Saving Seafood

Wild Salmon Day: Alaska celebrates a mixed bag of returns

August 11, 2021 — This year, it’s complicated. Fishermen and other Alaska salmon stakeholders have some good reasons to celebrate of the fifth annual Wild Alaska Salmon Day on Tuesday, Aug. 10. But in some regions, the fleets are weighing their worries now that they’re just past the midpoint of the summer salmon season.

Overall, the state is seeing some bright spots in returns of pink, sockeye and silver salmon. But the success stories are stratified.

Both Bristol Bay and Prince William Sound are celebrating a big year.

As of the end of July, the Prince William Sound fleet had landed a 123 percent increase in pink salmon over the 2019 harvest (pinks tend to boom every other year), and sockeye, chum, silver and king returns were all up over the 2020 harvest. Though the bar was set low last year, healthy returns across the board are a welcome change after a downward trend over the last several seasons.

Not only is the Bristol Bay’s salmon return a significant record, closing in on 66 million fish (the last record was just under 63 million, set in 2018), but the base price is nothing to sneeze at either, coming out of the gates strong at $1.10 on a promise from Peter Pan Seafoods, and leaping up to $1.25, spurred by OBI Seafoods. That’s up from a covid-induced low of 70 cents last year.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Alaska salmon report: Troll kings worth more than oil; base price up in Bristol Bay

July 20, 2021 — Early prices to Alaska salmon fishermen are trickling in. As anticipated, they are up across the board. That will give a nice boost to the economic base of both fishing communities and the state from fish taxes, fees and other assessments.

About a third (62 million) of Alaska’s projected catch of 190 million salmon had crossed the docks by July 16 at the halfway point of the fishing season.

Prices paid to fishermen vary based on buyers, gear types and regions. And bonuses and post-season pay adjustments won’t be finalized until early next year.

Here’s an early snapshot of average base prices from major processors at this point in the season:

At Bristol Bay, the price to fishermen was boosted to $1.25 by OBI Seafoods, topping the $1.10 Peter Pan posted in June before the start of the fishery, and up from 70 cents last year.

Kodiak fishermen were getting $1.45-$1.50 for sockeyes and $1.75 at Southeast.

That compares to a statewide average of just $0.76 a pound for sockeye salmon last year. A 2021 catch of 46.6 million sockeyes was projected for Alaska; the total so far has topped 44 million.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Peter Pan posts USD 1.10 per pound for Bristol Bay sockeye

June 21, 2021 — Peter Pan Seafood shook up the world’s largest wild salmon run on 19 June with the announcement it will pay a base price of USD 1.10 (EUR 0.84) per pound for sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

The price upholds reports of a strong market for wild sockeye and is a welcome development for Bristol Bay fishermen, who were disappointed by last season’s base price of USD 0.75 (EUR 0.63).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: OBI donates first Copper River salmon sale to nonprofit supporting restaurants

May 18, 2021 — The highly anticipated Copper River salmon season, which opens Tuesday, 18 May, has chefs, seafood retailers, and consumers paying top-dollar for the first fish to be caught and sent to the mainland United States from Alaska.

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based OBI Seafoods opted to donate some of its first fish to the Seattle nonprofit We Got This Seattle, which supports frontline workers and Seattle restaurants.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Salmon have shrunk so much that Whole Foods redid its guidelines

May 5, 2021 — At OBI Seafoods, a sprawling operation with outposts throughout Alaska, there’s all sorts of extra machinery for workers to master. At Whole Foods Market, there are new guidelines for purchasing salmon from wholesalers. And at Ivar’s, a fixture on Seattle’s waterfront for eight decades, the chef is sending back skimpy salmon delivered to his kitchen.

Behind all these changes is an alarming trend that’s been building for years: The giant schools of wild Pacific salmon that can turn southeast Alaska’s ice-cold waters into a brilliant orange blur are thinning out, and those that do survive are shrinking in size.

It’s the shrinking part that’s causing the biggest logistical snarl right now. Many salmon are so small they’ve thrown off OBI’s fish-sorting process and no longer meet the purchasing specifications at Whole Foods and culinary demands at Ivar’s. There, head chef Craig Breeden snaps photos of the fish next to his knife to illustrate their diminutive size before shipping them back.

Read the full story at The Oregonian

OBI Seafoods won’t be processing salmon at Southeast Alaska cannery this summer

April 6, 2021 — OBI Seafoods will not process salmon at its cannery in Excursion Inlet this summer. The Haines Borough is preparing for a dramatic reduction in raw fish tax revenue as a result.

OBI Seafoods will continue to buy salmon from local fishermen for its plant in Petersburg.

Last year, weak salmon returns and the pandemic led to a quiet summer at the Excursion Inlet plant. This year, they won’t be processing salmon at all.

OBI Seafoods public affairs manager Julianne Curry said the decision was made based on forecasted salmon returns for this summer.

“The company took a really careful look at the State of Alaska salmon run predictions for the 2021 season and we made the really difficult decision to shut down salmon buying at our Excursion Inlet facility this year,” Curry said.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has forecast a return of 28 million pink salmon to Southeast Alaska. That’s a little bit lower than the 10-year average but better than the most recent years.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Single Positive Case of COVID Found as OBI Conducts Preseason Testing at Petersburg Plant

February 10, 2021 — Petersburg, AK — Yesterday, after testing all incoming employees for the crab season, OBI Seafoods confirmed one positive case of COVID. The company hired a completely local workforce of Petersburg residents for the 2021 tanner and golden king crab fishery, which begins February 17.

The employee who tested positive is asymptomatic and was immediately isolated. Contact tracing was done to identify others for additional testing and quarantine.

Read the full story at Seafood News

For Alaska’s seafood processors, COVID-19 has cost tens of millions of dollars

October 2, 2020 — Seafood processors had a lot to deal with this season.

“Our biggest challenge in 2020 was safely staffing our plants,” said Julianne Curry, the public affairs manager for OBI Seafoods.

“It was a huge lift to get all employees tested, transported, quarantined, and fully integrated into each of our plants all while observing a closed campus and all COVID-related protocols and doing it all with very little time to plan and prepare for the summer salmon season,” she said.

To keep track of how the pandemic is shaping the seafood industry, economists at the McDowell Group have started to publish monthly briefs for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

“It’s interesting to describe a crisis when you’re in the crisis, right? And that’s our situation,” said Garrett Everidge, an economist at the McDowell Group. “The goal is to try to keep up to speed on how the pandemic is impacting the seafood industry and really impacting all stakeholders, from local governments, supply chains, retailers, harvesters, processors.”

Read the full story at KTOO

On campuses closed by COVID-19, seafood workers trade freedom for paychecks

September 3, 2020 — Seafood companies bring thousands of seasonal workers to Alaska’s fishing towns every year, but this year’s summer workers were largely unseen. In Petersburg, due to COVID precautions, workers were restricted closed campuses — they were only allowed to go between the plant, dorms and cafeteria. Some workers said they felt resigned to it. Others said it felt like jail.

There are two major processing plants in Petersburg: OBI Seafoods — formerly Petersburg Fisheries, Inc — and Trident Seafoods. But before we get to the plants, we should start with the fishermen.

Nick Rahaim is a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat. During the pandemic, he and other fishermen have to stay on deck, away from the seafood processing workers who come on board to offload the catch.

“It’s been compared to the NBA bubble, like Disney World in Florida,” Rahaim said. “While it is a bubble, it’s very different because on the one hand you have people making millions, on the other you have people making close to minimum wage.”

Read the full story at KTOO