Eager buyers are awaiting Alaska salmon from fisheries that are opening across the state, and it’s easy to track catches and market trends for every region.
Fishery managers forecast a statewide catch topping 190 million salmon this year, 61% higher than the 2020 take of just over 118 million.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections for 2021 Alaska Salmon Fisheries and Review of the 2020 Season provides breakdowns for all species by region.
And salmon catches are updated daily at ADF&G’s Blue Sheet, found at its commercial fisheries web page. They also post weekly summaries of harvests broken out by every region along with comparisons to past years.
Predictions for the 2021 mix of fish call for a catch of 269,000 king salmon, up slightly from 2020, but 25% below the 10-year average.
The projected sockeye harvest of 46.6 million will help replenish low inventories that saw strong export prices early this year and “a continued promising market,” said Dan Lesh, a fisheries economist with the McKinley Research Group, who compiles weekly updates during the season for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
The 2021 coho forecast of 3.8 million is 56% higher than 2020, and similar to the 10-year average. Coho represent only around 5% of Alaska’s salmon harvest value.
A catch this year of 15.3 million chum salmon represents a 23% drop from the 10-year average, but a nearly 80% increase from the dismal 2020 harvest of 8.5 million. Japan is the main destination for chum roe, which saw increased prices to $17.83 per pound in the third trimester of 2020, up 42% from the previous year
This year’s pink salmon harvest is pegged at 124.2 million, mostly from catches at Prince William Sound, Southeast and Kodiak.
Interestingly, pink salmon have been returning to Norton Sound at record numbers and OBI Seafoods plans to send up to five buyers to those fishing grounds this summer. And the Nome Nugget reports that Icicle Seafoods plans to bring a processing vessel as well as four or five fishing tenders to buy pinks from local fishermen this summer.
Last year’s statewide pink salmon catch of 60.7 million fetched an average dock price of 33 cents per pound, the lowest in five years and a drop from 40 cents in 2019.
Salmon saint
Salmon has its own heavenly patron: Saint Kentigern of Scotland. Born in 518, Kentigern was the illegitimate son of a king’s daughter. He trained as a priest at a monastery, where his sainthood evolved around a dangerous love triangle.
Legend has it that the king suspected his wife of having an affair because she had given one of her rings to a court favorite. The king took the ring when the man was sleeping and threw it far out into the River Clyde. When he returned home, the king angrily demanded that his wife show him the missing ring and threatened her with death if she could not produce it.
The queen beseeched Kentigern to help her. He took a fishing rod to the spot where the ring had been flung into the river and quickly caught a salmon and cut it open. Amazingly, the ring was found in the salmon’s belly.
The queen was able to deliver the ring to her doubting husband and peace was restored.
From the time of his death in 603, Kentigern was regarded as Scotland’s patron saint and the cathedral at Glasgow was built in his honor. To this day his figure and symbols, including salmon, make up that city’s coat of arms.
So who knows, perhaps a quick prayer to the patron saint of salmon will lead more fish to your nets.
Fishing updates
Along with salmon, lots of other fishing activity is ongoing or gearing up across Alaska.
Southeast’s Dungeness fishery opens June 15 and crabbers are hoping for another good season. Combined catches for last year’s summer and fall fisheries totaled nearly 6.7 million pounds, more than double the 10-year average, and just shy of the record 7.3 million pounds taken in 2002.
Southeast Alaska’s summer pot fishery for spot shrimp is pulling up the last of its 546,000-pound catch. Beam trawlers also are on the grounds targeting a 1.8 million pound harvest of pink and sidestripe shrimp.
Southeast divers are still going down in some areas for the remainder of a half-million pound catch limit of Geoduck clams.
Alaska’s scallop fishery opens in regions from Southeast to the Bering Sea on July 1. The total catch has not been announced but last year the small fleet of three to four boats dredged up a reduced quota of 277,500 pounds of shucked meats, nearly half from the Yakutat region.
Alaska’s halibut catch already has topped 5 million pounds with Homer, Seward and Juneau the leading ports for landings. Prices are still running more than $2 per pound higher than last year, ranging from $5.50 to $6.75 or more in most major ports, and reaching $7 a pound at Homer. Alaska halibut fishermen have a nearly 20 million pound catch limit this year.
Black cod (sablefish) catches have topped 13 million pounds, with most deliveries going to Sitka, Seward and Kodiak. That quota this year is 40.5 million pounds.
Mask reminder
The federal mask mandate remains in effect for fishing crews on all U.S. vessels. And while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed the rules for fully vaccinated people, fishermen are not included.
Many have pointed out that it’s critical on noisy boats to be able to read lips or facial expressions, and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski pressed that point at a Senate hearing last month.
“This is more a safety hazard than anything else — you’re out on a boat, the winds are howling, your mask is soggy wet. Tell me how anyone thinks this is a sane and sound policy,” she said.
Murkowski recently co-wrote a letter to the CDC and U.S. Coast Guard asking them to exempt fishermen from the mask requirement, and has been joined by lawmakers from other coastal states.
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