Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Bristol Bay sees smallest sockeye sizes on record, despite large run

July 30, 2024 — This year in Bristol Bay, fishing crews have noticed that sockeye salmon were on the small side — an observation confirmed this month by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Fish and Game officials say that at this point in the 2024 season, the sockeye returning to Bristol Bay are on average the smallest they’ve ever seen. This continues a decades-long trend.

So far, the average weight of Bristol Bay sockeye was 4.2 pounds this year. Fish and Game biologist Stacy Vega said that’s the smallest average weight on record.

“Fish are smaller, weigh less than, than they have in the past and against our historical averages,” Vega said.

Read the full article at KDLG

Citations surge during Bristol Bay sockeye season

July 12, 2024 — Commercial fishing citations during the Bristol Bay sockeye season are ramping up. During the sockeye run, Alaska State Troopers come to the area from all around the state to patrol the commercial fishermen and ensure all rules and areas are followed. Due to the many regulations, some waters remain closed during certain periods while others are open. State Troopers reported that most of the violations in the area are due to commercial fishing in the closed areas.

“We have troopers in from Kodiak, other parts of western Alaska, as well as South Central and even interior Alaska, flown in during this special enforcement period, which occurs every year during the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world,” spokesperson Austin McDaniel told KDLG Dillingham, Alaska.

An estimated 2.2 billion dollars is earned annually from the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon industry. Over 1500 commercial fishing boats are registered in the bay, all competing for the 2024 catch. Before the season began, Silver Bay Seafoods posted a pre-season price for Bristol Bay sockeye, an unexpected move from a processor. They announced that fishermen delivering chilled Bristol Bay fish to their processing facility would receive $1.10 per pound, with a bonus on top of that price for fish that had been bled.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Bristol Bay sockeye season starting as predicted with lower catch

July 12, 2024 — Sockeye salmon fishing in Alaska’s Bristol Bay is, as predicted, off to a slower start this fishing season.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) 2024 Bristol Bay sockeye salmon forecast predicted a run of roughly 39 million sockeye salmon, down from the 54.5 million in 2023. AFD&G’s predicted run for 2023 was 49.7 million sockeye, and the state agency acknowledged that its preseason forecasts have generally under-forecast the actual run by 15 percent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: With season opening, Alaska forecasts a significantly smaller salmon harvest in 2024

May 19, 2024 — Alaska’s 2024 salmon season officially opened on Thursday, 16 May, with the kickoff of the Copper River sockeye fishery.

The 2024 commercial harvest forecasts for the Copper River District, located in the Prince William Sound region, are 1.3 million sockeye salmon, 46 percent above the 10-year average of 893,000 fish, and 47,000 Chinook, which is 2 percent below the 10-year average of 48,000 fish. However, the inside closure area of the Chinook fishery will be closed during early season fishing periods for conservation purposes and may be expanded early in the season to include waters inside the barrier islands east of Coffee Creek, according to Alaska Fish News.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Crew Shots: A Tribute to Salmon Fishermen

April 22, 2024 — In North America, there are five major species of wild Pacific salmon, including keta, pink, silver, king, and sockeye. We wanted to share some of the purse seiners, gillnetters, trollers, and set netters harvesting these wild species.

The peak season for salmon fishing occurs from May through September, and these are some of the Crew Shots commercial fishermen have shared with us over the years.

Share new moments on the water with us and submit your best crew photos here: https://www.nationalfisherman.com/submit-your-crew-shots

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Influence of Climate on Young Salmon Provides Clues to Future of World’s Largest Sockeye Run

April 10, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The world’s largest run of sockeye salmon begins in Bristol Bay river systems that flow into the Bering Sea. There young salmon face a crucial bottleneck: they must find good food and conditions so they can store enough fat to survive their first winter at sea. Understanding how climate drives survival during this critical life stage is key to predicting future salmon returns in a rapidly changing ecosystem.

A new study explores how climate influences survival of salmon—both directly through temperature, and indirectly through cascading effects on their food. Researchers looked at shifts in distribution and abundance of juvenile sockeye salmon in the Bering Sea in relation to temperature, prey, and competitors. The 17-year study (2002–2018) encompassed warm and cool conditions. The findings will help scientists more accurately predict future change to inform sustainable management and help fishing communities prepare for the future.

“Understanding how young salmon and their prey responded to past ecosystem change gives us a clue to what will happen in the future,” said study leader Ellen Yasumiishi, NOAA Fisheries biologist, Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “We want to know what’s driving the number of salmon returns so we can give fishermen an early outlook on what to expect.”

ALASKA: ADF&G forecasts strong run of sockeye salmon into Copper River in 2024

February 5, 2024 — State fisheries officials are forecasting a strong run of nearly 2 million sockeye salmon into the Copper River in 2024, plus an average run of 47,000 Chinook salmon.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) forecast of Jan. 18 predicts a sockeye run of 1,965,000 fish, compared to the 10-year average of 1,740,000 fish, with a forecast range of 1,572,000 to 2,358,000 fish, or 13% above average.

For Chinook salmon, the forecast is for a run of 34,000 to 66,000 kings, or 2% below the 10-year average of 48,000 fish.

For the Gulkana hatchery, a weak run of 36,000 salmon is forecasts with a range of 29,000 to 44,000 fish, or 69% below the 10-year average of 117,000 salmon.

Forecasts are all strong, however, for Coghill Lake sockeyes, and pink and chum salmon in Prince William Sound.

Read the full article at the Cordova Times

A salmon glut has sent prices plunging, and economists don’t know when they’ll recover

August 29, 2023 — Kodiak fisherman Mike Friccero has fished for salmon for over four decades. He said he was expecting a low price for Bristol Bay salmon this summer, but didn’t think rumors were true about how low it would drop.

“Our processor gave us a letter, a narrative before the season started, saying that pricing conditions weren’t great but that they were going to go after it with all the resources that they utilized last year as far as tendering and logistics and resources in general,” he said. “And they asked if we would do the same.”

It’s been a tough year for commercial salmon fishermen. Three years of huge returns in Bristol Bay created a surplus of sockeye in the market. Towards the end of the season, processors announced a base price of just 50 cents per pound – the lowest price in decades, when adjusted for inflation.

Fishermen can get bonuses for better quality, but Friccero said even with the boost, he was better off gearing up to fish for other species like halibut.

“If you’re catching 5,000 pounds and you’re thinking 80 cents, then your crew’s share might be $400,” he said. “Well that’s worth doing for folks, but once it drops into the lower figures, if you have crew that have talent, they’ve got other things they want to get over to.”

Friccero said he usually leaves shortly after the peak anyway, but he wasn’t the only one packing up before August.

Read the full article at KTOO

ALASKA: Why sockeye flourish and chinook fail in Alaska’s changing climate

July 27, 2023 — University of Washington ecologist Daniel Schindler is at the mouth of a salmon stream at Lake Nerka, in Southwest Alaska. It’s roiling with fish.

“They sort of pile up in balls of thousands of fish for a couple of weeks. I think that’s when they’re doing their final maturation,” he said of the sockeye mob. “They’re jostling with each other and splashing, occasionally jumping.”

Schindler is in his 27th year of field work, studying Bristol Bay sockeye. This year is on par with the sockeye abundance Bristol Bay has seen in the last decade, he said, which is far higher than the historical average.

The unlikely hero of this story of plenty: Climate change.

“We tend to think of climate warming is bad news for wild animals,” he said. “But for sockeye Bristol Bay warming has been good news.”

For other salmon, climate change is a villain.

Chinook – or king – salmon are in terrible decline all over the state, and especially dire on the Yukon River. Meanwhile, sockeye – or reds – are having another banner year in Bristol Bay, and everywhere.  Scientists say they don’t know exactly why one salmon species is doing so well while the other is in crisis, but some clues are coming into sharper focus.

One key difference, Schindler said, is what kind of river habit each species needs.

Sockeye use lakes as their nurseries. Since the 1980s the water in those lakes has warmed significantly. The warmth stimulates plankton to reproduce more, and young sockeye eat plankton. Fifty years ago, Schindler said, a lot of sockeye spent two years in Lake Nerka before heading out to sea.

“And now they grow so fast that nearly all of them leave after a single year in freshwater, which is a reflection of the fact that the freshwater systems have become more productive,” he said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media