Small red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) return and fish size

Joseph Delgado writes:

The fish are smaller, less in number for the time of year. Our fish came from NW side of Spruce Island in Marmot Bay Alaska, just near Kodiak on Kodiak Island.

Tyler Polum, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Kodiak Area Sportfish Biologist, writes:

This observation is pretty consistent with sockeye runs throughout the Gulf of Alaska at this point, and particularly those on northeast Kodiak Island. Traveling fish near spruce island will likely be a mix of all the different stocks, but as Ouzinkie residents will know, our local hatchery released sockeye from net pens in the boat harbor there, so there will be some returns from those fish. We know that most of the sockeye that have been in the ocean 3 years have been severely effected by ocean conditions, and runs like Litnik, Buskin, Chignik and the Copper River are experiencing record low returns. The runs on the southwest side of Kodiak Island like Karluk and Ayakulik are doing well for escapement but commercial harvests are very very low for this time of year and consistent with observations from the gentlemen in Ouzinkie.

As far as average weights, you may be able to get that from the commercial harvest, and Amanda Dorner might be able to help you. We don’t have any specific research documenting weight, but we do sample the Buskin sockeye run for length and the fish are generally smaller this year. We have also heard this from most anglers and subsistence fishermen around the island. Hope that helps.

I have received a couple of these type of requests from our region so far. We are always available for members of the public to contact us and glad to answer questions or hear from folks on the fishing grounds about what they are seeing. We put a lot of weight into local observations when trying to understand what salmon runs are doing in a given year. Feel free to let folks know they can contact me directly if they would like too, you have my email but my direct phone line is 486-1879.

LEO Editor Comment:

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Sport Fish provide fish count data for rivers around the state. This data represents the estimated number of fish passing a weir, sonar, or counting tower in a particular location. Near Spruce Island/Kodiak Island, current fish count data is available for Afognak River, Ayakulik River, Buskin River, Karluk River, Olga Creek, Pashagak and Saltery Creek

According to the Kodiak/Alaska Peninsula Area Sport Fishing Report, the sockeye run is slow in the Buskin and Litnik Rivers, and are not expected to meet escapement goals, These rivers are closed to sport and subsistence fishing. The Karluk and Ayakulik rivers are expected to meet sockeye escapement goals, although the runs are not as strong this year. Sockeye runs at Pasagshak and Saltery are too early to make predictions for the season, but are expected to peak in mid-July. Erika Lujan