From commercial Facebook Gillnet page
The Barkley Sound Roundtable met this afternoon.
The Somas chinook run forecast has been upgraded from 90,000 to 117,000. This is a temporary upgrade, contingent on there being a strong backend to the run, otherwise it will be reduced to 110,000.
The Area D catch this past week was 19,000 and our total catch this season is 24,940 pieces. Our allocation at this run size is 16,800 - So we are sitting 8,000 over allocation right now.
After labor day, the recreational catch is calculated, then some fish is set aside to allow for future angling in September, and then any surplus recreational expected catch is reallocated to the other stakeholders. It looks like there will be some fish to reallocate, but it depends on the success of the derby, and how the fish bite this week. The recreational fishery has been extremely poor this past week.
At the moment it looks like there will be enough recreational catch transfered over to cover off our overage, and the Area D Allocation number will work out nearly exactly correct. So we have not fished into anyone else's allocation, or into escapement.
There will be an extra meeting on Tuesday, at 1pm where we will have updated escapement, and sports catch numbers.
Any further Area D opportunity will depend on an additional run size upgrade substantially higher than where they went today. I won't say that it is impossible, but it is a long shot.
There will be First Nation fisheries scheduled for next week. Potentially for Monday - Wednesday night, as they are behind on their allocation. These fisheries may be FSC or Economic Opportunity fisheries, depending. Keep an eye on these catches, as they will be a good indicator of how much fish is still in the system.
The escapement is currently at 6,000 adults, and the target escapement is 21,000 adults.
The roundtable is going to pay for an additional test boat day for Monday, to try and get a clearer picture of where we are in the run. If the peak is already through and the backend looks small, the run may be downgraded. If it looks like there is still more fish coming through in the canal, the FN catches are high, and the escapement is progressing well, an additional upgrade is possible.
I will update this thread if I learn anything before Tuesday's meeting, and then make a new post after Tuesday's meeting.
-Ryan