The countdown to the opening of the Copper River salmon fishery has begun.
The Copper River salmon fishery is set to open at 7am on Thursday 13 May, for a 12-hour period, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) has announced.
This year’s Copper River salmon run is projected to total 49,000 chinook and 2.17 million sockeye, while the harvest is forecast to reach 25,000 chinook and 1.49 million sockeye, said ADF&G.
If realised, the 2010 chinook run would be the second smallest since 1999 and only slightly larger than the preliminary 2009 run of 44,000 fish, while the 2010 sockeye run would be the 10th largest since 1980 and about 50,000 above the recent five-year average of 2.13 million fish.
Last year, the Copper River salmon fishery kicked off on 14 May.
According to preliminary ADF&G figures, fishermen last year harvested 9,500 chinook, the smallest harvest in more than 40 years and well below the 10-year average of 37,000 fish.
Fishermen caught 897,000 sockeye last year, below the 10-year average of 1.2 million. They also netted 208,000 coho, below the 10-year average of 295,000 fish.
