Commercial fishermen in Prince William Sound harvested 34.4 million salmon of all species during the 2012 season, state fisheries officials said Oct. 17.
With fishing completed in all districts and preliminary harvest totals done, the catch was 26.7 million pink, 3.7 million sockeye, 3.7 million chum, 202,000 coho and 12,000 Chinook salmon, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.
That included 30.8 million commercial common property fishery and 3.6 million hatchery cost recovery and broodstock fish.
For the Copper River District, the 2012 preseason commercial harvest forecast was 20,000 Chinook, 1.2 million sockeye and 281,000 coho salmon.
The Gulkana Hatchery was expected to contribute 335,000 sockeye salmon to the commercial common property harvest.
The commercial salmon season began in the Copper River District on May 17.
The sockeye salmon harvest of 1.9 million fish was more than 1.5 times the previous 10-year (2002-2011) harvest average of 1.2 million sockeye salmon.
Preliminary harvest composition was 1.5 million wild. 327,000 Gulkana Hatchery and 14,000 Main Bay Hatchery sockeye salmon.
