Salmon haul Photo Credit: ADF&G
A few hundred thousand more salmon will likely trickle but it’s pretty much a wrap for the 2019 season which ranks as the 8th largest catch on record. The statewide harvest has topped 201 million salmon, 94 percent of the preseason prediction.
The sockeye catch of over 55 million topped expectations by 33 percent, or about 14 million fish, and is the fourth largest ever.
Bristol Bay accounted for 78 percent of that total and at a value of $306.5 million is the most valuable harvest on record.
The Alaska Peninsula caught 7 percent of the sockeye harvest, Prince William Sound was at 5 percent, with Kodiak and Cook Inlet contributing 4 percent of Alaska’s sockeye haul.
For pinks, a catch of about 125 million is 91 percent of the forecast and the 8th largest on record.
Prince William Sound’s catch at over 47 million was 38 percent of the statewide total, followed by Kodiak at nearly 35 million and 26 percent.
The Alaska Peninsula and Southeast each contributed 16 percent of the total pink catch.
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A harvest of over 17 million chum salmon is the 16th largest ever, with Southeast taking 42 percent, Prince William Sound at 31 percent, the Alaska Peninsula at 8 percent and the AYK region took 7 percent of the chum total.
For cohos a harvest of 3.4 million is 22 percent off the five year average.
Southeast produced nearly 40 percent of the coho catch at 1.3 million followed by Prince William Sound and the Alaska Peninsula, both at 15 percent.
The Chinook salmon catch of about 255,000 was slightly higher than last year but among the lowest since 1975.
Southeast took 63 percent of the total at 178,000 with Bristol Bay second at 32,000 kings.
