Seine fishermen in Sitka-area District 13 broke a record by harvesting roughly 1.1 million pink salmon in a single day on Aug. 6. The district’s previous one-day record was 975,000 pinks in 2017.

“It’s a special year for Sitka Sound and District 13,” said Aaron Dupuis, area manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 

Dupuis said the chart-topping Sitka-area harvests are due to strong pink salmon escapements, driven by favorable freshwater and ocean conditions. 

Also, there are a lot more seiners fishing in Sitka this year than in typical years. Some 70 to 80 boats are participating in weekly seine openings in District 13 this year, compared with 30 to 50 boats in a typical year. 

Sitka is seeing additional seine effort because “fishing’s been slow in most other places, especially inside waters," Dupuis said. “Juneau and Petersburg management districts have been fairly slow,” he said. “Ketchikan has been slow, but it’s starting to pick up. … That’s why we’re getting a lot of effort.”

He said high fish prices are encouraging the strong effort by seiners. Seine-caught chum salmon are selling for $1.35 per pound, while seine-caught pinks are fetching 60 cents per pound.