Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Copper River crash will cost commercial fishermen millions

June 21, 2o18 — Copper River sockeye fishermen are facing historic low returns this year, prompting some commercial fisherman to target other species elsewhere in Prince William Sound, and leaving others waiting onshore in what is usually a profitable fishery to the tune of $15 million or more in ex-vessel value.

Through mid-June, the commercial Copper River District drift gillnet fishery had landed just less than 26,000 sockeye salmon and a little more than 7,000 kings during three mid-May fishing periods. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game had expected a harvest this summer of nearly 1 million sockeye in the district, and about 13,000 kings. As the harvest stands now, it’s the second-lowest in the past 50 years.

The Copper River fish typically fetch a premium price as the first of the season, and this year was no exception, with prices as high as $75 per pound for kings at the Pike’s Place market in Seattle after the May 17 season-opening period.

But the district hasn’t re-opened after the first three periods because the sockeye returns are so poor, so the final value is likely to be far lower than the $20 million-plus the fishery often nets.

ADFG Area Management Biologist Jeremy Botz said it would take a significant improvement for the fishery to re-open.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

ALASKA: The ‘blob’ impacts salmon numbers, stopping fishing on Copper River

June 15, 2018 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order Wednesday closing the personal-use and sport fishing for Copper River sockeye around Chitina until further notice.

The closure goes into effect on Monday, June 18th. Commercial fishing stopped on May 28th, and next week the department will determine how the low numbers will effect subsistence fishing.

Area management biologist, Mark Somerville calls the move “unprecedented.”

“It’s the second lowest on record basically in the last 50 years, pretty much since statehood,” Somerville said. “And there’s lots of different reason for it.”

Somerville says a mass of warm temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska and need for more food by the fish are to blame. “That’s the ‘blob’ thing,” Somerville said.

As of June 10, the Copper River weir shows that 154,866 reds have passed the counter since May 18. In the same period last year, 320,484 sockeye had swum up the river.

Alaska is famous for it’s Copper River salmon exports. Mega PR blitz signal the start of the season including Alaska Airlines flying the first fish to Seattle where eager chefs await it with outstretched arms.

The fish glistens with hard-earned fat, after swimming and eating across thousands of miles, from birth in the snow-fed waters of Alaskan rivers to the chilly sea.

Read the full story at KTUU

ALASKA: Dismal Copper River salmon run prompts ‘unprecedented’ shutdown of dipnetting at Chitina

June 14, 2018 — The state is taking the historic action of shutting down Copper River dipnetting at the popular, physically demanding sites around Chitina.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order Wednesday closing the personal-use fishery until further notice as of Monday.

The state decision comes amid dismal returns of the river’s famed sockeye salmon, usually plentiful enough to fuel not only personal-use and subsistence fisheries but also commercial catches to supply markets and restaurants around the Lower 48.

Biologists blame the “Blob”: a large mass of unusually warm water that lurked in the Gulf of Alaska from 2014 through 2016 when young sockeye returning now swam out to feed.

For the commercial fishery at the Copper River’s mouth, this year’s sockeye catch is the second lowest it’s been in 50 years, after Fish and Game shut down that fishery in late May.

State fish biologists say otherwise there might not be enough sockeye swimming back up the Copper River to spawn and keep the run going strong.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News