Sockeye catch in Bristol Bay exceeds 25 million

Published on July 17th, 2010

By MARGARET BAUMAN

Sockeye salmon fishermen, undeterred by late runs of the prized fish into Bristol Bay, boosted their harvest through July 16 to 25.5 million reds,out of a total run of 36.3 million fish.

Some 1,500 fishermen were still on the grounds, hoping to boost the harvest to the forecast of 30.5 million fish.

"It's a banner year, and last year was a good year too," said Bob Waldrop, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. "Only in Bristol Bay can you call a total run of 36 million fish disappointing.

"From the perspective of the entire fishery over a ten year period, it is pretty hard to be disappointed, although some people got hurt for sure," he said.

The value of the harvest to fishermen remained an unknown, with no processors commenting on what they planned to pay.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast for the famed Bristol Bay sockeyes was a run of 39.7 million, with a harvest of 30.5 million fish. With all those fishermen still out there harvesting, Waldrop said the total catch would go significantly higher before it's all over.

"We might reach the total run, but it doesn't look like we are going to reach the total catch," he said.

Processors with facilities in the Naknek area meanwhile were scurrying to head, gut and fillet much of the harvest. Several processors said they were producing very few canned fish and they were happy to put the fish into higher margin items, Waldrop said.

The Kvichak, which has struggled in recent years as a stock of concern, came in big this year, with a total harvest through July 15 of 9.7 million reds, out of a run of 16.4 million fish. A different situation developed at Egegik, where the forecast was for a harvest of 9.2 million, out of a total run of 10.6 million fish. At one point, Egegik was shut down to allow for further escapement of fish into their natal streams. Through July 15, harvesters at Egegik had caught 4.4 million reds out of a total run of 5.2 million fish.

The fishery got off to a relatively late start, under cooler than normal seasonal temperatures, and a mix of cloudy skies and storms, lightening up to grey skies and three-foot seas by mid-July, with no major tsunamis of sockeye.

As a result, no processors restricted the amount of fish they would accept on a daily basis for harvest. The slow, but steady delivery of salmon also afforded processors a chance to increase the amount of time and care they gave the fish, said Norm Van Vactor, operations manager for Leader Creek Fisheries, which has a large plant at Naknek.

Some 440 workers, including students representing 14 nations, were employed on Leader Creek's slime line. Among them was Innocent Bash, a graduate student at Columbia University who is working on a doctoral degree, Van Vactor said. Bash, the son of a Tanzanian chicken farmer, was also spending time working at every other job in the plant, Van Vactor said.

Given the lack of surges in the run, there was no down time in mid-July as restrictions on fishing sets were lifted. As darkness fell across the bay, several hundred boats kept casting their driftnets and pulling them in, sometimes finding an abundant catch, but at other times little for their effort. "This year there was no rhyme or reason the way the fish came in," said Shawn Dochtermann, a Kodiak fisherman who has harvested in the bay for more than two decades. Sockeyes were not necessarily being found in places where the fish normally migrate, but were caught in other places where they were not normally found, he said.

Setnetters like Dave Cagley of Myrtle Point, Ore., were experiencing similar frustrations.

Cagley, a 30 year veteran in the Egegick fishery, said it was the third slowest season he could recall.

"They seem to come around every 10 years," he said, as he waited for a flight home from the King Salmon airport.

"All the predictions were showing it looked like it was going to be the same as last year," said Cagley, who fished from his setnet site from June 16 through July 11, then backed up for the trip home. The fish "looked really good, but there just weren't that many of them," said Cagley, who found fuel costs to be one of the more painful aspects of the season." Last year we burned the same amount of fuel, but caught more fish," he said.

Two other setnetters, from Portland, Ore., said their harvest came in at about half of what they caught last year. Fishing is a gamble, was the way they summed up the season.

All three setnetters said they would be back again in 2011.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at 901-248-2438 or 800-770-9830 Ext 438