Skeena fishery update

Skeena fishery update for week ending July 18:

Tyee Test Fishery:
Steelhead: as of Thurs July 17th Index at 12.14
: 2nd best for this date since 2000 ( 2000 was 12.29)
: 8th best since 1980
: strong push early this week, which then dropped off

Commercial fishery:
-Sockeye run is now exceeding inital forecast of 1.3million and projected commercial harvest of 250,000
-run estimate now is 2.0+ million sockeye with the projected commercial harvest increased to 25%
-more openings planned, next one is Monday 21st. and probably more that week
-up to July 15th Area 3 gillnetters have had 5 openings; caught approx 27,000 sockeye; while killing 11,464 non-target chum
-up to July 15th Area 4 gillnetters have caught approx. 30,000 sockeye

Alaska:
-Alaskan catches of Skeena/Nass bound sockeye are well below average