From overseas: The Alaskan pink salmon fishery catch is up by 21% compared to 2019. This is interesting in the context of the increased numbers of this non-native species being reported in Scotland.
As of Friday, July 17, Alaska’s salmon harvest continued to pick up steam, including the season’s largest weekly harvest.
A bump in pink salmon landings was driven by the Prince William Sound region, where pink hauls are up 21 percent over the pace set in 2019. In other regions of the state, harvests are currently well behind the 2019 pace for pinks, which typically produce big returns in alternating years. The harvest also tends to peak later in the summer.
The sockeye harvest, centered in Bristol Bay, appears to have peaked two weeks ago.
“Bristol Bay sockeye currently represent 82 percent of the sockeye and 56 percent of all salmon harvested so far across Alaska,” said the McKinley Research Group Report created in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
Bay fleets had hauled a remarkable 99 percent of the region’s preseason forecast for 46.5 million sockeye salmon with a few weeks left to go in the season.