What a weird season at Bristol Bay.
Through the Fourth of July, the catch was a demoralizing 8 million sockeye salmon.
Since then, the sockeye have stormed in and landings have surged.
Gillnetters scored big on Friday and Saturday with catches of more than 2 million fish each day, and the grand total now stands at nearly 19 million fish.
The season, however, is still likely to end in disappointment as the preseason harvest forecast of 37.6 million fish seems out of reach.
That's especially so if lots of gillnetters have to call it quits, pull their boats, and head home to their families and regular jobs.
As for prices? Well, we still haven't heard anything reliable on that front.
Have you?
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Looks like the seiners in PWS are off to a big start, Harvesting 2 million pinks a day this week too, and shipping fish out to Kodiak and Southeast. http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/dcfnewsrelease/573366319.pdf
Still hearing 65 cents in the Bay.
SE Prices-
$3.00 Troll kings
Gillnetters and seiners saying
.95 sockeyes
.75 silvers
.45 keta
Processors keeping prices down everywhere.
It wouldn't be surprising if Bristol Bay Bigs try to keep prices at no more than a buck, with worldwide oversupply of farm fish, and big Pacific Wild production. We're in for a low price cycle of many years on dock prices.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
And the Professor from twitter:
Ray Hilborn @hilbornr Jul 4
Sockeye 20% smaller than normal. Small fish means tiny fillets - not easy to sell pic.twitter.com/rBPpkF19yh
Ray Hilborn @hilbornr Jul 7
More Salmon than Ever. Abundance of salmon from Japan, Russia, Alaska and Canada adds up. Despite poor return this year to much of Alaska.
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I believe Gunnar Knapp concurred.
.75 troll caught dressed coho in Sitka.
Troll - 4.00 / 3.50 kings .60/.90 silvers (West coast)
Net Kings 2.35 round net kings Columbia
Three days of 2+mil fish harvested in BB. Estimates of 1mil fish in the Naknek and Kvichak rivers. This fishery is building. We will be at a peak by Friday. Lot's of strength left in this run.
And, a side note: big thanks to Deckboss. The day after he posted about a failed BB run, the Bay has exploded in fish.
A huge late run to the Kvichak, the latest run ever recorded, according to Hilborn.
Any word on limits? Nush boats were on 4,000 lb. limits a couple of days ago.
.20/lb pinks PWS sein trident opening price
$1.85 reds on the copper river
On Sunday when I left, PP and Trident were on ~4,000lb limit per tide. (radio chatter)
Buddies transfered two days ago from Ugashik to Naknek. Lost 2 days fishing- would of been 20-30k lbs. in either district. Today when they show up in Naknek, the district transfer wait gets waived cuz there is so much fish, and Ugashik is still hitting big. Bummer.
On limits in Ugashik?
I've heard the fish are smaller around the state. Anyone hear what the average sockeye weight is in Bristol bay this year?
Icicle had limits of 5,000 for the day on the 15th--pretty dire for guys who sat in Naknek all season waiting for these fish to show up. Ugashik is plugged, E & E Seafoods pulled out today after filling both the processor and their tramper--I would guess that it's tough to find a good market in Ugashik right around now especially considering boats are loading both on the outside and in the river. I think most markets are on limits or suspensions, everyone except Silver Bay who seems to have handled their capacity pretty well.
$.40 advance in the Bay !!!!!!
Trident pulled a one pound line out of Naknek this spring and sent it to Ketchikan, cutting their Naknek capacity. Can anybody explain why they would do this in advance of one of the biggest runs projected for the Bay in recent years?
Sockeye in the can has been a very tough sell at the past 3 years pricing. Besides Silver Bay.... Ocean Beauty has not had limits either.
No limits at AGS either.
I feel bad for the Peterpan seafood fisherman, that got put on a limit .We all know that the fisherman have familys , to feed , bills to pay ect ect, and going home with almost nothing, I hope that a class action lawsuit will be filed agaist the componys that had there fleet on a limit. its not right, Just think how there hurting, God Bless them all.
Trident is also talking about shutting down the South Naknek docks after this year. This shows how much they really care about their fishermen. Pretty sure the prices they pay will drive it home.
Trident gave no notice and closed their South Naknek storage operation down. Some fishermen went home with a .30 advance on their catch. Not happy Trident fisherman. So much for Trident treating their fishermen like family.
Trident is being run by the second generation Bundrants. Lot of good people have left now, so it will never be the same again. They feel the pressure to compete with Silver Bay, but make all the wrong moves.
Maybe they should make another tv show. Beat fish out of the net and walk all over your deckloads, then whine about the price. Nice!
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