Alaska Sockeye Salmon Production in Record Highs for Bristol Bay

Up to half of the value of Alaska's total salmon fishery, and the so-called reds dominate the season's early fisheries starting in mid-May. This year sockeye catches so far setting record highs at Bristol Bay to record but lows nearly everywhere else.

Copper River sockeye will just harvest just 26,000 sockeyes, which is the lowest in 50 years. At Kodiak, just 212,000 sockeyes were taken through July 6, making it the weakest harvest in 38 years. Sockeye fishing at Yakutat has been closed due to the lowest returns in 50 years; likewise, fishermen at Chignik also have yet to see an opener.

Sockeye harvest levels at Cook Inlet and the Alaska Peninsula also are running well below average.

Fishery scientists suspect the downturns are due to the warmest sea-surface temperatures ever recorded running from 2014-2016, which likely depleted food sources before the sockeyes returned from the ocean this year as adults.

At the other extreme, the early sockeye run at Bristol Bay set records for some of the best catches ever. By July 6, fishermen at the Nushagak district had four harvests that topped one million reds per day, including a record 1.77 million fish taken on July 1.