Halfway there on salmon

Alaska's commercial salmon catch now exceeds 103 million fish.

We'll need 100 million more to hit the state's preseason forecast of 203 million.

Here are a few news nuggets, culled from the Department of Fish and Game's latest weekly summary:

• Southeast power trollers have caught just under 392,000 coho since July 1. The average price is $1.33 per pound, but the fish are said to be relatively small at an average of 5.3 pounds.

• Southeast purse seiners have bagged 28.1 million pink salmon so far, nearly all from northern districts. At an average weight of 3.7 pounds, and an average price of 41 cents a pound, the pinks are worth about $1.50 each. Effort thus far is 262 boats, just above the recent 10-year average of 259 boats.

• The Upper Cook Inlet sockeye catch has topped 5 million fish, one of the best tallies in decades to this point in the season. Fishing is beginning to wind down.

• The Kodiak pink salmon harvest remains well below projection at 3.9 million fish.

• Norton Sound and Kotzebue each have produced more than 100,000 chum salmon thus far.