No sooner did the burst of sockeye salmon into the Copper River begin than it was over.
The weak sockeye run has now turned into a disaster for almost everyone. Cordova commercial fishermen off the mouth of the river caught only 26,000 of the highly valuable sockeye in three short openings in May before they were shutdown for the year.
Closures followed not long after in the dipnet and sport fisheries upriver, and even subsistence fishermen who normally are allowed to fish around the clock were limited to 48 hours of fishing per week.
With sockeye bringing a dock price of $9.50 per pound, they were looking at a bonanza even though the fish were running small at an average weight of 5.1 pounds.
Still, 1.2 million of sockeye at the unheard of price would have made for a $59 million fishery for the approximately 520 gillnetters with state permits to fish commercially. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
The run can only be described as a bust. As of Wednesday, only about 566,000 of the expected 1.9 million fish could be accounted for, the bulk of them in-river. The cumulative return for the date remained about 40,000 fish above the goal, but the number looked seriously threatened.
Since peaking on July 1 – when 22,950 sockeye passed sonar counters near Miles Glacier on the lower river – daily returns have been plummeting. The Wednesday count was more than 3,600 fish below the daily goal. Today’s 6 a.m. count was below that of Wednesday, an indication of a faltering run. And the trend line was pointing at the basement.
With more than 540,000 sockeye safely in-river, the minimum spawning goal of 360,000 has been achieved, but the entire run for the year is like to end up somewhere short of 700,000 sockeye, or less than 40 percent of the preseason forecast.
State fisheries biologists have blamed ocean conditions. Researchers studying the Exxon Valdez oil spill have pointed to declines driven by the apparent inability of young sockeye to compete with hundreds of millions of Prince William Sound hatchery pink salmon in the ocean.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries is to meet next week to discuss whether another increase in Sound hatchery production of pinks, or humpies as Alaskans often call them, should be allowed. The state’s huge production of pinks – 142 million of them last year accounted for 63 percent of the statewide salmon harvest of 225 million salmon – is becoming a growing topic of discussion with sockeye runs faltering or weak not only in the Copper River but at Chignik and in parts of the Kodiak Archipelago.
“Due to very weak sockeye salmon escapement at the Afognak Lake and Buskin River, both the sport and subsistence salmon fisheries in those drainages have been closed.”
Sockeye are the state’s most valuable commercial catch. The 52 million caught last year accounted for 48 percent of the $679 million value of the Alaska catch. The silvery, 6- to 8-pound, red-fleshed fish are also the favorite of anglers who flock to Alaska from across the country every summer.
Sockeye runs to Cook Inlet are still building. The Russian River saw a strong return of early-run sockeye, but things are not looking as good for the July return to the Kenai River. The 51,000 that had made it into the Kenai by Wednesday is below average for the date, although its way too early to tell what kind of return the state’s best known river is going to get.
The forecast calls for 4.6 million sockeye for upper Cook Inlet with a commercial harvest of 1.9 million. Fishing has been slow to date with the commercial fishery catching only 273,000.
Of the 4.6 million, 2.5 million are predicted as bound for the Kenai with another 866,000 headed for the Kasilof River just to the south. But how many get into those rivers is dictated in large part by how the state prosecutes the offshore drift gillnet fishery and the nearshore set gillnet fishery.
Categories: News
16k fish passed yesterday, 0600 count looks decent. Over 562K and counting, not done yet!
State need to get the troller fleet out of Alaskan waters before it’s to late. That’s the cuz of all our salmon and bottom fish problems.
ah, Kall, trollers aren’t allowed to fish north of Cape Spencer, and Copper River fish never go that far south.
Craig, trollers are allowed to fish Fairweather grounds during their time (starting July 1) allowed to fish for their allotted king quota. They also are allowed to fish the area around Icy Point near shore during this time. I’m not sure how long it took them (trollers) to get their quota this year but it was most likely just a few days.
They also fish cohos further offshore after their king quota and in August they often are fishing cohos off Lituya Bay. They shake any kings caught.
I think they are not allowed north of Cape St. Elias and recall that about 15 years ago they unsuccessfully tried to fish North of there. They wanted to fish kings near Cordova, as I recall.
thanks for the catch, Bill. i misstated myself. the line is east of Cape Suckling, not south of Spencer. my brain tends to think north and south not east and west in the Gulf. go figure.
doesn’t change the point, though. trollers aren’t the problem. they catch damn few fish, compared to other gear types, to begin with, and if they do catch a Copper sockeye or king its a rare straying fish because the troll fleet isn’t in the path of return.
Thanks for that, Cape Suckling is just East of Cape St. Elias and someone probably didn’t want them (trollers) fishing East side of Kayak Island. PWS gillnet fleet fished that side of Kayak Island until F & G determined those reds belonged to someone else.
While trollers are allowed a certain bycatch of ling cod (I think 10% of their salmon catch) they don[‘t harm bottom fish, that’s for sure.
It is interesting that when ever there is a problem in getting the runs that the Dept predicts or when there is a crisis because of the lack of escapement, the Dept says it is because of “ ocean conditions”. The Dept never admits of the possibility that ADF&G made mistakes in managing the fisheries. Ever!
This is arrogance beyond reason. And it is at the expense of our natural resource. Of course no one wants to admit they failed. No one gets promoted for making mistakes. So the mantra continues to be “ it’s not my fault”.