2026 Bristol Bay Salmon Season Summary
ADF&G published the 2026 Bristol Bay Salmon Season Summary on September 22nd, and published an updated 2026 Bristol Bay Salmon Season Summary on September 29.
The following is an overview of the 2026 Bristol Bay commercial salmon season. All data are preliminary.
The 2026 inshore Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run of 45.7 million fish was 8% below the 49.6
million average run for the latest 20-year period (2006–2025; Vega et al. 2026). This is the first year since
2014 that the total inshore run was less than 50 million fish.
The 2026 Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run was 4% above the preseason inshore forecast of 44.1 million
fish. All sockeye salmon escapement goals were met or exceeded, except for the Togiak River,
which did not meet the lower bound of the escapement goal. Baywide escapement totaled 15.6 million
fish. The commercial harvest of 30.1 million sockeye salmon was 7% below the 32.3 million
preseason forecast (Table 1; Weaver and Terry-Shindelman 2025). The preliminary harvest estimates for
other species are 10,700 Chinook, 457,100 chum, 55,100 coho, and 666,700 pink salmon.
