Return Update-August 1st

Return Update-August 1^st

Returns this past week of summer run chum salmon have continued their decline after peaking in mid-July with all four return sites coming in under forecast. Both Hidden Falls and Thomas Bay will come in substantially under forecast. SE Cove will finish up approximately 20% under the pre-season forecast and finally the summer run Deep Inlet chum will end up being approximately 15% under forecast. While there will still be a few of the tail end of the summer run chum returning for the next week or so, all sites seem to be rapidly winding down.

Cost Recovery

With the diminishing summer chum returns there has been minor progress on cost recovery at Hidden Falls, Deep Inlet and SE Cove. Cost recovery will continue at Hidden Falls and SE Cove this weekend but no significant harvest is anticipated. Cost recovery chum harvest at Medvejie-Bear Cove Wednesday resulted in the first early indication of the fall chum run beginning to show up and made up 45% of the harvest. Cost recovery at Deep Inlet will continue after next week’s Deep Inlet opening for stat week 32.

Egg-takes

Chum egg-takes at Medvejie and Gunnuk Creek have been completed with all goals met. Hidden Falls will complete egg-takes over the weekend and have sufficient chum brood secured to meet all project goals. Chinook salmon have just begun to recruit up the ladder at Medvejie the last few days and we anticipate sufficient brood have been secured behind the barrier net. Chinook egg-takes should begin mid-August.

Coho

We continue to see a strong early season catch of NSRAA produced coho from all sites. Hidden Falls is coming in significantly better than recent years with nearly 6,000 harvested in the troll fishery to date. This early Hidden Falls coho troll harvest is the highest through stat week 30 than in the last 10 years. Deer Lake, Bear Cove and Deep Inlet coho runs are also performing better than most recent years through stat week 30. Overall NSRAA coho have contributed over 12,000 coho to the troll fishery through stat week 30.