Commercial harvesters on the Copper River were into a 36-hour opener on June 17, as estimated catches through Saturday, June 15, showed an increase in sockeyes harvested and a decline in Chinooks over the same week in 2023.
With ice essentially gone from river systems, the sockeyes continued to weigh in heavier than through the same period a year ago, said fisheries biologist Jeremy Botz, in the Cordova office of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The Bering River and Coghill districts were also open for 36-hour commercial runs on Monday, and the Eshamy district for a 24-hour period. Montague District opened for purse seiners for 24 hours, and the Southwestern district for 48 hours, also for seiners.
Estimated harvests for the Copper River district through Saturday, June 15, came to approximately 500,000 wild salmon, including 477,460 sockeyes, 15,023 chum, 7,366 Chinooks, 66 cohos, and 19 pink salmon. For the same week a year ago, the estimated catch was about 455,000 red, 9,300 king and 16,000 chum salmon.
Estimated harvests overall in Prince William Sound through Monday totaled 810,881 fish, including 536,818 sockeyes, 266,469 chum, 7,519 kings, 66 cohos, and 19 pink salmon.
Even with other wild Alaska salmon fisheries opening for the season, Copper River sockeyes were holding their own in Anchorage restaurants, with entrees of Copper River reds offered at $49 at Simon and Seafort’s and $32 for the entree at Orso.
Prices per pound of Copper River fillets ranged from $37.97 at the online Anchorage retailer FishEx, $34.99 a pound at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, $19.95 a pound at 10th & M Seafoods and $14.99 at Fred Meyer stores in Anchorage. Carrs/Safeway and Costco had fresh fillets of Cook Inlet wild sockeyes for $21.99 a pound and $12.99 a pound respectively.
Statewide commercial catches as of Monday were estimated at 1.1 million salmon, including 714,000 sockeyes, 367,000 chum, 28,000 chinook, and 24,000 pink.
In Southeast Alaska the catch included 49,000 fish, including 23,000 Chinook from winter and spring troll fisheries and 26,000 chum from hatchery terminal gillnet and seine harvesters.
In the Western Region, the Kodiak area catch of 273,000 fish included 148,00 red, 101,000 chum and 24,000 pink salmon. In the Alaska Peninsula fishermen delivered 245,000 salmon, including 134,000 red, 87,000 chum and 24,000 pinks.
Catches in the Central Region led with 811,000 fish overall, including 566,000 sockeyes, 240,000 chum and 5,000 Chinook. Some 33,000 of those reds were from Cook Inlet and 2,000 from Bristol Bay, where harvests were being made in the Egegik and Nushagak districts.
