November 25, 2025 — A new report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game shows the value of Cook Inlet’s commercial sockeye salmon fishery almost doubled this year compared to last year. Fishermen caught more than $40 million worth of salmon across all species in both Upper and Lower Cook Inlet, according to preliminary harvest data released earlier this month.
Colton Lipka says there’s a simple reason for the spike. He’s the management biologist for Upper Cook Inlet’s commercial fisheries.
“The most meaningful reason for the large jump in the value is the large jump in harvest,” he said.
That jump is mostly thanks to sockeye. Commercial fishermen caught more than $36 million worth of sockeye in Upper Cook Inlet this year. That’s up from less than $20 million last year, and from a little over $14 million the year before that.