Sharply contrasting salmon run predictions in Alaska are forcing some major moves in the processing sector in advance of the 2022 season.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is estimating 75 million fish will return to Bristol Bay rivers this summer, with 60 million available for harvest. But earlier this year, ADFG reported the state’s salmon processors are expecting to buy just 52 million salmon from Bristol Bay. The record forecast has some of the region’s commercial fishermen and seafood industry groups concerned that the state’s salmon-processing capacity will be strained.
“We’re in unprecedented territory as far as what is forecast, so we never had a test like this to see how it would go,” Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association Executive Director Andy Wink told the Anchorage Daily News.
Wink said a capacity shortage that results in less fish coming to market could cost the industry as much as USD 100 million (EUR 92 million). BBRSDA is hoping processors bring in more floating-processor capacity and ensure staffing levels are adequate to handle the massive supply, it said.
“Processors, fishermen, and fishery managers are gearing up to make the most of 2022, and those efforts are highly commendable but with such a large forecast it begs the question of what happens if processors and tenders cannot keep up,” the group said.
Silver Bay Seafoods General Manager Norm Van Vactor called the prediction for a record run a “pleasant dilemma.”
“I have to believe without question that everyone is doing everything they can to maximize the efficiency and capability of plants in the region and looking at how to get extra fish out of region, like putting it on planes for fresh markets or using faster vessels to process it somewhere else,” Van Vactor said.
While Bristol Bay prepares to deal with a record bounty, other areas of Alaska have experienced declining salmon runs in recent years. The Arctic-Kuskokwim-Yukon (AYK), Chignik, and Cook Inlet fisheries saw continuing trends of dwindling salmon runs last year, and this year, ADFG is forecasting an available Upper Cook Inlet commercial harvest of roughly 1.4 million sockeye, down sharply from the 20-year average harvest of approximately 2.7 million fish. As a result, Copper River Seafoods has decided to pull out of Kenai and Kasilov in the Upper Cook Inlet.
Copper River Seafoods CEO Scott Blake said in a letter to the industry his company’s withdrawal was due to a combination of changes to the Cook Inlet management plan, rising production costs, and a poor sockeye salmon forecast. Copper River first began operations in Cook Inlet in 2019 after making an agreement with Snug Harbor Seafoods, a local Kenai Peninsula processor, and bought fish in Kenai and Kasilof last summer.
However, a new firm, Rogue Wave Processing, is moving into Copper Harbor’s facility in Kenai and will commence buying operations there this season. According to the Peninsula Clarion, the company’s operations will begin on 21 June.
Rogue Wave Processing Assistant General Manager Matt Haakenson, who previously worked as the fleet manager at Pacific Star Seafoods in Kenai, said the company, a subsidiary of Vancouver, Canada-based seafood distributor Calkins & Burke, intends to be in Kenai “for the long-term.”
“Seeing how many processors have gone away – we’ve gone from over a dozen to just two,” he told the Alaska Journal. “[If] we can pull this operation off, we’ll make sure it doesn’t drop below three.”
Pacific Star intends to continue its operation in Kenai this summer, and OBI Seafoods’ operation in Homer, which buys salmon from fishermen in Kasilof and Ninilchik, is also considered a local processor. Copper River Seafoods is leaving the area but said it will continue to operate in Prince William Sound and Bristol Bay.
Pacific Star Manager Nate Berga said his firm “ doesn’t have plans to leave Kenai any time soon,” but that his company would have found it difficult to make a profit without its cod, black cod, and halibut processing operations through the winter.
“Operating here on the peninsula has been a challenge over the last five-plus years,” he said. “Companies have to make decisions to diversify or pull out altogether.”
In Unalaska, in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the 380-foot processing vessel Northern Victor has been sold by Icicle Seafoods to Westward Seafoods, according to KUCB. The vessel’s 20-year tidal lease agreement has been transferred and the ship will now aid Westward’s existing processing operations in Unalaska.
Photo courtesy of Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association
