By Tom Morphet
New markets, strong demand and the late arrival of salmon runs
statewide have pushed salmon prices paid by some processors as high as they’ve been
in nearly 20 years, boosting incomes and helping to offset surging fuel prices.
Packers are paying Lynn Canal gillnetters as much as 60 cents a pound
for chum, compared to 35 cents last year. Fishermen are getting as much as $1.75 per pound
for sockeye, up from $1.15 last year, and 28 cents per pound for pinks, up from 9 cents
last year.
"Good prices mean good money," said Haines gillnetter Brian
O’Riley, loading a net in advance of Sunday’s gillnet opening. O’Riley said
salmon have been undervalued for years, noting that chum were fetching 60 cents a pound 12
years ago. "They should be up."
"There’s a lot more boats (fishing) this week," said
skipper Norman Hughes. "People are eager to make the money. They’ve become
motivated." But perhaps because of the price of fuel – at $4.40 a gallon, up
about $2 per gallon from last year – boats don’t seem to be moving around as
much, Hughes said.
Mike Erickson, CEO of Juneau’s Alaska Glacier Seafoods, said his
prices reflect strong demand from the Lower 48 for the fresh sockeye fillets he ships out
to national retailers. It’s a market the company has developed in the past six years
by ensuring well-kept fish, and boosted by aggressive promotion of wild fish, he said.
"It’s important for us to make sure the stuff we’re
shipping out is the quality we say it is," Erickson said. But the high demand in the
past two weeks also is due to delayed runs elsewhere, and demand may decline as early as
next week as sockeye start coming in from other parts of Alaska, he said.
"The prices are really good, but they’re in constant flux.
I’m a little nervous. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen."
Alaska Glacier also is paying 60 cents a pound for chum, about the same
price being paid by Chilkoot Caviar of Haines.
Erickson said chum values have been pushed by the sinking value of the
U.S. dollar overseas, but also from demand for salmon caviar from eastern European
countries and Russia. "The eastern bloc Europeans and the Russians are quite active
in buying roe. They like it a lot, and they’ve got some money in their pockets
now."
For Haines-area fishermen, the good news on prices is tempered by a
weak early sockeye return to Chilkoot Lake. About 800 reds had passed Chilkoot weir early
this week, compared to a previous years’ average of 4,000, and 9,000 last year.
"It doesn’t look very good this year, but there’s still
hope," said Randy Bachman, commercial fisheries biologist for Alaska Department of
Fish and Game in Haines. "The late run can save the (Chilkoot run) sometimes."
Fishermen already are limited by fishing area to conserve Chilkat Lake
sockeye, projected to return in low numbers this year. About 200 sockeye have been caught
in Chilkat fish wheels, which is close to the 10-year average, including years that
gillnetters were fishing on the stocks, Bachman said.
"We’ll continue to have conservative openings on the Chilkoot
side (and the Chilkat.) Don’t look for extended openings in (upper Lynn Canal) unless
things turn around," Bachman said.
Last week, 46 boats fished in Lynn Canal, harvesting about 45,000
hatchery chum and 2,000 sockeye during the two-day opening. That compares to 5,700 chum
and 1,050 sockeye the previous week.
Bachman projected an above average return of sockeye to Chilkoot Lake,
and the main stem of the Chilkat River, but below average red returns to Chilkat Lake.
Chum returns were projected to be average and returning at expected strength so far.
