Kamishak Bay pink and chum escapement runs preliminarily below goals

Not enough pink or chum salmon made it back to Kamishak Bay's streams this year to hit the state's spawning targets, Fish and Game said as the Lower Cook Inlet season closed.

Seining ended at 10 pm on Sept. 1 in the Outer, Eastern, Southern and Kamishak Bay districts, and the Southern District set gillnet fishery closed Aug. 15. Nobody had delivered a seine catch since July 30 or a gillnet catch since Aug. 12.

Preliminary counts put pink escapement in Kamishak below its 35,000 to 150,000 target and chum below its 50,000 to 115,000 target. Eight permit holders there delivered about 50,000 sockeye, roughly the ten-year average, but only three chum and no pink at all. The averages for those are about 10,000 and 49,000. Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association took another 30,203 sockeye from Kirschner Lake to cover its costs.

The department had already closed the district to seining on Aug. 12, after an aerial survey found fewer pinks than expected.

Across the whole area, the preliminary harvest came to 353,726 salmon, with 55 percent going to commercial buyers and 45 percent to hatchery cost recovery. Southern District pink and chum escapement stayed within goal.

The Outer District was mixed. Delight Lake's sockeye peak count of 1,550 fell well short of its 5,100 to 10,600 range, while Bear Creek's final count of 10,635 came in above its goal of 700 to 8,300. Desire Lake counted 8,800. Surveys run through mid-September.

The tension underneath is familiar. Commercial fishermen have told managers that weak returns and cautious openings cost them money, while hatcheries depend on selling fish themselves to keep running.