Salmon notes

• The Bristol Bay catch now stands at 23.6 million sockeye toward a preseason harvest forecast of 32.3 million.

• Dillingham radio station KDLG has a report on the Northline Seafoods freezer barge and its alliance this season with Silver Bay Seafoods. Listen to it here.

• The Southeast Alaska summer Chinook troll fishery appears to be progressing slowly and will remain open "until further notice," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said yesterday. "Based on landed catch and reported harvest onboard freezer vessels to date, less than 40,000 of the 83,700 Chinook salmon allocation has been harvested over the first 10 days of the fishery."

• Looking farther south, to Canada, the forecasted run size for Fraser River sockeye is 7.7 million fish, the Pacific Salmon Commission reports.

Salmon notes

• The statewide harvest of all salmon species now tops 180 million fish. But the industry isn't likely to reach the preseason forecast of 215 million, largely because pink salmon catches have been disappointing. State forecasters predicted a catch of 138 million pinks, but the tally here at season's end is only about 110 million. Two of the state's main pink-producing zones — Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska — are finishing well below forecast, while Kodiak's catch is said to be above average.

• The current run size estimate for Fraser River sockeye is 9.3 million fish, three times the preseason forecast. But catches by all user groups remain conservative, totaling just over 1.1 million, according to the latest Fraser River Panel weekly report.

Salmon notes

• The statewide, all-species commercial salmon harvest now stands at more than 155 million fish, with catches continuing. The total harvest is expected to exceed 200 million once fisheries finish up this fall.

• Gov. Mike Dunleavy, you'll recall, offered legislation this year to allow limited finfish farming in Alaska. The bill is still pending. The governor, in a recent post on X, had this to say: "Alaska is a leader in fresh caught wild salmon. We could also be a leader in the farmed salmon industry. Why not do both instead of importing farmed salmon from Scotland?"

• Fraser River sockeye are coming in much stronger than expected. "The total Fraser sockeye adopted run size is now 10,175,000," says the latest Fraser River Panel regulatory announcement.

Salmon notes

• The statewide salmon catch has eclipsed 100 million fish. Sockeye dominated the first half of the season with the catch now exceeding 50 million. The focus going forward will be pink salmon, with the harvest currently at 38 million fish. The preseason forecast called for a total statewide catch of nearly 215 million salmon this year.

• Thus far this season, we've seen no commercial catch of sockeye at British Columbia's Fraser River. Here's the latest weekly report from the Pacific Salmon Commission's Fraser River Panel.

• Aug. 10 is Alaska Wild Salmon Day! The state Legislature in 2016 passed an act establishing the annual observance.

Another big landslide causes B.C. salmon concern

In 2019, a huge rockslide into the Fraser River north of Lillooet, British Columbia, created a serious impediment to salmon runs.

Now comes word of another big slide blocking the Chilcotin River, an important Fraser tributary.

Read about it in this Pacific Salmon Commission report.

Salmon notes

Here's a news roundup from the salmon season thus far.

• The Bristol Bay catch now stands at nearly 21 million sockeye. Fishing remains strong with more than 1 million fish taken yesterday.

• Driftnetters have taken nearly 1.3 million sockeye in the Copper River District, and Eshamy Main Bay has produced more than 1 million sockeye.

• Circle Seafoods confirms the first of several planned processing barges will not be ready in time to take part in this year's Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries. In the interim, the company is renting plant space in Metlakatla this summer to handle pinks and chums from a handful of seiners, the Ketchikan Daily News reports.

• In Canada, the Fraser River sockeye run size forecast is the lowest on record. More details in this Pacific Salmon Commission report.

Huge sockeye run coming to Fraser River?

Check this article out of Vancouver, British Columbia.