Red carpets and Alaskan Airlines Boeing jets painted with sockeye salmon livery welcomed the first shipment of Copper River salmon from Cordova, Alaska, U.S.A. to Seattle’s Tacoma International Airport last week.
Prices for Copper River salmon are expected to increase dramatically due to fewer fish than usual caught because of abnormally cold water temperatures.
The season was open for only 12 hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on 17 May. Subsequent openings for Copper River fishing will be announced later in the season. Forecasters expected 19,000 Copper River king salmon and 942,000 Copper River sockeye salmon to be harvested this year, and the harvest was projected to be down between 20 and 30 percent from last year. As a result, prices were expected to rise 10 percent, though many Seattle-area fishmongers strove to keep prices down.
Seattle, which relishes the prized fish and uses its arrival to mark the start of the summer months, serves as the distribution point for Copper River salmon and more than 16,000 pounds were received initially on 17 May, with 48,000 additional pounds of salmon being flown in on Alaska Airlines flights later in the day.
While much of the fish remains in Seattle, the Sea-Tac International Airport is the hub from which the salmon is distributed across the country. A number of local chefs partook in a Copper River cook-off on the tarmac, where the freshly flown in fish was used in a variety of recipes.
Industry experts were projecting prices of up to USD 60 (EUR 51.2) per pound, with Copper River king salmon being spotted at Seattle’s famed Pike Place market selling for USD 58 (EUR 49.5) per pound.
Copper River sockeye fillets were slightly cheaper at USD 35 (EUR 29.9) per pound. However, the high prices were not keeping buyers away; vendors at Pike Place Market received 1,600 pounds of the fish and sold out.
