Salmon runs in the Lynn canal seem healthy this year. Area management biologist Nicole Zeiser says the Boat Harbor hatchery run has been particularly good.
Zeiser: “The chum salmon harvest has been pretty spectacular actually, it’s just unfortunately the size, their weights are pretty small. They are smaller than sockeye this year, they are averaging 5.6 pounds. They are usually nine pounds or so.”
The small size of the chums means crews have to catch more fish.
Numbers for sockeye salmon are good too, Zeiser says the Chilkoot river weir has seen almost 28000 fish as of Wednesday (07/19) afternoon, approaching the escapement goal of 38000.
As for the Chilkat river,
Zeiser: “Fish wheels are still seeing quite a bit of sockeye salmon being caught, they are catching a huge amount of pink salmon, it’s a high abundance year for pink salmon this year. And they are still catching kings, but king salmon are toward the end of their run.”
Zeiser says the escapement at Chilkat lake is around 12000, a bit below the ten year average for this time of year, but that 800 fish are passing the weir every day..
She says the runs around Juneau seem to be healthy too.
