Copper River Sockeye Run Projection Revised DownwardSEAFOODNEWS.COM By John Sackton June 8, 2016
This is turning out to be a difficult year for Copper River sockeye, compared to last year's run. The inseason timing chart through Week 23 (ending May 28th) shows total landings for sockeye of 368,000 fish. Last year on this date 726,000 sockeye had been caught, and the five year average is 868,000 fish.
However, looking at only the last five years is misleading when measuring actual harvest with pre-season estimates.
"The previous five years were in the top seven runs of all time," said Jeremy Botz, area management biologist for ADF&G in Cordova. "As recently as 2009-2010 we were at the levels we're projecting now -- 1.1 - 1.2 million fish. It's still early in the season."
"Now we're getting into different stocks entering the run," Botz said, in terms of timing and coming into different parts of the river.
Comparing year-to-year totals for sockeye salmon, a five-year fish, can also be misleading because...
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