"Chignik River"

The Alaska Board of Fisheries designated the early run as a stock of management concern in March.

The salmon runs are central to people’s lives in many ways. The economy has developed around the commercial fishery, and fish also provide food for the winter.

In the Nushagak District, managing harvest is tough because chinook and sockeye runs overlap, so when the sockeye harvests increase, so does incidental chinook bycatch.

Bristol Bay’s run exceeded 50 million fish for the sixth year in a row — 46% above the 20-year average — but many other parts of the state were far below their forecasts.