It’s that time of the year when pink salmon harvests are hitting their stride, and stand to boost Alaska’s overall salmon harvest, but with the catch standing at 71.3 million fish, there’s still a way to go to reach the forecast of 132.1 million fish.
Depending on how the pink salmon come in at Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Southeast Alaska, that is still a possibility though. Even with the forecast of the pink salmon harvest below the five-year average, it is a decent run, said Geron Bruce, deputy director of commercial fisheries at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau.
As of Aug. 3, the latest compilation of salmon harvests by the state agency showed a harvest of 71307,000 salmon, compared with 58.7 million fish a week earlier. The total catch now includes 34,305,000 sockeye, 22,405,000 pink, 13,512,000 chum, 881,000 silver and 204,000 king salmon.
For Prince William Sound alone, the harvest has reached 19,329,000 fish, including 12,235,000 pink, 3,635,000 sockeye, 3,441,000 chum, 12,000 kings and 5,000 silvers. A week earlier, Prince William Sound’s harvest was 15.7 million salmon, including 9.3 million pinks.
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