Copper River and Bering River commercial salmon season closes October 13

Commercial salmon fishing in the Copper River and Bering River districts closes for the season at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, ending a year in which the Copper River sockeye harvest reached about a third of the preseason forecast. The season began May 14.

Five 36-hour drift gillnet periods remain in each district before then, each starting at 7 a.m., on September 28, October 1, October 5, October 8 and October 12. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game set the schedule in Prince William Sound Salmon Fishery Announcement #54, issued Friday by the Cordova Area Office. Todd Johnson and Jeremy Botz, the area management biologists, are listed at (907) 424-3212; recorded gillnet announcements run at 907-424-7535.

The last sockeye harvest figure the department published for the Copper River District was 243,000 fish, reached by July 17. The preseason forecast, published in January, called for a commercial harvest of 728,000. The 2025 season summary put last year's Copper River sockeye harvest at 840,000 fish, 2 percent above the ten-year average of 824,000.

The fleet fished its last directed sockeye period on July 9. It produced 72 Chinook and 13,100 sockeye with 158 deliveries, against a projected 27,000 sockeye for the period. On August 7 the department said it would switch to coho management.

"Miles Lake Sonar project apportionment data (Figure 1) indicate that the cumulative count of large Chinook salmon is the lowest in the past 8 seasons," the department said in its July 31 announcement, which covers 2019 through 2026. Apportionment splits the count by species and size. Passage ended near the lower end of the 21,000 to 31,000 fish sustainable escapement goal. Commercial Chinook harvest finished at 4,250 fish, about a quarter below the 5,780 taken in 2025 and about two-thirds below the ten-year average of 12,660.

Miles Lake sonar, the primary inriver abundance gauge, stopped counting after July 28 with 570,391 salmon enumerated against 600,897 expected by that date under the 2026 inriver goal, the number it wants past the sonar.

Upriver, the department closed the Chitina personal use dip net fishery and banned king retention there for the season.

For the week ending September 12 the Copper River Delta survey count was 40,780 coho, above the anticipated range of 18,286 to 38,285. The Bering River District count of 17,200 fell within its range of 6,969 to 17,691. Cumulative Copper River coho harvest stood at 155,000 fish on September 4, close to the full 2025 season total of 162,000, which was itself 11 percent below a ten-year average of 182,000. Three more periods have been reported since that tally: 38,900 coho on September 7, 12,300 on September 14, and 6,900 on September 21, that last on 82 deliveries. Adding those figures to the September 4 total brings the 2026 Copper River coho harvest to at least 213,100 fish, already above both the 2025 season total and the ten-year average. The 24-hour Bering River period that began September 17 yielded 558 coho on four deliveries.

The closure line includes an extension across Little Softuk. Waters north of that line, within sloughs, and inside Boswell Bay are closed to commercial and subsistence salmon fishing during all periods. Buyers purchasing fish in the Prince William Sound management area must complete a processor registration form with the Cordova office.