2004 Prince William Sound Salmon Fishery
Season Summary

Issued Monday, November 8, 2004

Introduction

Figure 1. Commercial salmon harvest for all gear types combined, Prince William Sound, 1971-2004.

The preliminary estimated value of the combined commercial salmon harvest is $35.4 million, including hatchery sales. In 2004, 522 of 542 drift gillnet permit holders and 27 of 32 set gillnet permit holders reported at least one landing. The combined gillnet harvest is estimated at $21.9 million. The purse seine fishery was worth an estimated $5.70 million for the 105 of 267 permit holders that participated this year. Revenue generated for hatchery operations was approximately $7.6 million. Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation (PWSAC) did not meet their 2004 cost recovery revenue goal.

Gillnet Fisheries

Copper River District

The 2004 harvest forecast for the Copper River District was 50,800 Chinook, 885,000 sockeye, and 315,000 coho salmon. The Gulkana Hatchery, located north of Paxson Lake, was expected to contribute approximately 80,000 sockeye salmon to the commercial harvest. The actual 2004 sockeye salmon harvest of 1.05 million ranked as the eighth largest since 1985 and was below the recent ten-year average harvest of 1.54 million. The harvest of 38,191 Chinook salmon was below the projected harvest and ranked as the seventh largest Chinook salmon harvest since 1985. The coho salmon harvest of 467,859 ranked as the fifth largest commercial harvest since 1985. The 2004 inriver goal for salmon passing the Miles Lake sonar site was set at 551,669 to 751,669 salmon, which included 11,169 hatchery surplus salmon. The 2004 actual sonar escapement was 669,646 salmon on July 31 when the sonar was removed. While not finalized, the estimated Chinook salmon escapement into upper Copper River drainages will likely be above the minimum escapement objective. A final Chinook salmon spawning escapement estimate will be made once all upriver harvests have been quantified. The lower Copper River sockeye salmon escapement index of 69,385 fish was above the lower end of the escapement range but 18% below the midpoint index goal of 84,600. Lower river coho salmon escapement in 2004 was above the midpoint goal of 50,000 and the peak index count was 99,980 fish.

Bering River District

Opening in early June, the Bering River District is managed concurrently with the Copper River District. The 2004 harvest of 13,165 sockeye salmon was near the recent ten-year average of 14,400. The coho salmon harvest of 95,595 was slightly higher than the ten-year average of 88,400 coho salmon. Sockeye salmon escapement into Bering River District streams had an index estimate of 23,260 fish and was below the lower end of the escapement range of 26,000. The coho salmon escapement goal was achieved for the Bering River District, and the peak spawning count was 30,185 versus an anticipated midpoint count of 23,000.

Coghill District (Drift Gillnet)

Because the purse seine fleet did not harvest 40% of the Prince William Sound total exvessel value in 2003, the Prince William Sound Management and Salmon Enhancement Allocation Plan was implemented for the 2004 season, allowing purse seine gear to operate in Coghill District prior to July 21. The plan allows purse seine gear to operate in the Esther Subdistrict prior to July 21 along with drift gillnet gear, for alternating fishing periods of equal duration, but not necessarily equal area in order to harvest enhanced salmon. This was the first season the buffer zone outside Esther Subdistrict was implemented in the management of the Coghill District fisheries.

The common property harvest totaled 921,000 chum salmon of which 534,959 were harvested by drift gillnets. The sockeye salmon escapement to Coghill Lake of 30,569 was within the escapement goal range of 20,000 to 40,000 sockeye salmon. The total drift gillnet sockeye salmon harvest was 216,156. The run of sockeye salmon to the Coghill District allowed a regular schedule of fishing periods for the drift gillnet fleet. PWSAC did not achieve the chum salmon portion of their revenue goal for the 2004 season. There was no unharvested surplus.

Eshamy District

The preseason forecast for the Eshamy District indicated a run of 98,000 wild stock sockeye salmon to Eshamy Lake and 1.3 million enhanced sockeye salmon returning to Main Bay Hatchery. PWSAC failed to achieve their sockeye salmon revenue goal from the Main Bay Hatchery run, harvesting 279,902 sockeye salmon, which equated to 79% of their harvest goal. A total of 306,872 sockeye salmon were harvested by the drift and set gillnet fleets in the Eshamy District. The escapement goal of 20,000 to 40,000 fish at Eshamy Lake was not met, and only 13,443 sockeye salmon passed through the weir by August 31 when the weir was removed. It is likely that some unknown additional escapement occurred after the removal of the weir because water levels increased with postseason rainfall. Eshamy wild sockeye salmon have a protracted run timing from mid-July into October.

Purse Seine Fisheries

Chum Salmon (All Seine Districts)

The 2004 chum salmon forecast run in Prince William Sound was 4.6 million fish. The majority (88%) was anticipated to be from PWSAC hatchery production. Approximately 997,000 enhanced chum salmon were expected to return to Port Chalmers. All Port Chalmers chum salmon are intended to be harvested in the purse seine fishery. PWSAC anticipated harvesting 2.08 million (67%) of the projected 3.1 million Wally Noerenburg Hatchery (WNH) enhanced chum salmon for cost recovery. Based on the department's wild chum salmon forecast of 568,000 fish, a potential common property harvest of 393,000 wild chum salmon would be possible.

The enhanced chum salmon runs were significantly less than PSWAC's forecast. PWSAC harvested 528,676 or 26% of the required 2.08 million chum salmon and did not meet the 2004 WNH chum salmon cost recovery revenue goal. The combined common property and cost recovery harvest of 1.45 million fish was approximately 47% of PWSAC's projected WNH return of 3.1 million chum salmon. Six commercial fishing periods (three each for drift gillnet and purse seine) were prosecuted before extremely poor chum salmon returns closed the Esther Subdistrict to protect cost recovery and broodstock collection. The purse seine fleet harvested 386,000 chum salmon in the Coghill District. The Montague District total common property chum harvest was 343,000 chum salmon, only 34% of PWSAC's projected Port Chalmers return of 997,000. Approximately 42,000 of the projected 997,000 Port Chalmers origin chum salmon were harvested in the Coghill District and an additional 6,000 were harvested in Eshamy District fisheries. A fishing schedule of seven consecutive 156-hour periods was initiated in the Montague District on May 31 and continued through July 18 to harvest Port Chalmers enhanced chum salmon. Wild stock chum salmon escapement was either within or above the escapement goal range in all districts. A total of 217,000 wild stock chum salmon were harvested in PWS with 102,000 harvested in the Eastern District, 50,000 in the Southeastern District, and 43,000 harvested in the Coghill District.

Pink Salmon

The 2004 preseason outlook projected above average even-year enhanced and normal wild pink salmon returns to PWS. The 2004 pink salmon forecast for PWS was 40.7 million fish. This estimate includes 4.6 million wild stock fish, 11.6 million Valdez Fisheries Development Association (VFDA) enhanced fish, and 24.5 million PWSAC enhanced fish. PWSAC and VFDA based their forecasts on the release of approximately 603 million pink salmon fry in 2003, the 6th largest in PWS history. Approximately 16.05 million (45%) of the projected 36.1 million enhanced pink salmon were needed for cost recovery. VFDA anticipated a 4.19 million pink salmon harvest for cost recovery. PWSAC anticipated a pink salmon cost recovery harvest of 11.86 million composed of 3.91 WNH, 3.68 Cannery Creek Hatchery (CCH), and 4.27 Armin F. Koernig Hatchery (AFK) fish. The remaining 20.0 million fish would be available for commercial common property harvest. A total of 2.6 million wild stock pink salmon were projected to be available for harvest, leaving 2.0 million fish in the escapement.

Aerial surveys to assess early chum and pink salmon escapements in the Eastern and Northern Districts began in mid-June. In July, surveys began in all other purse seine districts. An estimated 2.0 million pink salmon escaped into Prince William Sound index streams to spawn. The Montague, Southeastern, and Eastern districts met or exceeded their escapement goals. The Northern, Coghill, Northwestern, Southwestern, and Eshamy districts did not meet their pink salmon escapement goals. The 2004 summer was extremely dry and many streams had little or no flow for much of July and August. During aerial surveys fish were seen staging at stream mouths for long periods of time, unable to enter because of low flow and some die-offs were documented.

An estimated 23.53 million pink salmon were harvested in Prince William Sound in 2004, composed of 11.70 million commercial common property fish and 11.83 million cost recovery fish (Table 1). A preliminary estimate of 2.87 million wild stock pink salmon contributed to the commercial common property fishery (CPF), primarily harvested in the Eastern District. The ratio of enhanced pink salmon to wild pink salmon in the 2004 total commercial common property harvest is estimated to be 3:1.

In 2004 PWSAC did not achieve their pink salmon cost recovery goal. Enhanced pink salmon returns for the WNH, AFK and CCH were significantly less than PWSAC's preseason projections. PWSAC harvested approximately 3.5 million fish at AFK, 2.3 million fish at CCH, and 2.3 million fish at WNH. Pink salmon harvest management was based on aerial survey escapement data, test fishing in the Southwestern District, harvest rates, and terminal area run entry. Test fishing in the Southwestern District by the R/V Solstice provided crucial pink salmon stock composition and sex ratio data. Initially the pink salmon stock was composed of 55% hatchery fish but by July 29 that percentage increased to 78% hatchery fish and remained at that level or higher for the remainder of the test fishery. Daily bay estimates and harvest of pink salmon at all three PWSAC hatcheries remained low. Pink salmon run entry remained depressed as the female sex ratio in the test fishery and cost recovery harvests climbed to 30-40%. In late July, it was apparent that the enhanced pink salmon return was early and weaker than PWSAC had projected. PWSAC stated that they would like to achieve 50% of the revenue goal prior to any targeted commercial fisheries. All pink salmon hatchery subdistricts remained closed to CPF until very late in the 2004 season. As escapement goals were achieved outside hatchery subdistricts the department opened commercial CPF.

VFDA's anticipated 2004 adult return of pink salmon to the Solomon Gulch Hatchery was 11.58 million fish. A total of 323,000 salmon were anticipated to be needed to meet egg take objectives at the hatchery. The 2004 sales harvest revenue goal is $2.4 million as outlined in the VFDA FY-2004 Income and Expense Statement. VFDA achieved the cost recovery goal with a harvest of 3.78 million pink salmon. The first commercial common property period occurred on July 3 with a harvest of 1.32 million pink salmon. Processing capacity was able to keep pace with run entry and at no time was there a buildup of pink salmon in the head of Port Valdez. VFDA cost recovery and common property fisheries were well balanced in 2004 maximizing harvest efficiency and maintaining high quality. By July 25, purse seine effort began to shift to the PWSAC pink salmon returns, which were showing early strength. In 2004, Eastern District wild pink salmon stocks remained above anticipated counts and escapement goals throughout most of the district. Because of adequate wild stock escapement, most of the Eastern District was open two to three times per week to common property fisheries from July 19 until September 2. The peak purse seine effort occurred on July 12 when 160 deliveries were made, totaling 1.40 million pink salmon. A total of 2.2 million wild stock pink salmon were harvested in the Eastern District.

Coho Salmon

Both VFDA and PWSAC produced smaller than anticipated numbers of coho salmon in 2004. PWSAC's expected 2004 run of coho salmon to WNH was 50,700 fish assuming a marine survival of 7.6%. Assuming the hatchery harvest rate will be insignificant (interception during pink salmon cost recovery) all of the fish will be harvested by the CPF. The 2004 adult return of coho salmon to the VFDA hatchery was anticipated to be 132,105 fish. The broodstock goal was 3,000 which included an agreement to collect coho broodstock for PWSAC.

The purse seine fleet harvested approximately 34,000 coho salmon in 2004, the majority of which came from the Solomon Gulch Hatchery. The waters of Port Valdez north of the latitude of Rocky Point were opened for 12 hours on September 7 to harvest coho salmon returning to Solomon Gulch Hatchery. VFDA expressed concern that allowing the fleet into Port Valdez near the hatchery could jeopardize coho salmon broodstock collection. Coho salmon numbers never increased and fishing was slow during all open periods. Nineteen permit holders harvested 17,000 coho salmon during three periods. The sport fish harvest of coho salmon in Port Valdez was considered good. Twice the number of derby tickets was sold compared to 2003, but an actual harvest is not yet available.