Bristol Bay salmon return about average this year, with higher prices paid to fishers

Sockeye salmon returning to spawning grounds in Katmai National Park and Preserve crowd together on Aug. 12, 2021. Katmai is part of the Bristol Bay watershed, which had a nearly average sockeye run this year after several years of massive runs. (Lian Law/National Park Service)

By Yereth Rosen

Alaska Beacon

Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, site of the world’s biggest sockeye salmon runs, produced a total harvest this year that was a bit smaller than the 20-year average but fetched more dollars for fishers, according to a state summary.

The 2026 sockeye salmon run totaled 45.7 million fish, making this the first year since 2014 that the run was below 50 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game preliminary summary, released last week. While the total run was 4% above the preseason forecast, the total catch of 30.1 million sockeye was 7% below the preseason forecast, according to Fish and Game.

“This is by no means a small run,” said Stacy Vega, a department biologist. Massive runs cannot continue forever, she said. “Eventually, it’s got to come down,” she said.

Additionally, Bristol Bay commercial fishers harvested 10,700 Chinook, 457,100 chum, 55,100 coho and 666,700 pink salmon.

The total price paid to harvesters for all salmon species harvests, an amount known as exvessel value, was $264 million, the department said. That was 21% above the 20-year average of $207.8 million, the department said in its preliminary summary.

The total sockeye run was 8% below the 20-year average of 49.6 million fish, according to the department. The total harvest was 3% lower than the 20-year average, the department said.

But those 20-year averages reflect some years of huge runs, including the record run of 79 million sockeye in 2022, said Vega.

That puts the 2026 salmon season into perspective, said Vega, who focuses on the Egegik and Ugashik rivers, which are among several Bristol Bay salmon rivers.

In many ways, it was a very average year for Bristol Bay sockeye salmon.

The sockeye in that region generally range from 4 to 6 years in age, splitting their lives between freshwater and ocean habitats, and there was a fairly even distribution among age groups this year, Vega said. The most common age groups are those that spend two or three years in the ocean, she said.

The average sockeye size was 5 pounds, about equal to the average over the last five years and above the record-low average size of 4.53 pounds reported in 2024.

Salmon in Bristol Bay, other parts of Alaska and around the North Pacific have been declining in size over the past decades.

For Bristol Bay, the shrinking size has been correlated in part to big runs, Vega said.

“Usually, when we have a really big run, the fish are smaller,” she said. More fish in the ocean competing for food tends to result in smaller fish, she said.

The season’s run and harvest totals came very close to the department’s preseason forecasts, a gratifying result for biologists who know that preseason predictions are difficult and always different from reality, Vega said.

Biologists say early indications are that next year’s Bristol Bay sockeye run will be similar in size to this year’s run. But the department has not yet released its official 2027 forecast.

• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has been reporting on Alaska news ever since, covering stories ranging from oil spills to sled-dog races. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.