Commercial fishers harvesting from Alaska’s Upper Cook Inlet saw an above average season in 2025, with a run of 12 million sockeye salmon – 74 percent higher than the preseason forecast.
“The performance of individual stocks varied but all stocks returned in greater than forecasted numbers,” the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) said in its summary of the 2025 season.
Commercial fishers harvested 3.7 million of those fish, 60 percent higher than the average annual harvest of the last 20 years. Fishers were able to collect an average of USD 1.73 (EUR 1.51) per pound for their sockeye, leading to an exvessel value of USD 35.8 million (EUR 31.2 million).
Despite the above average sockeye run and harvest, all other salmon harvests in the region were down in 2025.
With just 128 fish caught, the commercial king salmon harvest was the lowest on record and 98 percent below the 20-year average of 8,217 fish.
“Low commercial harvest of king salmon corresponds to low abundance trends and restricted fishing effort observed this season” ADF&G noted in its report.
The commercial coho salmon harvest was 31 percent below the 20-year average, with 112,965 fish caught. Fishers were able to collect USD 0.77 (EUR 0.67) per pound on average, resulting in an exvessel value of USD 339,431 (EUR 295,550) – 53 percent below average. The commercial pink salmon harvest was 40,532 fish – 51 percent below average – and resulted in an exvessel value of USD 44,261 (EUR 38,539) with an average price of USD 0.35 (EUR 0.30) per pound. The chum salmon harvest was also down 13 percent, with 109,952 fish caught. Fishers were able to collect an average of USD 0.38 (EUR 0.33) per pound for a total exvessel value of USD 264,710 (EUR 230,490).
Still, the strong sockeye numbers helped carry the exvessel value of all salmon caught in the Upper Cook Inlet to USD 36.4 million (EUR 31.7 million), a 57 percent increase over the 20-year average. Sockeye has accounted for 91 percent of the area’s exvessel value over the last 20 years, according to ADF&G, and in 2025 sockeye represented 98 percent of the value.
The total Upper Cook Inlet harvest of 4 million salmon was 41 percent higher than the 20-year average. At the same time, participation was nearly 30 percent lower than average, with just 622 permits making deliveries.
