Author: Joe Viechnicki, KFSK

900,000 chum salmon – that was the catch by the purse seine fleet at Crawfish Inlet south of Sitka Thursday, August 30. It looks to be a new record chum catch for a one-day opening in Southeast Alaska.

Fishing was a little better in a second summer commercial troll season for king salmon in Southeast. Trollers were allowed to target kings for five days in mid-August and landed an estimated 26,000-27,000 chinook, about four thousand fish above the target for that opening.

As researchers completed mapping a fault line on the ocean floor off Southeast Alaska this summer, they’ve come to learn some surprising things about a seismically active part of the globe. Scientists expect more strong earthquakes from the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault but don’t think this type of geological feature would create a widespread tsunami.

Southeast Alaska’s commercial pink salmon catch will wind up way below forecasts, the lowest harvest in more than four decades. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s pink and chum salmon project leader for Southeast Andy Piston said the region’s commercial catch this summer is 7.3 million fish.