The commercial sockeye harvest in Bristol Bay has topped 1.8-million with another 417-thousand fish added to the total on Friday.
The Egegik District boasts the most impressive harvest thus far with another 195-thousand sockeye taken on Friday to push the district total to just over 1-million fish. Next up is the Naknek-Kvichak District where fishermen harvested 70-thousand sockeye on Friday before the district closed at 9-am. That pushes the season total to over 565.8-thousand sockeye. Friday was a big day in the Ugashik District with a harvest of 152-thousand fish to push the season total to over 172.9-thousand sockeye. So far the harvests in the Nushgak and Togiak Districts are not yet being reported by Fish and Game.
Now for a look at the latest escapement numbers. In Egegik another 47.4-thousand sockeye were counted on Friday to push the season total to 230.1-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Egegik River is between 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates that there are another 40-thousand sockeye in the Egegik River that have not yet been counted. The total run to the Egegik District is now counted at over 1.3-million sockeye. Fish and Game is reporting that another 14.8-thousand sockeye were counted as escapement to the Naknek River on Friday to push the season total to nearly 24-thousand fish. The escapement goal for the Naknek River is 800-thousand to 1.4-million sockeye. Friday was the first day of counting escapement to the Kvichak River and just 894-fish were counted. The total run thus far to the Naknek-Kvichak District is over 590.6-thousand sockeye.
The escapement towers are not yet up and running in the Ugashik and Togiak Districts. Friday's sockeye escapement to the Nushagak River was counted at 160.8-thousand fish to push the season total to over 233.3-thousand fish. Sockeye escapement to the Wood River was counted at 79.5-thousand fish on Friday to push the total to over 87.2-thousand. If you add the escapement through 6-am Saturday morning the total to the Wood River climbs to over 106-thousand sockeye. The total run thus far to the Nushagak District is just 320.6-thousand sockeye. However, Fish and Game is not yet reporting the harvest numbers from the Nushagak District. The total run to Bristol Bay through Friday is over 2.4-million fish. The preseason forecasts anticipates a run this year of over 26.3-million fish.
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