Reference
Glossary
The terms the scoreboard uses, defined the way the fleet says them.
- Blue Sheet
- ADF&G's preliminary in-season commercial salmon catch report, the cumulative harvest of the season so far in thousands of fish, by region, area, district and species. It is refreshed twice daily from mid-May through September and is the spine of this site's scoreboard. Every figure is preliminary and subject to revision.
- Ex-vessel price
- The price paid to the fisherman at the boat, before processing. It is not the wholesale price and not the retail price. ADF&G publishes ex-vessel prices as annual preliminary finals months after the season, and postseason adjustments and bonuses can land later still, so an ex-vessel price is always a look back, never a current in-season number.
- Escapement
- The salmon allowed past the fishery to swim upriver and spawn. Managers protect an escapement goal, the number of spawners a run needs, and open and close the commercial fishery by emergency order to meet it. This is why harvest can be closed even in a strong run.
- Opener
- A scheduled period when a fishery is open to commercial fishing, announced by ADF&G. Openers are set in-season around escapement and run strength, so the fishing calendar shifts week to week.
- Tender
- A vessel that buys fish from the fishing fleet on the grounds and hauls them to the processor. The tender is the link between the fisherman and the plant, and the price a tender pays is the ex-vessel price.
- Statistical week
- ADF&G's Sunday-to-Saturday reporting week. The salmon season runs from roughly statistical week 20 to week 40, mid-May to early October. Run-timing comparisons anchor to the statistical week so this year's pace can be read against a normal year at the same point in the run.
- Common-property fishery
- The traditional, competitive commercial fishery open to permit holders: drift and set gillnet, purse seine and troll. The Blue Sheet counts common-property harvest plus hatchery cost-recovery fish. Sport, subsistence and personal-use harvests are not included.
- Cost recovery
- Fish a hatchery harvests and sells to fund its own operation. Cost-recovery harvest is included in the Blue Sheet's commercial totals alongside common-property catch.
- Percent of forecast
- This site's scoreboard read: the cumulative harvest divided by ADF&G's preseason forecast, as a percent. It is a pace read, how far along a fishery's season is against its projection, not a good-or-bad call. Early in the season low percentages are the run still building, not a weak year.
- Run forecast
- ADF&G's preseason projection of a run and its likely commercial harvest, published every April. It is the benchmark the scoreboard measures the actual harvest against. This site reports the forecast as ADF&G publishes it and never adjusts it.
- Sockeye, pink, chum, coho, Chinook
- The five Pacific salmon, known in the fleet as reds (sockeye), humpies (pink), dogs (chum), silvers (coho) and kings (Chinook). Sockeye are the value engine of the Alaska harvest; pink and chum carry the volume, much of it enhanced hatchery fish; coho are a fall premium; Chinook are small-volume and high-value.
- Gillnet, seine, troll
- The main commercial gears. Drift and set gillnet hang a net that fish swim into; a purse seine encircles a school and draws the bottom closed; troll drags baited lines and hooks fish one at a time, the gear behind the premium Southeast Chinook and coho fisheries.
- Confidential harvest
- When too few permit holders fish an area for a number to be published without revealing an individual business, ADF&G suppresses the cell. Confidential catch is left out of the cumulative totals at source, so a blank is a suppressed or unfished cell, never a zero we invented.