March 21, 2017

Alaska forecasts significantly higher salmon harvest this year

Alaska harvested a total of 112.5 million salmon last year, and is expecting substantially better harvest in 2017, according to the US state's Department of Fish and Game.

The 2016 statewide salmon harvest included nearly 53 million sockeye salmon-the fifth largest harvest since 1970-and 39 million pink salmon, the smallest harvest since 1977.

The total number of harvested salmon this year is seen to substantially rise to 204 million, in large part due to the projected bigger number of pink salmon harvest, which is predicted to reach 142 million, or more than triple that in 2016.

The commercial harvest of average-sized sockeye salmon in 2017 is forecast to reach only 41 million.