If you want it, here it is, come and get it …
But you better hurry ‘cause it may not last…
Those familiar words from an old Beatles song are the same message aficionados of wild salmon from the Copper River are getting from retail seafood shops.
In less than a month since the Copper River wild salmon fishery opened for the 2012 season, preliminary estimates from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are that through 8 June the commercial fleet harvested a total of some 1,038,000 sockeye salmon and 9,300 Chinook salmon.
That includes a preliminary harvest estimate of 46,000 reds and 900 kings, plus some 3,100 chum salmon harvested in the 36-hour opener ended June 8, a period for which the anticipated harvest was 53,000 reds and 1,000 kings.
The cumulative sonar count through that date was 542,000 fish, well above the minimum anticipated count of 292,900 fish.
Another 36-hour opener was set to start at 7 a.m. on 11 June.
