Fisheries, Subsistence, and Habitat
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Division: Commercial Fish
Title: Annual management report, 2003, Bristol Bay area
Author: Fair, L., D. Crawford, F. West, and L. McKinley
Year: 2004
Report ID: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Regional Information Report 2A04-16, Anchorage
Abstract: The five species of pacific salmon found in Bristol Bay are the focus of major commercial, subsistence and sport fisheries. Annual commercial catches (1983-2002) average nearly 25 million sockeye salmon, 84 thousand chinook, 1.0 million chum, 137 thousand coho, and 600 thousand (even-years only) pink salmon (Appendix Tables 4-8). Since 1983, the value of the commercial salmon harvest in Bristol Bay has averaged $125 million, with sockeye salmon being the most valuable, worth an average $122 million (Appendix Table 28). Subsistence catches average approximately 123 thousand salmon and comprised primarily of sockeye salmon (Appendix Table 30). Sport fisheries harvest all species of salmon, with most effort directed toward chinook and coho stocks. Approximately 45 thousand salmon are harvested annually by sportfishermen in Bristol Bay. Management of the commercial fishery in Bristol Bay is focused on discrete stocks with harvests directed at terminal areas around the mouths of major river systems. Each stock is managed to achieve a spawning escapement goal based on maximum sustained yield. Escapement goals are achieved by regulating fishing time and area by emergency order and/or adjusting weekly fishing schedules. Legal gear for the commercial salmon fishery includes both drift (150 fathoms) and set (50 fathoms) gillnets. Drift gillnet permits are the most numerous at 1,900 in Area T, of those 1,389 fished in 2003. There are a total of 1,040 setnet permits in Area T, of those 714 made deliveries in 2003, (Appendix Table 2 and 3).
Keywords: Bristol Bay, annual management report, AMR, commercial fisheries, sockeye, Chinook, coho, pink, chum, subsistence, sportfishing