Gillnetters have caught about 36,900 sockeye salmon in Lynn Canal so far this summer, the lowest harvest on record, according to preliminary Alaska Department of Fish and Game data.

The second lowest sockeye harvest was recorded in 2008, when 46,660 sockeye salmon were landed.

Mark Sogge, fish and game area management biologist, said balancing the record low sockeye run with a near record high 1.5 million hatchery chum harvest has been like riding a “seesaw.”

“It’s been a hard year to manage in a lot of ways because of the low number of sockeye and the huge number of chum, to maximize the harvest of the enhanced fish and not overharvest the sockeye,” Sogge said. “That’s the most difficult thing for me to try to do.”

The total value of this year’s Lynn Canal gillnet fishery is at $4.99 million despite the low sockeye return. Last year’s bumper sockeye harvest and roughly 920,000 hatchery chum harvest were worth only $2.56 million at this point in the season..

About 44,000 Chilkoot sockeye have swum past the weir this summer. The 2012 parent year saw an escapement of 114,000. If lake and river conditions were optimal it could have indicated another bumper run similar to last summer’s 185,700 sockeye harvest, Sogge said.

“It’s not even close to 1:1,” Sogge said. “We let too much up river and the ocean conditions and the lake conditions were such that we didn’t get good survival.”

Sogge said when biologists did zooplankton tows at Chilkoot Lake they found a low density of feed for young salmon. Biologists also discovered low fish counts in the lake during a sonar study. Sogge said he was skeptical early on about this summer’s sockeye returns.

“I didn’t want to sound alarm bells, but I was feeling in some ways something’s not right,” Sogge said. “That’s why we more or less shut everything down to let the Chilkoots through in the upper inlets and Point Sherman. We closed all those waters on the east shoreline where those fish travel.”

Sogge said while the record low harvest “isn’t something to be proud of,” the lower end escapement goals were achieved.

“In some ways I think it’s OK what happened this year,” Sogge said. “It has to be. That’s all the fish that were out there.”

Haines commercial fisherman Luck Dunbar said despite the low sockeye run, the surge of Boat Harbor hatchery chum was a powerful boost.

“It was the season I’ve been waiting for because you don’t have to be good (to earn) a couple of bucks,” Dunbar joked.

Dunbar said he kept fishing sockeye, and did better than average, while the bulk of the fleet switched to chum gear.

“I’m over it now,” Dunbar said. “I’m done chasing sockeye. It was good while it lasted.”

Sogge said the fall dog fishery is off to a good start.

“We’ve had fairly good escapement.” Sogge said. “We estimate escapement based on fish wheels. This year’s return would be the 2013 parent year and we said we had an escapement of 165,000 fish that year which is almost dead in the middle of what we’re shooting for.”

Dunbar was changing out his nets from sockeye to dog gear Wednesday morning. He said he’s looking forward to fishing the Chilkat and Klehini wild stock dog runs.

“I know they’re big,” Dunbar said. “They aren’t coming in like they were in the early summer but the prices are good and they’re great big suckers, too.”

Then 10-year average chum harvest is about 1 million fish. The 10-year average sockeye harvest is about 139,300 fish.