A steady return of hatchery chums helped boost the Haines gillnet fleet this week.
Fish and Game reports that about 150 boats shared a harvest of 175,000 chum salmon, 1,200 sockeye, 180 kings and 1,200 pink salmon. The harvest compares to a 10-year average of 115,000 chum and 5,000 sockeye during the season’s second week.
“There’s fresh (chums) coming in and fresh fish milling around,” said commercial fisheries biologist Mark Sogge. Per pound prices to fishermen climbed to $1.70 per pound for sockeye and remained at 75 cents for chum.
Low Chilkoot sockeye numbers
remain a concern.