Markets are continuing to bounce back from recent lows in Southeast commercial salmon fisheries, and a pair of Wrangell gillnetters said they are hopeful to see continued improvement in the chum salmon fishery.

Preliminary data on commercial salmon harvest and pricing published by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in November says that just over 12.7 million chums were harvested in Southeast this year, selling at an average of 66 cents per pound. The total estimated value was roughly $56.4 million.

Though the number of fish was down from 2023 and 2024, the total value to fishermen was up — thanks to higher prices.

While the volume is important, the price makes all the difference in the seafood world.

Only a few years ago, in 2022, the department reported that 9.4 million chum were harvested in Southeast at an average price of $1.18 per pound, for a total value of over $79.2 million.

The price plummeted to 53 cents a pound in 2023 and 41 cents in 2024, and while commercial fisherman Winston Davies said he was happy to get 60 cents this year, the price remains “not good.”

Chris Guggenbickler, also a commercial gillnetter, said he’s seeing firmer prices and larger salmon returns.

The 2025 Southeast chum harvest was on a par with last year but substantially higher than 2022 and almost double the 2021 harvest.

Challenges in recent years of weak chum salmon returns and increased competition from the Russian seafood industry undercutting prices seem to be subsiding, according to Guggenbickler and described in a 2024 report from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Low prices, Davies said, mean he needs more fish caught to reach the same revenues.

There were enough fish in the water to make a return this year, but he recognizes he’s competing with fewer nets as many fishers are put off by the low price of salmon, as well as other challenges of curtailed fishing times and reduced fishing areas — measures intended to protect less abundant king salmon.

Many have shifted their effort toward crab.

“I’m involved in three different fisheries now,” Davies said. “Halibut, salmon and crab. I gotta really work hard at all of them to make what I used to.”

Participation in the salmon fishery is lower than it has been, Guggenbickler said, but will improve if the price of salmon bounces back.

“The chum market, which is a lot of our value, is really in demand right now,” he said. “Even though our chum price has stabilized this year, I think they’re going to be stronger next year. That’s welcoming for a lot of our fishermen.”

Trident Seafoods, which operates the largest salmon processing plant in Wrangell, declined comment on this year's salmon season, Alexis Telfer, vice president for global marketing and communications at the Seattle-based corporation, said in an email on Dec. 12.

Trident’s Wrangell plant freezes pinks and chums in July and August in a strictly seasonal operation.

Sea Level Seafoods, which operates year-round in Wrangell, did not respond to a request for comment.

In Southeast, chum usually make up the largest value of the commercial harvest.

The department reported around 20.7 million pink salmon were harvested in Southeast this year at an average price paid to the fleet of 25 cents per pound, for a total of around $16.9 million. That’s similar to last year but down substantially from a large haul in 2023 of 47.6 million fish, which helped to crash the price to 23 cents a pound from 34 cents in 2022 and 36 cents a pound in 2021.

Though the price was steady, this year’s pink salmon catch was almost 9 million fish below the Department of Fish and Game’s preseason forecast of close to 30 million pinks, marking the lowest odd-year harvest since the 1980s.

With the weak pink salmon harvest, Trident Seafoods cut back to one shift at its Wrangell plant in August, down from two shifts in July.

The value to fishers of this year’s Southeast king, coho and sockeye catches totaled just over $31 million, about $4 million better than last year, due to higher prices.