Six fishing periods into Alaska's heralded Copper River sockeye salmon fishery, with a preliminary harvest estimate of 250,049 reds, state fisheries biologists are saying that it's still hard to say if the overall run is below forecast.

"It's lower than the forecast so far, but we've got another set of stocks moving through in the middle of June through the middle of July," said Jeremy Botz, a fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in Cordova, on Prince William Sound. It could be a situation of smaller escapements of both sockeye and Chinook salmon in the dominant age classes, but again, it's too early to tell, he said.

The preliminary forecast from ADF&G was for a strong sockeye run and a weak Chinook run.

Sockeyes were projected to be 55% above the 10-year average, with a commercial harvest estimate of 2.12 million fish, and the Chinook run was forecast to be weak, with 36,000 fish.

The commercial fleet, facing rainy, windy weather in the Copper River District and five other fisheries that have opened in Prince  William Sound, has delivered an estimated total of some 254,454 sockeyes to processors, with an average weight of five pounds.

Retail prices in the Anchorage area as of June 10 were still fluctuating widely. Costco warehouse stores were seeing brisk sales of fresh Copper River sockeyes for $16.99 a pound, while FishEx, an online retailer, was offering sockeye portions for $56.95 a pound.

Carrs-Safeway dropped its most recent price of $35.99 a pound for the red salmon fillets to $25.99 and Fred Meyer, a Kroger supermarket, was offering those fillets for $23.95 a pound to shoppers with a store card and for $29.95 to others. New Sagaya seafood shops dropped prices on its Copper River red fillets and headed and gutted reds by a dollar, to $18.99 a pound and $11.99 a pound respectively, while 10th & M Seafoods was showcasing the oil rich red salmon fillets for $21.95 a pound and $15.95 a pound for headed and gutted fish.