Salmon notes

Here are a few important developments in the salmon fisheries.

• The Bristol Bay sockeye fishery continues and the harvest has now exceeded the preseason forecast. The catch currently stands at 26.5 sockeye, well above the projected 25 million.

• Northline Seafoods says its Bristol Bay freezer barge is back to full operations following a fire that hobbled the platform earlier in the season.

• Hannah Heimbuch tells the story of how salmon setnetters at Alitak, on the remote south end of Kodiak Island, saved their season after processor OBI Seafoods dropped the fleet this year. The setnetters found a helping hand in Silver Bay Seafoods, Heimbuch writes.

• It's a big day for Alaska's troll fishery tomorrow in San Francisco, where the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in the Wild Fish Conservancy case. The organization has been trying to shut down the fishery, which it claims is harmful to endangered killer whales.