# Bristol Bay commercial fishing announcements, explained > Bristol Bay commercial fishing announcements are ADF&G emergency orders that open and close each district for set hours, waters and gear, issued from King Salmon for the east side and Dillingham for the west. Managers use them to steer each river toward its escapement goal. _Updated Oct 12, 2026._ Bristol Bay commercial fishing announcements are ADF&G's notices that open and close each fishing district, setting the exact hours, waters and gear for every period. They are issued as emergency orders, from the department's King Salmon office for the east side of the bay and its Dillingham office for the west side, and they are written to steer each river toward its escapement goal. During the sockeye run, the fishing time in most of the bay is set by these announcements, so reading them is reading the management of the run as it happens. ## Who issues them and how they reach the fleet The two area offices split the bay. Eastside announcements, for the Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik and Ugashik districts, come out of King Salmon; westside announcements, for the Nushagak and Togiak districts, come out of Dillingham. Each release lists the emergency orders it puts into effect by number. ADF&G's 2026 season outlook lists the channels. Announcements are broadcast on marine VHF channel 07A at standby times of 9:00 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and current announcements air on the local radio stations KAKN and KDLG. Each side also has a recorded phone line: 907-246-4636 for the east side and 907-842-5226 for the west. The written releases post to ADF&G's [Bristol Bay commercial salmon page](https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareabristolbay.salmon). ## What an announcement says The season opens June 1 by regulation, and on the east side the early weeks run on schedules that are themselves set by emergency order. In 2026 Egegik opened from 9:00 a.m. Monday to 9:00 a.m. Wednesday and again from 9:00 a.m. Thursday to 9:00 a.m. Friday through June 17, and Naknek-Kvichak drift boats were held to the Naknek Section from Monday to Friday through June 24. Once the run builds, the schedules give way to individual openings. A typical release gives a short recap of escapement and harvest to date and then the opening itself, by district, gear and clock time. One 2026 eastside announcement opened a district to "drift gillnet gear for an 8-hour period from 2:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. Thursday, July 16." That is the whole unit of Bristol Bay management: a window of hours, on a piece of water, for one gear. Regulation sets the frame. Under 5 AAC 06.320, the Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik and Ugashik districts fish only during periods set by emergency order from June 1 until 9:00 a.m. July 17, after which a standing schedule of 9:00 a.m. Monday to 9:00 a.m. Sunday takes over. The Nushagak District fishes by emergency order through September 30, and Togiak has a weekly schedule written into regulation. ## What the openings answer to Each river system has a sockeye escapement goal, and the announcements are how managers aim at it. The 2026 goals, from ADF&G's season summary: - Kvichak: 2,000,000 to 10,000,000 - Naknek: 800,000 to 2,000,000 - Alagnak: at least 210,000 - Egegik: 800,000 to 2,000,000 - Ugashik: 500,000 to 1,400,000 - Nushagak: 370,000 to 900,000 (an optimal goal set by the Board of Fisheries runs higher) - Wood: 700,000 to 1,800,000 (also with a higher optimal goal) - Igushik: 150,000 to 400,000 - Togiak: 120,000 to 270,000 The counts behind them come from towers on most of those rivers and from sonar at Portage Creek on the Nushagak. An early read comes from the [Port Moller test fishery](/guides/port-moller-test-fishery-explained), which the Bristol Bay Science and Research Institute describes as sitting 150 to 200 miles southwest of the districts and delivering data about three to four days before the fish arrive inshore; ADF&G posts genetic estimates of which rivers those fish are bound for. When a river runs ahead of its goal, more time goes on. When it runs behind, time comes off, even in a big year. Two special harvest areas show the logic at its sharpest. The Naknek River Special Harvest Area (5 AAC 06.360) can open on or after June 27 when the Naknek is projected to exceed 800,000 fish while the Kvichak's escapement is behind schedule, concentrating fishing on Naknek-bound fish. The Wood River Special Harvest Area (5 AAC 06.358) does a similar job on the west side; in 2026 it closed for the season on July 21. [Escapement in plain English](/guides/escapement-in-plain-english) covers the goals themselves. ## A worked example: two seasons of announcements In 2025 ADF&G's preliminary figures put the Bristol Bay inshore run at 56.7 million sockeye, the harvest at 41.2 million and escapement at 15.5 million. In other words, roughly seven fish in ten were caught and three in ten went upriver, and the announcements are what set that split river by river. In 2026 ADF&G's season summary reported every escapement goal met except Togiak's, where 119,298 sockeye reached the river against a floor of 120,000. The contrast inside one season shows the tool at work: Egegik's early schedule gave the fleet 72 hours a week, while a peak-season eastside opening could run eight hours. This season's Bay harvest stands at 29.7M fish sockeye, 92% of the 32.3M fish in-area forecast. [Chart: Cumulative Bristol Bay sockeye harvest against the 2026 in-area forecast (thousands of fish)](https://therun.news/run-summary/bristol-bay) ([data](https://therun.news/run-summary/bristol-bay.md) — chart image: https://therun.news/charts/run-summary/bristol-bay/chart.png) [Table: Bristol Bay fish counts 2026: daily harvest by district](https://therun.news/run-summary/bristol-bay) ([data](https://therun.news/run-summary/bristol-bay.md)) The chart and table above are this site's read of the Bay, cumulative commercial harvest by district from ADF&G's Blue Sheet. They are the catch half of the announcements' arithmetic. The escapement half, river by river, is in ADF&G's own [Bristol Bay Daily Salmon Run Summary](https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareabristolbay.harvestsummary). ## Reading them well Two habits help. Check which side of the bay an announcement comes from, because King Salmon and Dillingham are managing different rivers on different clocks. And read the recap at the top, because the escapement numbers it cites are the reason for the opening underneath. For the whole Bay against its forecast, see the [Bristol Bay harvest page](/district/bristol-bay), and for how that forecast is built, [how ADF&G forecasts salmon runs](/guides/how-adfg-forecasts-salmon-runs). The Run reports ADF&G's announcements and harvest as published. It takes no position on allocation between districts or user groups and does not forecast openings. ## Related data + guides - [Bristol Bay fish counts: daily harvest by district](https://therun.news/run-summary/bristol-bay) - [Bristol Bay harvest](https://therun.news/district/bristol-bay) - [Escapement in plain English](https://therun.news/guides/escapement-in-plain-english) - [How ADF&G forecasts salmon runs](https://therun.news/guides/how-adfg-forecasts-salmon-runs) - [Port Moller test fishery: Bristol Bay's early read](https://therun.news/guides/port-moller-test-fishery-explained) ## Common questions ### Who issues Bristol Bay commercial fishing announcements? ADF&G's Division of Commercial Fisheries, from its King Salmon office for the east side of the bay (Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik and Ugashik) and its Dillingham office for the west side (Nushagak and Togiak). Each announcement puts one or more emergency orders into effect. ### Where can I hear Bristol Bay fishing announcements? On marine VHF channel 07A at standby times of 9:00 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., on the local radio stations KAKN and KDLG, and on recorded lines at 907-246-4636 (east side) and 907-842-5226 (west side). The written releases post to ADF&G's Bristol Bay commercial salmon page. ### What is an emergency order in Bristol Bay fishing? The legal instrument ADF&G uses to open or close a district for a set time, area and gear. Under 5 AAC 06.320 the Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik and Ugashik districts fish only during emergency-order periods from June 1 until 9:00 a.m. July 17, and the Nushagak District fishes by emergency order through September 30. ### Why would a district close during a strong run? Because escapement is counted river by river. If one river's count is behind its goal, managers cut fishing time on the waters its fish pass through, even when the bay as a whole is having a big year. The Naknek River Special Harvest Area exists for exactly that case, letting the fleet fish Naknek-bound fish while the Kvichak's escapement is behind schedule. ### When does Bristol Bay commercial fishing open? June 1 by regulation, on early-season schedules set by emergency order. The sockeye run concentrates in late June and the first half of July, when most openings are called one at a time. --- Canonical URL: https://therun.news/guides/bristol-bay-fishing-announcements-explained