Wild-catch salmon fisheries had an out-of-the-ordinary year in 2018, with some fisheries experiencing booms and others suffering busts.
Wild-caught salmon represents about 28 percent of all salmon consumed globally, a proportion that has steadily fallen as salmon aquaculture has grown. About 15 percent of total consumption is composed of wild pink salmon, seven percent is keta salmon, five percent is sockeye, and the remainder is wild coho and chinook. In 2018, pink salmon production increased 38 percent to 625,000 metric tons (MT) whole fish equivalent, despite Alaskan catches shrinking from 230,000 MT in 2017 to 60,000 MT. The difference-maker was an extraordinary season in Russia, which saw its haul of pinks grow from 200,000 MT to 530,000 MT this year.
“When it came to pinks, Russia really came in and saved the day this year,” Andy Wink, the executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, said during a presentation at the Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California, U.S.A. on 16 January.
Keta production, in contrast, saw a 21 percent decline to a total worldwide catch of 213,000 MT. Wink said the drop was due to concurrent drops in catches in Alaska, Russia, and Japan.
Approximately 173,000 metric tons (MT) of sockeye salmon was caught in 2018, down one percent year-over-year. While there was a record-sized run in Bristol Bay, which represents one-third to one-half of all global sockeye production, poor harvests elsewhere in Alaska and in Russia dampened the overall total.
In regard to chinook, Alaska saw record low harvests – down 33 percent from 2017 – and the U.S. Pacific Northwest also saw lower catch totals.
“It’s very concerning because even though chinook is the lowest in terms of harvest volume, it’s obviously very valuable per pound and it’s a species that means a lot to the local populations and to sport fishermen,” Wink said.
Wink said the lower chinook harvests, and potentially the huge swings in catch totals amongst other salmon species, could be the results of drastic changes in water temperatures.
“Biologists and fisheries managers are still trying to figure out what that means and how it affects production. It doesn’t affect it in any straight-line way, but overall if you look back over last few years, seen better production in more northern areas, while it has been a little rougher going further south” Wink said. “We’ll have to see how that unfolds and hopefully we get some more research to get some more answers.”
Chinook garnered the highest price-per-pound average of all salmon species in 2017 at USD 13.25 (EUR 11.63). Sockeye salmon pulled in an average of USD 9.46 (EUR 8.31) per pound; coho brought in USD 9.05 (EUR 7.95) per pound; keta hauled in USD 6.25 (EUR 5.49) per pound, and pink salmon averaged USD 6.12 (EUR 5.37) per pound, according to information provided by the FAO, Kontali Analyse, Urner Barry, and NPD SupplyTrack.
