The tendencies in Alaska salmon headed in reverse instructions in 2022, generally extraordinarily so, however ended up assembly within the center. The full industrial salmon harvest for the yr wound up being near historic averages for complete fish and worth, based on a preliminary abstract report launched by the Alaska Division of Fish and Sport.
The full industrial harvest of all salmon species was 160.7 million fish, rather less than the long-term common of 167 million, mentioned the abstract report, launched on Thursday.
The full ex-vessel worth – the quantity paid on to harvesters previous to processing – was $720.4 million, a rise from the $643.9 million complete reported for 2021. With out adjustment for inflation, the 2022 complete ex-value complete is among the many highest in Alaska historical past, however changes for inflation deliver that complete all the way down to concerning the median for the harvests reported since 1975, the Fish and Sport report mentioned.
Harvests of high-priced sockeye salmon had been notably robust in 2022, affecting the totals.
The statewide sockeye salmon harvest of 74.8 million fish was a file excessive, pushed by the file return within the Bristol Bay area, based on the Fish and Sport abstract report. Sockeye salmon accounted for two-thirds of the whole worth of the state’s 2022 salmon harvest, the report mentioned.
On the identical time, the report mentioned, there have been no industrial harvests of any salmon species in areas the place the salmon runs collapsed — the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Salmon runs in these rivers had been so abysmal that even subsistence fishing, the harvesting of salmon for fundamental meals wants by village residents, was sparse.
This yr’s complete Alaska industrial harvest of pink salmon, the most cost effective and usually probably the most plentiful of the state’s 5 salmon species, was lower than half that of final yr, 69.1 million fish in comparison with 161 million fish in 2021. That discount in some methods displays the pure inhabitants cycles for pink salmon, which have two-year lives, the report mentioned. Even-numbered-year returns and harvests of pink salmon are usually decrease than these in odd-numbered years.
The full 2022 harvest, together with the breakdown amongst sockeye and pink salmon, was virtually precisely what had been forecast by the division this spring.
A extra detailed assessment of the 2022 industrial salmon season can be included within the 2023 harvest forecast anticipated subsequent spring.
Initially revealed by the Alaska Beacon, an unbiased, nonpartisan information group that covers Alaska state authorities.