Epic drop off

[Aces]

Down year for Alaska salmon fishery may spell end of some Alaska seafood businesses

Salmon catch totals and fish sizes have been disappointing thus far in the U.S. state of Alaska’s summer season.

www.seafoodsource.com

 

[Aces]

Down year for Alaska salmon fishery may spell end of some Alaska seafood businesses

Salmon catch totals and fish sizes have been disappointing thus far in the U.S. state of Alaska’s summer season.

www.seafoodsource.com

A related article in my opinion

Sportfishers can’t keep king salmon caught in Southeast waters under emergency order starting Monday | Juneau Empire

Ban in effect until Oct. 1 unlikely to affect fishing tours since few kings being caught, operators say.

www.juneauempire.com

 

[Sharphooks]

I majored in hatchery tech at the UW and one thing I remember learning is the law of diminishing returns with hatchery reared fish. As the hatchery program matures you have to pump out more and more fish to get the same returns you got when the program first began. Sounds like that’s happening with the global supply of pink salmon (though yes, it was an even year…..but still)


The head-scratcher for me, though, is people like to point the finger at poor high-seas survival and lack of forage fish (in the case of chinook numbers being so far down)

Meanwhile, have you been tracking the Tyee test results for Skeena steelhead?

Last year it was projected that the TOTAL return (prior to in-river gill-netting and predation and mortality from C&R ) was approx. 11,000 fish (down from the good-old years of 23,000 - 30,000 fish)

This year, the projected return (as of today) is 34,000 fish (!!) tracking to be one of the top best returns since the Tyee test fishery began

I’m guessing the biologists will have difficulty explaining this anomaly.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Down year for Alaska salmon fishery may spell end of some Alaska seafood businesses

Salmon catch totals and fish sizes have been disappointing thus far in the U.S. state of Alaska’s summer season.

www.seafoodsource.com

many of these fish are from the 2020 brood and that was " the 2020 commercial salmon harvest of 116.8 million fish is the thirteenth lowest on record"

Year	2020	2024
CHINOOK	256,810	217,000
SOCKEYE	46,121,977	40,700,000
COHO	2,330,271	606,000
PINK	59,426,679	32,500,000
CHUM	8,659,258	13,900,000

​

 

[Sharphooks]

That’s a good point but that doesn’t explain the drop in size. I heard a lot of the Bristol Bay sockeye were so small they swam right through the net

The predictions were that Global warming and climate change would benefit sockeye (increased temps = increased plankton and euphausiid production) Those predictions didn’t include the dramatically skewed sizing of 3 pound fish…..

 

[wildmanyeah]

That’s a good point but that doesn’t explain the drop in size. I heard a lot of the Bristol Bay sockeye were so small they swam right through the net

The predictions were that Global warming and climate change would benefit sockeye (increased temps = increased plankton and euphausiid production) Those predictions didn’t include the dramatically skewed sizing of 3 pound fish…..

the old saying was small fish was gonna bring in big returns, and now its small fish and small returns (here), Yet the ocean expeditions did not really notice a decline in body condition during their winter surveys but more of a shift of colder waters moving north and the food.

The bering sea when its warmer they have better sockey harvests but then the warmer water is bad for the crab and cod.

The decline in body size is being seen across everywhere, i think the massive pink ranching is a big factor

 

[wildmanyeah]

FYI, I said Years ago it was silly for Alaska to be increasing their fishing fleet and the amount of licenses issued with each record salmon year they were having as it was gonna create issues when stocks fluctuate back. it was only a few years ago they were increasing the fleet by 500 plus gillnet licenses a year and then bad year comes and they declare that they need disaster relief.

 

[Sharphooks]

Sounds like a typical Alaskan to me—-privatize gain but socialize loss…..

 

[SpringFever552]

FYI, I said Years ago it was silly for Alaska to be increasing their fishing fleet and the amount of licenses issued with each record salmon year they were having as it was gonna create issues when stocks fluctuate back. it was only a few years ago they were increasing the fleet by 500 plus gillnet licenses a year and then bad year comes and they declare that they need disaster relief.

Look at what they been using now, Insane fishing in next to no water depth, fish can't pass

11K views · 1.4K reactions | Get there and bang on it. Bristol Bay, Alaska for sockeye salmon using jet boats and combat fishing style #BristolBayFishing #CommercialFishing #AlaskaFishing #SockeyeSalmon #JetBoatFishing #CombatFishing #FishingLife

Get there and bang on it. Bristol Bay, Alaska for sockeye salmon using jet boats and combat fishing style #BristolBayFishing #CommercialFishing #AlaskaFishing #SockeyeSalmon #JetBoatFishing...

www.facebook.com

 

[wildmanyeah]

11K views · 1.4K reactions | Get there and bang on it. Bristol Bay, Alaska for sockeye salmon using jet boats and combat fishing style #BristolBayFishing #CommercialFishing #AlaskaFishing #SockeyeSalmon #JetBoatFishing #CombatFishing #FishingLife

Get there and bang on it. Bristol Bay, Alaska for sockeye salmon using jet boats and combat fishing style #BristolBayFishing #CommercialFishing #AlaskaFishing #SockeyeSalmon #JetBoatFishing...

www.facebook.com

Haha I seen that last week it’s crazy the tech they are using

 

[Dale66]

meanwhile record numbers of chinook back to bc they say when bc and lower 48 has good returns alaska has bad and visa verca . seems to be holding true bc chinook best in 30+ years.

 

[Aces]

meanwhile record numbers of chinook back to bc they say when bc and lower 48 has good returns alaska has bad and visa verca . seems to be holding true bc chinook best in 30+ years.

Record numbers? Curious where you’re getting that information

 

[SpringFever552]

Record numbers? Curious where you’re getting that information

FB pics

 

[Dale66]

Local Dfo rep at sfac meeting said that exact words were best jn 30
Years last year

 

[Whole in the Water]

I have heard and been told the same thing by DFO, SFAB and SFI-BC folks.

 

[Aces]

Local Dfo rep at sfac meeting said that exact words were best jn 30
Years last year

Don’t thing the Tyee pool gang would agree

 

[agentaqua]

many of these fish are from the 2020 brood and that was " the 2020 commercial salmon harvest of 116.8 million fish is the thirteenth lowest on record"

Year	2020	2024
CHINOOK	256,810	217,000
SOCKEYE	46,121,977	40,700,000
COHO	2,330,271	606,000
PINK	59,426,679	32,500,000
CHUM	8,659,258	13,900,000

​

Typically for sockeye the % of 4YOs is ~75% for most stocks most years. Sometimes the % of 3YO jacks can be substantial - often nearing 20% of the run - often in the early part - but can also be seen in the latter part of the run if the gillnet fleet is out front. TACs are a a piece count, getting paid is by $/lb. There is a financial incentive to catch the larger fish and let the jacks go through larger mesh size nets.

The number of jacks are often used to predict the size of the next years run - called cohort analyses.

And seals and sea lions & orcas also take the larger individual fish (older age classes), larger species (Chinook & chum) and especially the females. That's why it is often a 50/50 female/male ratio at the start of a run at the front end of a watershed seen during deadpitch escapement surveys - but a few km upstream and later in the run most hatcheries now (and wild spawning egg/fry recruitment) have to now deal with a ~30% female proportion for broodstock - with a higher proportion of smaller, younger females with much less eggs. Less females AND less eggs AND smaller eggs with less nutrients in them for the developing egg-sac fry. Big, big impact there!

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brett-Roper/publication/262945313/figure/fig3/AS:618912278405121@1524571594330/Fecundity-number-of-eggs-of-females-of-different-ages-from-samples-of-North-Umpqua.png

And often fish make decisions. The year after a heat dome will often have a small percentage of 6 YO fish show up - the 4-5 YOs that declined to try during the warmer year or 2 before wrt instream temps.

So lots to consider wrt looking at these numbers...

 

[Dale66]

Don’t thing the Tyee pool gang would agree

So went from mocking the comment about it just be from Facebook to once it’s from a reliable source (hate dfo but most reliable yoh het) you then try to disprove via a 300ft by 300ft area? Hahaha. Ok. The comment was made in general. Still some rivers of concern. Always will be. But overall best in 30 years

 

[Aces]

So went from mocking the comment about it just be from Facebook to once it’s from a reliable source (hate dfo but most reliable yoh het) you then try to disprove via a 300ft by 300ft area? Hahaha. Ok. The comment was made in general. Still some rivers of concern. Always will be. But overall best in 30 years

Mocking? Ok then. So your feelings got hurt cuz I hadn’t heard that line before