Commercial fisheries on the Kenai Peninsula will be opening soon.
Pat Shields, management biologist with the department of fish and game says Kenai area set netters will have their first regular period next week.
Shields: “The first regular period this year in 2016 would be Monday, July 11.”
There has been a high return of sockeye to the Kenai but Shields believes it is too early to measure whether or not this is an above or below average run.
Shields: “We had a forecast for Kasilof sockeye this year, a little over 800,000 fish which is below average. So far, that is kind of what the run looks like. If you look at our harvest, and look at our escapement or passage into the Kasilof River, everything’s tracking in that system right now for about what we would think is a forecast of return.”
The fishery will open under normal, but conservative management.
