Commercial salmon harvests in Prince William Sound have ended the season in a dramatic downturn, with the harvest of humpies alone down by 93%.
As of Aug. 13, data showed the overall Prince William Sound harvest unchanged from a week earlier, still at 1.9 million fish – which included 764,000 chum, 598,000 sockeye, 526,000 pink, 5,000 coho and 3,000 Chinook.
The preliminary statewide harvest, meanwhile, rose to 61.5 million fish, including 36.5 million sockeye, 16.6 million pink, 7.8 million chum, 462,000 coho and 119,000 Chinook salmon.
Southeast Alaska has held its status as the highest producing region for pink salmon, even while 65% down from 2024, according to the latest weekly in-season salmon harvest summary compiled by the McKinley Research Group on behalf of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. As of earlier this week, the Alaska Peninsula harvest surpassed Prince William Sound as a second highest producing region for pink salmon in 2026.
Through Aug. 8 the statewide salmon harvest reached 53 million fish, or 43% of the annual forecast. The catch of all five Pacific salmon species in Alaska continued to lag behind last year’s harvests, with pink and coho trailing the most at -66% and -65% respectively, the McKinley report said.
Poor harvests in 2026 compound previous declines in the most recent even-numbered year, 2024, after which the state requested a federal fishery disaster determination for Prince William Sound, Kodiak and Lower Cook Inlet pink salmon fisheries.
The Alaska coho season also got off to a slow start – harvests through the week of Aug. 8 were down 65% from a year ago.
Harvests are in fact below the prior year in each region, with the total coho harvest having reached 14% of the annual projection year-to-date, the McKinley report said.
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