The Alaska Department of Fish and Game are predicting six million sockeye salmon to run through the Upper Cook Inlet in 2019.

The DF&G released the Upper Cook Inlet Sockeye Salmon forecast for 2019 with more optimistic returns than previous years.

The major sockeye salmon systems in the Upper Cook Inlet region are the Kenai, Kasilof, and Susitna rivers, and Fish Creek.

In 2018, the estimated total run was 1.7 million to the Kenai River; 697,000 to the Kasilof River; 250,000 to the Susitna River; and 106,000 to Fish Creek. The total run forecast was 2.5 million to the Kenai River; 866,000 to the Kasilof River; 329,000 to the Susitna River; and 211,000 to Fish Creek.

Overall, the 2018 sockeye salmon run of 3.1 million was approximately 1.5 million below the mid-point forecast of 4.6 million (range 3.6–5.5 million).

In 2019, a total run of approximately 6.0 million sockeye salmon (range 4.8–7.3 million) is forecast to return to UCI with a potential commercial harvest of 3.0 million.

The forecasted commercial harvest in 2019 is 200,000 more than the 20-year average harvest, according to DF&G.