Bristol Bay needed volume to make up for a soft market, but state biologists say there’s no reason to expect that it’s going to happen now that the season’s unofficial point of no return has passed. Not only will the run come in far less than forecast, but likely come in well less than the 20-year average harvest.
Bristol Bay sockeye, Alaska’s most valuable fishery, is coming up far less than the forecasted commercial harvest of 37.6 million fish, which would have been the third-largest since 1960.
As of July 5, daily harvest summaries from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, or ADFG, report that 8.87 million Bristol Bay reds have been caught. That is less that half of what was caught by this time last year, and 35 percent less than the five-year average.
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