COME BACK HOME!
Each year Armstrong-Keta Inc. posts its annual release numbers and projected annual returns for Port Armstrong Hatchery. The returns are simply reasonable estimates based on recent average marine survival percentages adjusted for the condition of the fish at the time of release and any unusual circumstances that may have affected other returns. Pink returns may be further adjusted in light of ADF&G forecasts of Northern SE Alaska returns.
An estimate is applied to each species of salmon for common property contributions of the returning adults on their way back to the hatchery. These percentages, developed in collaboration with ADF&G biologists, are 10% for chum salmon and 46% for pink salmon. For cohos and kings, the estimates are based on coded-wire tag recoveries and trends in previous seasons.
These forecasts and other details of hatchery production can be found in the Annual Management Plan and the Annual Report, both required by ADF&G.
PORT ARMSTRONG HATCHERY CURRENT RETURN DATA
As adult salmon prepare to spawn, they navigate back to their birth streams during the summer and early fall, passing through the fishing grounds of commercial troll and seine fishermen as well as sport fishers. From the salmon that make their way through the common property fisheries, the hatchery conducts egg takes and cost recovery harvests on the remainder of the returning adult fish.