighter than that we’ll probably close down again. ”

Jackson points out that management is based on the fish past the weir, not in the Karluk Lagoon or out in the bay. He said the weir is literally three miles from the ocean and—no matter how many fish may be holding up in the lagoon–they don’t get counted until they make the journey all the way up.

That’s partly why he says there could be cause for a bit of optimism.

“There is a buildup of fish in the lagoon. The weather hasn’t been that great for us to get down there and go take a look with an airplane lately. But, hopefully with the change in the tides and maybe a little precipitation those fish will start moving and we can get back on track where we are supposed to be for escapement.”

Last year’s early run sockeye season was a disappointment, so fishermen are nervous about a repeat this year. But Jackson’s not concerned yet. He says they were not expecting to have much of an early run this year, though they had expected more openings by now.

“It’s concerning that we haven’t been able to open up Ayakulik or Alitak yet. We have enough fish to open up the majority of the west side based on Karluk right now. The only thing that was kind of concerning was the early harvest numbers were less than expected.

But, it’s early in the run still. you don’t want to panic too early. Sometimes runs are little bit later. But usually a late run indicates a weak run.”

As of June 8, the total Ayakulik sockeye escapement was 19,000 fish, which is well below the 5-year average of 49,000 fish.