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Fish and Game forecasts modest pink return in lower Cook Inlet

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting 2018’s lower Cook Inlet pink salmon run to be a modest one despite disastrous runs in 2016, this year’s parent year. A number of 2016 pink salmon runs were declared a federal disaster.

Area Management Biologist Glenn Hollowell said the commercial harvest was limited to about 70,000 pinks that year.

“We stopped fishing in a lot of places and we just watched our escapement goals, some of whom we may have not quite made them, but we definitely put enough fish in the streams to get a good return, a reasonable return,” Hollowell explained. “We’re hoping for a modest return on some of those streams.”

Fish and Game expects about 190,000 wild pinks to be available for commercial harvest in the southern, outer and Kamishak Bay districts. Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association is also forecasting about 1.9 million pinks to return to its Tutka Bay Lagoon, Port Graham and Trail Lakes hatcheries.

“From those, they’ll be needing to take brood stock, which is about 250,000 and they’re looking about taking 1.4 million fish for cost recovery,” Hollowell said. “That’s to pay for the pink salmon program as well as in part the sockeye program depending on how well the sockeye harvest in Resurrection Bay goes, as well as some of the more out-of-the-way returns like China Poot Lake, which is where we get our fish from in the personal use fishery.”

The hatchery association expects about 50,000 pinks to be available in the common property fishery.

About 100,000 wild sockeye are also expected to be available for harvest this year with another 118,000 up for harvest from Cook Inlet Aquaculture hatcheries. About 290,000 wild and hatchery sockeye were harvested in 2017.   

Fish and Game’s forecast puts this year’s chum salmon run at about 100,000 fish. That’s below last year’s chum harvest of about 200,000.

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News commercial fishingCommercial Fisheries
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