The pink salmon runs in Southeast Alaska are forecast to be weak in the summer. The commercial harvest in the region is predicted to rise by just 5 percent this year when compared to the previous year as per an analysis by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game that was released earlier in the month. However, it’s expected to be higher than a 60% reduction from the previous odd-year harvest in 2021.
Pink salmon runs throughout the Southeast reach their peak in odd years, and then fall in even years.
In 2023, the pink salmon catch is expected to be about 19 million fish and a interval of between 12 to 19 million. This is what the department defines as an “unstable run. It’s not as impressive as Southeast’s record-setting 2013 harvest which produced more than 90 million salmon pink.
The data comes mainly from an analysis of the juvenile pink salmon abundance indicators gathered by researchers from Southeast in the past.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game only provides the harvest predictions for pinks from Southeast Alaska because they claim they do not have sufficient information from other species of salmon to make accurate predictions of the harvests.
However, they do establish limits on harvest and king salmon trollers are likely to be facing an increase of 23% in harvesting allowed in the coming year. This is a reduction from 44,000 to. There are 53,000 kings that are allowed to be caught by other types of gear under the international treaty governing the wild king harvest. Kingfish that are produced in hatcheries aren’t included in the agreement.
Yet, the flows of frightened Southeast King Salmon are expected to reach the lower limit of their escapement targets on a lot of the rivers surveyed by Fish & Game this year. It’s the Stikine River near Wrangell is an exception, and is not expected to reach its escapement target range between 14,000 and 28,000 kings.
The harvest forecast for ADF&G’s Southeast also showed that last year’s harvest of salmon across the entire region was about half of that from the year before. This was the 33rd highest harvest since the year 1962.
But that doesn’t mean the last year’s prices were not as low. Despite the fact that the 2022 harvest was only half that of that of the prior year’s (58 million catches) however, the total value of the preliminary estimate of the docks in Southeast rose by 12 millions to reach the tune of $144 million. The increase in value was mostly due to the fact that the cost for a pound of Chum salmon rose by a quarter when compared with the previous year’s value, which was an average across the region at $1.18 each pound.
