A better year for Copper River salmon?

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has posted its 2010 salmon forecast for Prince William Sound and the fabled Copper River, and the numbers look decent.

State biologists expect a commercial catch of 17,000 Copper River Chinook salmon and 1.27 million sockeye.

Copper River gillnetters took 9,456 Chinook and 896,469 sockeye last year.

In the late 1990s, the Copper River produced well in excess of 60,000 Chinook and 2 million sockeye in some years.

The fishery opens in mid-May.