Sitka, Alaska, U.S.A.-based Silver Bay Seafoods recently announced the company would pause processing in Cordova for the remainder of 2026, citing low salmon forecasts.
“Silver Bay Seafoods will be buying salmon in all Prince William Sound [PWS] drift and seine fisheries in 2026, and we will continue to provide fleet services in Cordova,” Silver Bay Seafoods Chief Operating Officer Branson Spiers told the Cordova Times. “Given the low salmon forecasts in PWS, we’ve developed an operational plan that prioritizes fishermen opportunity and economics, with processing planned in Valdez and Seward.”
The move comes amid a surge in purchases for Silver Bay Seafoods. At the 2026 Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC) in Hollywood, Florida, U.S.A., consultant Tom Sunderland shared that Silver Bay Seafoods acquired a number of Alaskan facilities and companies in recent years and has a handle on the majority of the state’s canning industry.
Sunderland said salmon industry consolidation is a byproduct of “pretty tight” inventories and harvests forecasted for 2026, as compared to 2025.
Other acquisitions completed by Silver Bay Seafoods include two facilities from Rodger May in Dillingham and Port Moller, fishery support sites in Dillingham and North Naknek, False Pass, Alaska, and a Ketchikan plant from Trident Seafoods, and the final stake of OBI Seafoods.
Silver Bay Seafoods also won a large U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contract in December 2025 to produce more than 88,000 cans of pink salmon, with a contracted award of USD 7,077,272 (EUR 6,028,959).
The hiatus in processing in Cordova is temporary, as reported by the Cordova Times, and will likely be reevaluated when both 2026 harvest reports and 2027 forecast reports officially publish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) forecasted a strong pink salmon harvest in the Prince William Sound earlier this year and an “excellent” sockeye salmon run for the state’s Upper Cook Inlet.
However, ADF&G has noted that “estimating Alaska salmon runs accurately has proven a difficult task” due to the forecasts being “inherently uncertain.”
Though processing will halt this year in Cordova, the Cordova Times reported that Silver Bay Seafoods still plans to have a crew of about eight employees to provide facility operations and fleet support for Cordova fishermen. That’s down from the usual 250 people. The company will also still “provide markets and full fleet support for Cordova harvesters,” the Cordova Times reported, and most of this year’s harvest will go toward cost recovery.
