Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) officials are predicting an “excellent” harvest of pink salmon in the Southeast next year.
Using trends for prior harvests and trawl surveys of juvenile salmon conducted in Chatham and Icy Straits by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, projections are set at 55 million pinks, up from the 24 million fish landed this year. Forecasts for this year had been for 19 million fish.
The NOAA survey showed 2010’s peak June and July pink salmon statistic in northern Southeast Alaska ranked in the top one-third out of 13 previous years of harvest data, indicating good freshwater and early marine survival for fish set to return in 2011.
According to Andy Piston, ADF&G’s Southeast region pink and chum salmon project leader, this year’s returns are on par with previous years. In recent years, odd-year escapements have been larger than even years, explaining the increase in projections from 2010 to 2011.
“[The projections] are really close to the average harvest for the last five odd years and above the 10-year average harvest of even and odd years combined of 40 million [fish],” said Piston.
Despite the slow year for the Southeast region, Prince William Sound’s 2010 pink harvest broke the previous single-week harvest record of 11.9 million fish in 2007, nearly doubling to 20 million fish.
