Alaska's Other Summer Fisheries in Full Swing as Salmon Season Underperforms (Fish Radio)
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] July 7, 2015
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Alaska’s salmon returns are slow and small; lots of fishing updates after this
Alaska’s salmon catch is going slow – barely topping 18 million fish by yesterday. And statewide, the early sockeyes and chums are some of the smallest on record. At Copper River, Cook Inlet and Kodiak the red weights are down by as much as a full pound from normal, averaging under 5.5 pounds.
Biologists speculate the smaller size comes from food competition in the Gulf that’s worsened by water that’s five degrees warmer than average and depleting plankton supplies. At the world’s biggest sockeye salmon fishery at Bristol Bay the catch of 8.5 million fish is down by more than half from the same time last year. The forecast calls for a whopping catch or nearly 38 million reds at Bristol Bay - the traditional peak is July 4th and landings this week should tell if the run is late, might arrive all at once or was way over estimated...
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