The commercial salmon season in Southeast Alaska is mostly done. And while managers say enough fish made it to most spawning grounds, commercial harvests were low for most species. Pink salmon – the bread and butter for some fishermen – were much lower than predicted.
Pink salmon run on a two-year life cycle and odd years like this one normally see strong returns, but that’s not what happened this year.
“Having a poor odd year like this is especially unexpected,” said Troy Thynes, who manages commercial salmon fishing in Southeast for the state Department of Fish and Game. “As it turns out, this will likely be the lowest harvest in an odd year since, you know, the late 80s.”
Pink salmon harvest numbers are down across the state this season compared to the last odd year. Fishermen like seiners and gillnetters rely on pink salmon, which return to the region in the millions – more are harvested than any other species. Nearly 59 million pinks were harvested in Southeast back in 2011, which was a record year. And this year, state managers projected a harvest of 29 million fish, but it’s coming in about nine million short.
“It was a disappointing season,” said Phil Doherty, the executive director of the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association and a former long-time biologist for the state. “Without a doubt, everyone was hoping for, you know, a bigger return and bigger catches, but it just didn’t happen. It looked as if, when we got going in the season, there were some pretty good catches coming in early, but it was very spotty, and it continued to be spotty.”
Most commercial fishermen sell to large processors and get paid at the end of the season. So, it’s still unknown how valuable the region’s pink fishery will be. In recent years, pinks have brought about 35 cents per pound. But every year it depends on supply and demand.
“Obviously, that’s kind of the bottom line – you know, how much money fishermen make,” Doherty said. “They certainly like to catch a lot of fish, but you know, the bottom line is, how much money do they make after this season?”
Lots of variables affect salmon runs. Most of what scientists can track happens in freshwater systems, whereas the ocean is more of a mystery. Then there’s the weather. Although Southeast is a rainforest, late August and early September saw below-average rainfall for much of the region. Some areas had no rain at all for nearly three weeks. Low water prevents salmon from entering streams to spawn. And fish there already face a lack of oxygen if they’re crowded.
Thynes worries about that.
“Primarily, right now, it’s going to affect our pink salmon, and then possibly to a lesser extent, sockeye salmon,” he said. “The sockeye in the region, for the most part, are inlet spawners. So they spawn in the inlets to lakes.”
Doherty worries about the dry period too.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about that,” Doherty said. “But it’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.”
But they’re both hoping that recent rainfall will make a difference.
Another valuable fishery in Southeast Alaska is chum salmon – mostly from hatcheries – and those harvests also fell short of expectations. There was a pulse early in the season, but it petered out.
Fish and Game will release its final analysis of the salmon season this winter.
