"We need to understand clearly the price per pound and the total catch," said Bill Popp, special assistant to borough Mayor John Williams, on Aug. 7. "It will be a week or two before we really know, now that this whole thing has turned around. We're still not sure yet where it will all land."

Borough officials will make a decision about requesting state aid after the numbers are in on the commercial and sport sockeye catch, and from economic activity at related businesses - from canneries to charter boats, restaurants and hotels, Popp said.

As of Aug. 7, the commercial harvest stood at 2.07 million reds, and the total area harvest at 2.45 million salmon of all species, he said.

The preseason sockeye projection for the Kenai River was 1.8 million fish, which is lower than normal. Based on this projection and the Cook Inlet management plan, commercial fishing time early in the season was significantly less than what is allowed during a year when an average run is projected, according to state fish and game officials.

Roland Maw, executive director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, said the problem was the fish were late and small in size, making them expensive to process. "There's no money in them," said Maw, who was already halibut fishing near Seldovia.

"There are just too many fry up in Skilak Lake, and the fry, when they went to sea (last year) were very small, ill-equipped to go into that environment," Maw said. "Last year they were small as 4-year-olds and the 5-year olds were small, too."

Maw said he wouldn't be surprised if the commercial fleet had only one or two good runs over the next five years, "until we look at management plans, escapement goals and make some changes."

Maw said his organization would request an agenda change, which would allow the issue to be taken up by the Alaska Board of Fish out of the area's normal cycle.

The current Upper Cook Inlet management plan directs the state to meet an in-river goal of 650,000 to 850,000 sockeye salmon past the sonar counters during years when the expected run strength is less than 2 million reds. The fish board, however, developed the Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon management portion of the plan based on average sockeye run timing.

Because this year's run timing has been very unusual, the current escapement plan goals of 650,000 to 850,000 reds cannot be met without additional fishing opportunity, state biologists said.

Statewide, the salmon harvest as of Aug. 4 stood at 495,000 chinooks, 39.2 million sockeye, 953,000 silvers, 25.8 million pinks and 14 million chums, for a total of more than 80 million fish.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which had previously released prices processors were paying to fishermen, decided to make that information available only to fishermen and processors. ASMI officials said fishermen complained that posting those numbers on the Internet was affecting the ability of fishermen marketing their harvest independent of major processors.