Drawing to a close, Alaska’s commercial wild salmon catch for 2017 had reached 216.2 million fish by the end of week 37, according to the latest in-season harvest figures compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).
The statewide take was originally forecast at 204 million salmon.
In terms of species, the catch so far comprises more than 52 million sockeye, 136.1 million pinks, 23.4 million chum, 4.4 million coho and 246,000 king salmon.
To date, the contribution from the Bristol Bay area totals 39.3 million salmon, including more than 37.6 million sockeye, 1.4 million chum, 172,000 coho, 34,000 pinks and 39,000 kings. Nushagak District provided the largest catch with 13.1 million salmon, followed by the Egegik District and the Naknek-Kvichak District and with 11.9 million and 8.2 million salmon respectively.
The Cook Inlet fisheries have supplied almost 4.7 million salmon, including more than 2 million sockeye, 1.9 million pinks, 401,000 chum, 303,000 coho and 8,000 kings. Prince William Sound’s commercial catch so far of 55.8 million salmon comprised 48.6 million pinks, 5.4 million chum, 1.4 million sockeye, 401,000 coho and 13,000 king salmon.
For the Arctic Yukon Kuskokwim Region, the catch reached almost 2 million salmon, including more than 1.6 million chum.
In Southeast Alaska, the commercial salmon harvest stands at almost 46.7 million fish, including 33.3 million pinks, 2.4 million coho, 10.1 million chum, 655,000 sockeye and 167,000 kings. To date, Alaska’s Western region has reported a commercial catch of 67.7 million salmon, including 52.2 million pinks, 10.2 million sockeye, 4.4 million chum and 19,000 kings.
According to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), this year’s chum harvest is poised to post the second-best harvest on record, while the sockeye catch currently ranks eighth-best.
Coho harvests are far ahead of 2016, but this year's harvest ranks in the middle of the pack historically. Although pinks will finish well behind the last odd-year harvest, this year is in line with historical average odd-year harvests dating back to 1991.
