Cook Inlet drifters fish Monday, in Areas 3 and 4, and every Monday and Thursday after

Cook Inlet drift gillnetters fish Areas 3 and 4 only on Monday, Aug. 17, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Mondays and Thursdays for the rest of the season, until closed or changed by emergency order.

That schedule took effect Aug. 10 under Emergency Order 2-F-H-31-26. The Central District drift management plan requires that restriction from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15 when two straight periods each take under 1% of the season's drift sockeye harvest. The Aug. 3 and Aug. 6 periods both did.

The Aug. 3 opening, authorized by Emergency Order 2-F-H-27-26, ran from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in state waters of the Expanded Kasilof, Expanded Kenai and Anchor Point sections. Through July 30, Kasilof sockeye escapement stood at 971,243 fish against a biological goal of 140,000 to 320,000; the Kenai sonar count reached 968,423, reported without a goal.

Drift gillnetting stays two miles off the Kenai Peninsula shoreline under 5 AAC 21.382, protecting Kenai River late-run king salmon, until that stock is delisted. Lucas Stumpf, the acting area management biologist in Soldotna, is the contact, at 907-262-9368.