Chitina dip netters will get another crack at pulling 10 additional sockeyes out of the Copper river next week, as a plug of reds makes its way upstream. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced a supplemental harvest period that allows the extra take beyond the normal personal and family season quotas. Area management biologist Mark Sommerville says the latest surge of salmon continues a stronger than anticipated 2011 run.
The Copper River management plan allows for supplemental dip net harvests whenever weekly passage through downstream sonar totals more than 50,000 salmon over the pre-season projection. Sommerville says current numbers are more than sufficient to trigger the supplemental take.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
