Weekly Alaska Salmon Harvest Updates are produced for ASMI by the McKinley Research Group

2024 Weekly Alaska Salmon Harvest Update #12

UNITED STATES
Thursday, September 12, 2024, 06:10 (GMT + 9)

Harvest Through 9/7/2024 (Statistical Week 36)

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Note: YTD comparisons are based on statistical weeks. Statistical weeks between years do not align with calendar dates. Data are subject to revision. Source: Alaska Department of Fish & Game . *Chinook figures exclude harvest before week 20.

• With the Alaska commercial salmon season nearly over, YTD total harvest of fewer than 100 million salmon is 70% of the pre-season forecast, and down 34% from 2023 (2022 for pinks).

• Weekly harvests of about 100,000 fish have been trickling in for sockeye (mostly in Kodiak) and coho salmon in recent weeks but have dropped off for the other three species. As the latest-running species, coho salmon volumes are the most likely to continue to increase in the remaining weeks of fishing.

• Wholesale prices are up this year for Alaska sockeye salmon, according to trade press reports, due to lower harvest volumes and inventories. Because of smaller fish caught this year, supply is especially limited for 4-6 pound fish.

• Commercial harvest fell 90% in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region this year. The AYK has consisted almost excluviely of the farthest-north districts in recent years because of run collapses on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Most of this year’s AYK harvest took place in Norton Sound, with only 6,000 fish caught in Kotzebue. While AYK has never had a large salmon harvest from a statewide perspective, commercial fishing has historically been a significant part of the region’s limited cash economy. 

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*Last year uses 2022 pink salmon instead of 2023 (most recent even-year).

Source: Alaska Department of Fish & Game. May June July August September (See ADF&G Blue Sheet page for more about statistical weeks)

2024 Average Fish Weights

• Bristol Bay drift gillnet sockeye: 4.2 lbs.
• Southeast troll fisheries: Chinook 10.6 lbs., coho 5.0 lbs., keta 7.0 lbs.
• Taku Inlet/Stephens Passage/Port Snettisham (Southeast) drift gillnet: keta 6.0 lbs
• Prince William Sound purse seine hatchery cost recovery fishery: pink 3.5 lbs.

Source: alaskaseafood.org

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