Alaska’s Copper River Wild Salmon Fishery Opens May 16: ADF&G
Alaska’s celebrated Copper River wild salmon fishery opens on Thursday, May 16 for a 12-hour commercial drift gillnet fishing period, while waters within the expanded Chinook salmon inside closure area closed for that same period.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the opener May 1, noting that subsistence harvest will also be allowed in the Copper River District during commercial fishing periods, until the season ends.
ADF&G biologists said their Miles Lake sonar camp was scheduled to open May 7, but that the banks of the river are still covered with shore ice in the vicinity of the sonar sites.
Commercial fishing in the Bering River District also are scheduled to open May 16 for a 12-hour commercial drift gillnet fishing period.
The next announcement fro...