In the thousands of salmon, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game graphic shows harvest tendencies by statistical week, from May until October. After sizable returns through July and August in 2015 were followed by a far more modest harvest the following year, the Southeast salmon harvest this year has followed closely the five-year average.
Preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2017 commercial salmon fishery indicate the season was a step up above the previous year's disastrous harvest.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a 66.7-percent increase in exvessel value between the two years, with 224.6 million wild salmon worth around $678.8 million brought in by the state's fishing fleet.
Chum salmon saw the biggest boon of the year, breaking records with 25.2 million fish, worth about $128.3 million. The haul accounted for 11 percent of the total harvest and 19 percent of its value. Sockeye had been the season's most valuable salmon species, with 52.4 million fish worth $326.1 million, 48 percent of the total.
In terms of quantity, pink salmon made up 63 percent of the total harvest at 141.6 million fish. Coho accounted for six percent of the value at $37.6 million and two percent of the harvest at 5.1 million fish. Hampered by a late start and multiple restrictions, the king salmon harvest was marginal with only 251,141 fish, but an estimated value of $17.8 million.
Most of the state's salmon fisheries have by now closed, but the numbers remain preliminary. A full report is anticipated later this year in December. In terms of poundage, Alaska's salmon fishery this year had been the third-largest since 1975, and was only the third time the harvest has exceeded a billion fish.
Pinks bounced back somewhat, ranked fourth in terms of poundage since 1975 and third in value.
Bristol Bay enjoyed another great sockeye season, with 37.7 million valued at $209.9 million. Norton Sound's coho salmon return provided a new record harvest of 191,000, while in Chignik the pink salmon harvest of just over 7 million wild pink salmon also set a new record. However, fishermen in southern Southeast were disappointed by returns in the region, which came in lower than forecast.
"It was less than we thought," explained John Webby, Southeast Alaska operations manager for Trident Seafoods. The shortfall caused its Wrangell plant to shut down its summertime operations early, in mid-August. However, the Petersburg plant remained operational until earlier this month. A number of fish were being caught further to the north, meaning tenders had to run further afield for their collections.
"After last year, which was quite slow, it was okay," commented Patrick Wilson, manager at Petersburg Fisheries, of Icicle Seafoods. The returns had been good enough to keep the plant's crew busy through the summer, and the chum salmon run had been better than usual.
Open year-round, the company has continued producing through the sea cucumber, shrimp and Dungeness crab fisheries.
"We were hoping it would be busier," he said of the latter. The commercial Dungy season had been shortened by three weeks this summer, due to calculations based on its opening week's poundage. A shortened, 30-day fall fishery for the crab through the month of October was subsequently announced, but so far there has been little luck locally.
"The fall Dungy season has been terrible, pretty much what I'd expected," said Vern Phillips, of Wrangell's Sea Level Seafoods. "There's a lot of gear already on the beach."
He anticipated Sea Level's last day of operations to be October 31, bringing an end to Wrangell's production for the year.
Petersburg Fisheries will continue to produce through next month's rare commercial red crab fishery, with harvest objectives for Southeast Alaska set in September. A total objective for open areas has been set at just over 201,000 pounds.
"I guess we'll see what happens," said Wilson.
Four of the management areas will only see a 24-hour opening on November 1, with non-surveyed sections reopening on November 6.
Though most producers will be dialed down for the winter, production is expected to resume in mid-March with the start of the commercial longline season.
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