At a meeting involving the Alaska Peninsula, the Board of Fisheries also talked about the work done by the Upper Cook Inlet Task Force this year.

The task force was created last fall to talk about possible changes to the late-run king salmon management plan to provide fishing opportunity in times of low king abundance, such as the situation last summer.

Board member Tom Kluberton said the task wound up with limited time at the final meeting to draft its recommendations, and used a bare-bones proposal from one member as a framework to express the varying range of ideas.

Aid for communities affected by fisheries disasters is still uncertain after the House of Representatives passed a second disaster relief bill this month that didn’t include Alaska.

The House passed a $50.7 billion Disaster Relief Appropriations Act Jan. 15, which went only to Hurricane Sandy aid, and did not include any of the fisheries disasters declared last fall in Alaska, New England and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Senate must pass a corresponding bill to be reconciled with the House version before it can be signed into law.

Fishermen could catch a few extra sockeye salmon in Upper Cook Inlet waterways during 2013.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced its sockeye salmon forecast today, projecting a total run of 6.7 million fish, and a harvest of 4.9 million for all users.

That’s up slightly compared to a 2012 harvest of 4.4 million, and about 1 million more than the 20-year average harvest of 3.8 million fish.

Sockeye on Upper Cook Inlet river systems are caught in sport, personal use, subsistence and commercial fisheries.

Despite changes to the stock assessment model and a new format for harvest advice, the news the International Pacific Halibut Commission heard from staff at its interim meeting was the same as it has been since 2005: the number of harvestable halibut has declined, and catch limits are following suit.

Under the most likely scenario, the coastwide harvest from California to the Bering Sea would be 22.7 million pounds, down from a 33.54 million pound catch limit in 2012.