"The Fraser River Panel met Tuesday August 24 to review stock assessment data on the Fraser River sockeye runs, plan fisheries and review migration conditions in the Fraser River watershed. Test fishing catches of sockeye have continued to be strong in the marine approach routes over the past several days. These catches along with other assessment data have caused run size estimates for Fraser sockeye to increase. At the meeting today, the Panel approved increasing the run sizes for several Fraser River sockeye runs and adopting the following estimates of their 50% marine migration timing through Area 20: Early Summer-run sockeye increased from 2,900,000 fish to 3,200,000 fish (August 7 marine timing); Summer-run sockeye increased from 4,000,000 fish to 4,500,000 fish, (August 13 marine timing); Harrison sockeye increased from 900,000 fish to 1,000,000 fish (August 8 marine timing); Late Shuswap/Weaver sockeye increased from 11,000,000 fish to 16,000,000 fish (August 19 marine timing); and the forecast of 241,000 fish from the Birkenhead stock-group. The total run size estimate for Late-run sockeye (which includes Late Shuswap, Weaver, Harrison and Birkenhead sockeye) has increased from 12,141,000 fish to 17,241,000 fish. Current run size assessments suggest that the total Fraser sockeye return this season is slightly over 25,000,000 fish (including 105,000 Early Stuart sockeye), which is the largest return since 1913."
