According to the department there will be 137 million salmon harvested in 2008. The total harvest is expected to be comprised of an estimated contribution of 672,000 Chinook salmon, 47.1 million sockeye salmon, 4.4 million coho salmon, 66 million pink salmon, and 18.7 million chum salmon.
But the department also said that in Southeast Alaska and Prince William Sound there will be modest returns of pink salmon in 2008. It is said that the pink salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska will be only 20 million, which is just 43 percent of the 1995to 2004 average for the region.
According to the department the sockeye and chum salmon harvests in the state are expected to be up in 2008. It informed that the 2008 Chinook salmon harvest of 672,000 salmon marks an increase of 110,000 fish compared to the 2007 harvest, while the projected coho salmon harvest of 4.4 million salmon is similar to the most recent ten-year average of 4.6 million coho salmon.
As the prediction shows that there will be moderate level of returns of salmon in 2008 season the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will not conduct a statewide salmon processing capacity survey in the current year.
