The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is forecasting both a strong pink salmon harvest and a strong chum salmon harvest in the Prince William Sound this year, with both expected to be 14 percent above the recent 10-year average for even years.
The official forecast predicts a wild pink salmon harvest of 3.9 million for the Prince William Sound, which would fall below last year’s 5.9 million pink salmon harvested.
For chum salmon in the Prince William Sound, the department predicts a run of 586,000 fish, which after accounting for escapement goals, would result in a harvest point estimate of 413,000 fish.
The projections follow a year in which the Prince William Sound purse seine commercial salmon harvest totaled 36.5 million pink salmon, 740,000 chum salmon, 55,100 sockeye salmon, 166,000 coho salmon, and 206 Chinook salmon.
Statewide, the ADF&G said that sockeye salmon comprised over half of the state’s commercial ex-vessel value in 2025, with a total value of USD 315 million (EUR 267 million), and 27 percent of harvest volume totals, with 53 million fish. Pink salmon accounted for 21 percent of the overall ex-vessel total at USD 114 million (EUR 96.5 million) while making up 61 percent of the total harvest, with 119 million harvested. Chum salmon made up about 14 percent of the total value at USD 78 million (EUR 66 million) and 10 percent of the harvest with 20 million harvested.
The ADF&G also reported that “the 2025 commercial harvest was 9 percent lower than the preseason harvest projection of 214.6 million fish.”
