Sitka purse seiners broke the area’s single-day pink salmon harvest record twice this month, as a strong late run and increased fishing effort turned around what had initially looked like a difficult season.

According to an Aug. 20 report from Raven Radio, seiners in District 13 harvested 1.23 million pink salmon on Aug. 6, surpassing the previous single-day record of roughly 950,000 fish set in 2017.

Four days later, the fleet broke the record again, harvesting 1.28 million pink salmon on Aug. 10.

“We’ve just been seeing really strong harvests of pink salmon and really strong escapements, which was kind of unusual for an even year, and fairly unusual, given what’s been going on with pink salmon in the rest of the Gulf of Alaska,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Sitka area management biologist Aaron Dupuis told KCAW. “So it’s pretty special to have a good pink run in the Sitka area this year.”

The record harvests come as pink salmon returns have struggled elsewhere in Alaska. Dupuis said fishing effort around Sitka has also increased as late-arriving pinks in other fisheries pushed purse seine boats toward the area.

“A lot of that purse seine effort moved from the Ketchikan area, Juneau, Petersburg over to Sitka,” Dupuis said. “So right now we have about 20 or 30 more boats on average, and then combine that with pretty good run.”

The strength of the run represents a sharp turnaround from earlier in the summer. Dupuis said historic low harvest levels and escapement observations through the last week of July had managers concerned the season could become a “disaster” before fish suddenly began arriving.

As of Aug. 17, the fishery ranked as the seventh largest in state history, according to KCAW, with additional openings still expected.

Fishermen are also benefiting from stronger prices. Dupuis said purse-seined pink salmon were selling for about 60 cents per pound, as much as twice the price seen in some recent years.