Members of Tseshaht and Hupacasath First Nations embarked on their first sanctioned commercial sales agreement for Somass River sockeye on Monday morning.

The long-awaited agreement was hammered out on Thursday, and is the first time in 10 years that a pilot sale agreement has been reached, allowing commercial buyers to set up shop and purchase fish directly from the harvesters. On Monday, David Hilborn of Saanich Holdings had the dock to himself at Clutesi Haven Marina.

"It looks like I'm the only buyer here, but that's going to change. It's going to be really busy," Hilborn said.

The Monday morning, the price was a relatively low $1.50 per pound, but Hilborn said that would likely change as competition for the fresh sockeye ramped up.

"There's a lot of fish coming onto the market now, and it's all about supply and demand," he said. "But this is fresh-market fish, and it's going to Vancouver."

Con Charleson brought in his overnight catch to Clutesi Haven, and was a little surprised at the low price. Charleson said aboriginal fishermen have been selling their catches, but the sales agreement with Fisheries and Oceans Canada streamlines the process.

"I recently took a load of sockeye over to Vancouver and got $3 a pound," he said, adding, "I was taking food fish for the white people."

Charleson said he and his son Henry specifically target the highest-quality fish to obtain the best prices. That means moving further out into the Inlet to get the recent arrivals.

"We fished off China Creek with a five-inch mesh, so we get the big fish," he said, pointing out a tote full of big, silvery-sided sockeye on the scale.

Last week, DFO upgraded the sockeye run to 1,050,000 fish, from the preseason forecast of 600,000. There was no Area D gillnet fishery last week, because the fleet had achieved the 60,000 quota based on the preseason estimate. With the new numbers, the gillnetters were scheduled to begin a four-day opening today at 2 p.m., with a target of 60,000 sockeye. The fishery will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. each day, in the area between Polly Point and Bilton Point.

On Sunday, July 3, 20 Area B seiners began a three-day opening in Alberni Inlet, with a target of 105,000 fish.

As of June 29, DFO estimated the recreational catch at 22,000 sockeye, with 18,662 ocean-caught and 3,350 at Papermill Dam. Those numbers are expected to climb rapidly as the run reaches its peak over the next few weeks, although some sport fishers reported the catch declined somewhat with all the new net activity. The recreational catch limit is four fish per day in Alberni Inlet and two per day at Papermill Dam.

With a run size of 1.05-million fish, the escapement goal has been set at 443,000, leaving 562,000 fish available for harvest by all sectors.

Through June 29, total sockeye escapement was estimated at 220,700 adults, with 122,500 to Sproat Lake and 98,200 to Great Central Lake.