The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has reported a near-average commercial salmon season in Prince William Sound, with chum salmon catch exceeding the preseason forecast and the pink salmon catch falling short of expectations.
In total, ADF&G reported a harvest of 51.6 million salmon from Prince William Sound in 2025, 41.8 million of which were caught for commercial use and 9.8 million for hatchery cost recovery and broodstock. That resulted in an estimated value of USD 90.9 million (EUR 78.7 million) – 3 percent below the 10-year average of USD 93.7 million (EUR 81.2 million).
“This near-average value can largely be attributed to Eastern District hatchery pink salmon, Copper River District sockeye salmon, and Port Chalmers Subdistrict remote release hatchery chum salmon, along with hatchery cost recovery chum and pink salmon fisheries,” ADF&G said in its season summary.
While a majority of the value from the Prince William Sound salmon fisheries came from the purse seine fishery – which reported an ex-vessel value of USD 38.9 million (EUR 33.7 million) for their harvest – drift gillnet fishers contributed USD 29.9 million (EUR 25.9 million) in ex-vessel value and the set gillnet fishery contributed USD 1 million (EUR 866,223).
ADF&G also reported that USD 20.9 million (EUR 18.1 million) in revenue was generated for hatchery operations.
The state had initially forecast a run of 18.6 million wild pink salmon – 8 percent above average – along with 20 million hatchery fish from the Valdez Fisheries Development Association (VFDA) and 28 million from the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation (PWSAC). About 18 percent of the hatchery fish was projected for cost recovery and broodstock, leaving approximately 56 million fish available for commercial harvest.
However, the actual commercial harvest ended up being far lower. Prince William Sound commercial fishers were able to catch 36.7 million pink salmon – 35 percent below the forecast. A majority of those fish – 24.3 million – were VFDA fish, 6.5 million were wild, and 5.9 million were from PWSAC. Though the VFDA pink salmon run was 30 percent higher than expected, the wild salmon harvest was 65 percent below forecast and the PWSAC pink salmon run of 12.3 million fish was 56 percent below forecast.
ADF&G also reported the lowest number of purse seine vessels participating in the fishery since 2010. According to the state, just 174 vessels reported at least one delivery.
Commercial fishers did have a more successful chum salmon season in 2025, harvesting 3.5 million fish – 78 percent above the forecast of 1.9 million. Most of the chum salmon run is made up of hatchery fish from PWSAC, with ADF&G estimating that just 243,000 of the fish harvested commercially were wild stock, significantly below the preseason estimate of 443,000 fish.
