Good pink salmon catches at Kodiak, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet helped push Alaska’s total salmon catch over the 90 million mark, or about 65% of the 132 million salmon target for 2020.
In other fisheries – Southeast’s summer Dungeness crab fishery will close Aug. 15 after a two-month opener. Several million pounds should come out of that fishery. A second opener for shrimp has beam trawlers back out on the Southeast waters, and a lingcod fishery is ongoing in parts of the Panhandle and Prince William Sound.
Also coming up in the Sound is a 15,000-pound test fishery for golden king crab that will start Sept. 1 and run through October. That will hopefully soon provide another emerging fishery for the region.
Golden king crab opened on Aug. 1 in the Bering Sea with a 6.6 million-pound quota.
Crabbers at Kodiak are still pulling up Dungeness, landing more than 1.4 million pounds so far. Kodiak boats also are targeting black rockfish.
A fall cod fishery opens in the Gulf of Alaska on Aug. 25 and reopens Sept. 1 for pot boats in the Bering Sea.
Fisheries also are still underway for Alaska pollock, flatfish, scallops and much more in both regions, along with a food and bait herring fishery near Dutch Harbor.
A food and bait herring fishery near Dutch Harbor is ongoing for nearly 3,000 tons.
Alaska halibut catches were over the halfway mark, topping 8 million pounds. Homer, Seward and Sitka are the leading ports for deliveries.
For sablefish, or black cod, more than 12 million pounds have crossed the docks out of a 31.7 million-pound quota.