Return Update-July 17th

Return Update-July 17^th

Summer chum returns this week continue to mostly track along our pre-season forecasts and progress continues on cost recovery alongside the initiation of chum egg-takes at Hidden Falls and Medvejie. Daily updates to cost recovery progress by harvest site are continuing and there is the anticipation that significant progress will be made on the Hidden Falls and SE Cove in the coming week.

We continue to sample the Point Augusta, Gardner and Kingsmill test fisheries. Both Garnder and Kingsmill continue to be significantly above the long-term average for chum salmon with Hidden Falls production making up the majority of the sample for Gardner and SE Cove making up the majority at Kingsmill. For this week’s Kingsmill sample Hidden Falls remained at 14% of sample with SE Cove making up the relative majority at 49% of catch. Gardner will be fished Friday this week. For detailed breakdown see our Test Fisheries page.

Hidden Falls

Chum egg-takes began at Hidden Falls on July 14^th and  we have taken 28 million eggs so far, averaging nearly 1 million a day. Broodstock movement in the bay and up the ladder remains strong and we estimate that 65% of the brood needed is secured. Cost recovery for Hidden Falls is currently at 33% of goal and we expect a large cost recovery harvest on Friday. As we have secured a majority of the chum brood needed we can be more aggressive with cost recovery efforts closer to the barrier net in Kasnyku Bay and should make quicker progress on the cost recovery volume.

Medvejie

Summer chum egg-takes began at Medvejie on July 15^th and egg-takes have been going very smoothly with 25% of the egg-take goal complete. There is more than sufficient chum brood in Bear Cove and so far we have taken 86k chum for cost recovery. We will continue cost recovery in Bear Cove and Deep Inlet Friday and are currently at 41% of goal.

Chinook salmon continue to enter Bear Cove and total return to date on Chinook looks to be the best in a decade with over 15k fish already accounted for. We have secured our brood needed and have sold over 3k adults for cost recovery with more still to come in Bear cove.

Other Sites

Thomas Bay has slowly begun to ramp up with 31k fish harvested to date. It is looking like Thomas Bay return is either going to be late or below forecast. We do continue to see small numbers in the test fisheries so there is still some potential to make our forecast. At SE Cove we expect a large cost recovery harvest over the next week and may quickly meet our total goal. There has been no harvest since Saturday as the processor has had capacity and tender/harvest boat availability issues. We have been assured by the processor that there will be sufficient capacity in place for a strong harvest Friday/Saturday and Mon-Wed next week. Stayed tuned to our home page for progress as potential reopening schedule could be announced next week. To date there has been no effort at Crawfish Inlet.