Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Fraser Sockeye Season Gearing Up; Landings of 1.3 Million Salmon So Far

August 20, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Fraser River sockeye season has netted landings of about 600,000 sockeye in the U.S. and 735,000 sockeye in Canada as of early this week. In Canada there have been three separate openings and an updated announcement on openings just this week, indicating a ramping up of a fishery that will peak in the coming few weeks.

This year’s return to the Fraser is estimated to be 14 million sockeye, within a wide range of possibilities. The return is made up of four distinct runs: Early Stuart, Early Summer, Summer, and Late runs. More than half — about 7.4 milion sockeyes — are estimated to make up this year’s Late run.

Once escapement, test fishing, and other management adjustments are taken off the total return, the TAC is calculated, currently at 6.2 million sockeye. Of that, the U.S.’s share is 1.02 million sockeye.

So with the landings as of last Tuesday, the U.S. season is about half over. For Canada, the bulk of the return is still ahead.

Mike LaPoint, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission, said stock assessments of the four different runs are being made as they come in. This week, assessments of Early Summer and Summer-run sockeye abundance are being calculated as test fishing results and data on age, origin, and other components of the different populations are analyzed. Updated run-size estimates could be available as early as later today, after this afternoon’s meeting of the Fraser River Panel.

“It is important to note that that TAC continually changes through the season as data on abundance, etc. are updated,” LaPoint said. “So far this season, the only change has been to the Early Stuart Run size – pre-season was 84,000, now 125,000. All other stock groups are being actively assessed right now and so far no changes from pre-season.”

The Fraser has seen three years in a row of low sockeye returns. “2016 was actually the lowest return since we started to keep records in 1892, about 700,000 fish,” Lapointe told Undercurrent News last month.

Fraser sockeye, for the most part, are four year fish. The 2014 return was over 20 million sockeye. While the returning salmon, and the subset of successful spawners in the return, is important, more focus in recent years has been on conditions the salmon face after that. Sockeye spend a year in the lake, then outmigrate as juveniles through the Fraser basin, and go north for a few years of feeding in the Gulf of Alaska before returning. In 2016-17, when these young salmon were feeding, temperatures in the Gulf were still above average from the 2014-16 warm water event referred to as The Blob.

Conditions in the Fraser River itself, according to Tuesday’s announcement from the Fraser River Panel, continue to show low volume of water and higher temperatures than historically normal, although in recent years these numbers have been similar.

“On August 13, the Fraser River water discharge at Hope was approximately 2,801 cms, which is approximately 20% below average for this date. The temperature of the Fraser River at Qualark Creek on August 13 was 19.5 degrees C, which is 1.5 degrees C above average for this date. Fraser River water temperatures are forecast to decrease to slightly to 18.9 degrees C over the next few days.

“Sustained water temperatures in this range can cause severe stress to migrating sockeye and may lead to significant en route mortality. Migration conditions for Fraser sockeye will be monitored closely over the next several weeks and appropriate management actions will be taken,” the announcement read.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

ALASKA: Small processors carve out a market in Bristol Bay

August 17, 2018 — The majority of processing seafood companies in Bristol Bay are small Mom and Pop shops who are essentially the roadside farm stands of the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery selling sockeye directly to customers. But these businesses only sell a fraction of the sockeye caught in the region.

Standing in a shipping container that’s been converted into essentially a salmon butchery. Sandy Alvarez is filleting a sockeye. People regularly admire her technique but she said the secret behind it is practice.

“Well you know people who comment they wish they could do that I usually laughingly tell them. ‘Try doing 1,500 fish for 10 years you probably can!’”

Almost a decade ago Alvarez and her husband, a commercial fisherman, set up a little processing plant near their summer home in Naknek. Alvarez’s husband fishes for sockeye and drops off a bit of his catch to his wife who then processes it.  Then he sells the rest of his salmon to a larger seafood company. That is pretty typical for small seafood processors in the region.

Read the full story at KDLG

The mysterious case of Alaska’s strange sockeye salmon returns this year

August 16, 2018 — There’s something unusual going on with the sockeye salmon runs returning to Alaska this year. In some places — like Bristol Bay — the runs are strong. In others, like the Copper River or the Kenai River they’re unexpectedly weak. In some places, there are sockeye that are unusually small. In others, sockeye of a certain age appear to be missing entirely.

It’s a mystery.

In Southeast Alaska, one of the first Fish and Game staffers to notice an unusual trend was Iris Frank, a regional data coordinator and fisheries technician.

Frank’s lab is on the first floor of Fish and Game’s Douglas Island office that looks like it hasn’t changed much in the 32 years since she got there.

Frank has been looking at blown-up images of sockeye salmon scales for decades. She pops one onto the machine and dials it into focus to show that salmon scales have ridges, called circuli. They look a lot like fingerprints.

Circuli carry a lot of information about what a salmon has been doing since it hatched.

“So if you think about a fish being out say, in a lake in the summertime, it’s warmer there. There’s more feed around. So these circuli are probably going to be bigger and more widely spaced apart,” Frank said.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Slow going toward the 39M harvest forecast

August 7, 2018 — Commercial salmon harvests in Prince William Sound topped the 15.4 million mark through July 31, up by three million fish over the previous week, compared to 20.4 million delivered by the same time a year ago.

All five species of Pacific salmon are running below the catch rate or the same statistics week one year ago.

The pink salmon harvest has reached nearly 11 million fish, compared to 13 million at this time in July of 2016, and this year’s forecast of 32.7 million humpies.

Deliveries of sockeyes have reached 1.3 million fish, compared to a year-to-date harvest in 2017 of 1.4 million, and the keta harvest stood at 3.2 million fish, compared to a catch of 5.4 million chums through the same time last year.

On the bright side, the Copper River district was opened for commercial fishing on July 26, and deliveries from that district have reached an estimated total of nearly 40 thousand sockeyes, 7,160 Chinooks, 6,093 humpies, 3,220 chums and 753 cohos, according to the latest reports from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s the second lowest harvest to date in half a century for those reds.

Read the full story at The Cordoba Times

Early salmon prices point to good paydays across Alaska

August 1, 2018 — Salmon prices are starting to trickle in as more sales are firmed up by local buyers, and early signs point to good paydays across the board.

At Bristol Bay last week, Trident, Ocean Beauty and Togiak Seafoods posted a base price of $1.25 a pound for sockeyes, according to KDLG in Dillingham. Trident also was paying a 15 cent bonus for reds that are chilled and bled, and the others may follow suit.

Copper River Seafoods raised its sockeye price from $1.30 to $1.70 for fish that is chilled/bled and sorted.  That company also reportedly is paying 80 cents a pound for coho salmon and 45 cents for chums and pinks.

The average base price last year for Bristol Bay sockeyes was $1.02 a pound, 65 cents for cohos, 30 cents for chums and 18 cents a pound for pinks.
Kodiak advances were reported at $1.60 for sockeyes, 55 cents for chums and 40 cents for pinks. That compares to average prices of $1.38 for sockeyes, 40 cents for chums and 31 cents for Kodiak pinks in 2017.

At Prince William Sound a sockeye base price was reported at $1.95 and chums at 95 cents.

At Norton Sound the single buyer was advancing 80 cents a pound for chums and $1.40 for cohos, same as last year, and 25 cents for pinks, an increase of 22 cents.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Value of Bristol Bay salmon rises, even as the fish shrink

July 31, 2018 — 2018 has been a year for the Bristol Bay record books as total sockeye run surpassed 61 million on Thursday, putting it just a half-million fish behind the largest run of 61.7 million in 1980.

Bert Lewis oversees commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay, Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He’s impressed at the strength of the Nushagak district’s run and even at Bristol Bay’s east-side districts, which came in “late but solidly.”

“That stands out really statewide where sockeye runs have not been strong. I know that westward Kodiak area is meeting their goals, but with very little fishing opportunity. Cook Inlet right now is under restrictions,” Lewis said. “King salmon statewide are of concern with low returns, but meeting goals solidly in Bristol Bay.”

King salmon escapement was strong enough that nearly 100 anglers filled the Nushagak River this June for a new king derby, even as poor returns canceled a handful of derbies in southeast Alaska.

Lewis said the prevailing theory for Bristol Bay’s bounty is “the blob” — an unusually warm water mass that filled the northern Gulf of Alaska as this year’s returning fish migrated out to sea a few years back. It disrupted food webs that support the forage base that juvenile salmon feed on in waters across southeast Alaska and the north Gulf.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

 

ALASKA: Kenai River dipnetting to close early due to low sockeye returns

July 27, 2018 –The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is closing the Kenai River personal use dipnet fishery starting 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 30, citing less-than-expected returns.

The fishery would normally have ended on July 31.

ADF&G says the closure is necessary to meet the sustainable escapement goal of 700,000 to 1.2 million late-run sockeye salmon in the Kenai River–a goal officials say “may not be met without a reduction in harvest of this stock.”

The order says that additional restrictions on commercial and sport fisheries are also being implemented.

Read the full story at KTUU

ALASKA: Bristol Bay harvest hits 39 million, but statewide take down by a third

July 27, 2018 –Alaska’s salmon fisheries continue to lag alarmingly in several regions, with overall catches down by a third from the same time last year.

The single exception is at the unconquerable Bristol Bay, where a catch of 39 million sockeye so far has single-handedly pushed Alaska’s total salmon harvest towards a lackluster 60 million fish.

It’s too soon to press the panic button and there is lots of fishing left to go, but fears are growing that Alaska’s 2018 salmon season will be a bust for most fishermen. Worse, it comes on the heels of a cod crash and tanking halibut markets (and catches).

State salmon managers predicted that Alaska’s salmon harvest this year would be down by 34 percent to 149 million fish; due to an expected decline of pinks.

But with the exception of Bristol Bay, nobody expected fishing to be this bad.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

With Strong Run and a Big Increase in Boat Prices, Bristol Bay Harvesters Get Big Payday This Year

July 27, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS –KDLG has been surveying processors in the Bay to get this year’s sockeye salmon prices, and the result shows a big jump in the overall value of the fishery this year.

Both Trident and Ocean Beauty have confirmed base prices of $1.25 per lb., and prices go up for fish that has higher quality handling such as being chilled, floated, and bled. These fish get $1.40 per lb.

Copper River is paying a premium for chilled, bled, and separated sockeye, from $1.30 to $1.70 reports KDLG.

Meanwhile, Icicle, Togiak, and Peter Pan have not released base prices.

Last year’s base price in the Bay was $1.00, for a harvest of 38.8 million fish. This year, harvests reached 38.2 million, higher than the preseason forecast, and these numbers still may be adjusted.

The upshot is the sockeye fishery is likely worth about 25% more than last year, and as Bristol Bay is such an important part of overall Alaska salmon value, this run will go a long way towards making up some of the shortfall in other areas in terms of overall value.

But that is small consolation to those communities where the sockeye run failed or came in way below expectations, such as Chignik, and along the Copper River.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Alaska salmon catch down by a third in most regions

July 25, 2018 — Alaska’s salmon fisheries continue to lag alarmingly in several regions, with overall catches down by a third from the same time last year.

The single exception is at the unconquerable Bristol Bay, where a 37 million sockeye catch so far has single-handedly pushed Alaska’s total salmon harvest towards a lackluster 60 million fish.

It’s too soon to press the panic button and there is lots of fishing left to go, but fears are growing that Alaska’s 2018 salmon season will be a bust for most fishermen. Worse, it comes on the heels of a cod crash and tanking halibut markets (and catches).

State salmon managers predicted that Alaska’s salmon harvest this year would be down by 34 percent to 149 million fish; due to an expected shortfall of pinks. But with the exception of Bristol Bay, nobody expected fishing to be this bad.

Catches of sockeye, the big money fish, are off by millions at places like  Copper River, Chignik and Kodiak, which has had the weakest sockeye harvest in nearly 40 years.

The weekly update by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute said that coho and Chinook catches remain slow, and while it is still way early in the season, the “bread and butter” pink harvests are off by 65 percent from the strong run of two years ago.

Read the full story at National Fisherman