100 million salmon caught so far
The 2019 salmon harvest passed the 100-million-fish harvest mark Aug. 3, according to the weekly Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute catch report. So far the predicted robust sockeye salmon harvest is living up to expectations but pink salmon and chum catches are off, ASMI said. The sockeye catch totaled 52.9 million as of Aug. 3, 10 percent over the 48.1 million sockeyes harvested last year as of that date. Pink salmon were down 12 percent for the same period, however, or 39.6 million year-to-date compared with 58.4 million last year. Keta, or chum, salmon were down 20 percent for the 2019 catch as of Aug. 3, or 10.1 million fish compared with 12.7 million last year.

Chinook, or king, salmon catches are running about 11 percent below 2018 year-to-date, at 186,000 fish caught compared with 210,000 for the same period of 2018.

Southeast Alaska is showing sharp drops in catches compared with 2018 – down 7 percent down for pinks; 63 percent for chum and 35 percent down for silvers. Kodiak is up, with sockeye catches up 171 percent; pinks up 25 percent, but chums off 16 percent. Bristol Bay was running on par with last year on sockeyes, which were up 3 percent as of Aug. 3, but with pink catches down 84 percent compared with the same period of 2018.

Prince William Sound’s pink catch was down 47 percent from last year, or 13.1 million fish in 2019 as of Aug. 3, compared with 24.6 million last year. The sockeye harvest was up 94 percent, and chums were up 82 percent. Cook Inlet saw a 59 percent increase in sockeye catches; a 53 percent drop in pinks and a 3 percent drop in chum catches.