Alaska’s 2017 Copper River salmon season opened last week with chefs and restaurateurs from all over the United States showing the customary eager anticipation, and the first fish to market commanding very high prices.
Local media covering the first fresh Copper River king salmon of the season to arrive in Seattle via Alaska Airlines reported very high prices for the fish – in excess of USD 60 (EUR 53.73) per pound, with fillets initially commanding USD 75 (EUR 67.16) per pound on the iconic Pike Place Fish Market.
On the eve of the opening, Alaska’s Board of Fisheries voted not to take emergency action to further restrict the commercial king salmon fleet. Biologists have predicted the worst king run in 20 years on the river and this forecast triggered certain fishing restrictions, but despite calls to further tighten the rules by the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the state fish board voted 4-3 against such a move.
Every year from May through September, king, sockeye and coho salmon return to the Copper River to make the 300-mile journey up turbulent, glacial fed waters to spawn in their birthplace. The fish are caught at the mouth of the Copper River when their fat content and nutritional value is considered to be at their peak.
Last year, an estimated 12,812 Copper River king salmon reached their spawning grounds, about half the state’s escapement goal. This year’s preseason forecast for the king run is 29,000 fish, the lowest since 1985.
Fishery managers therefore expect just 4,000 kings to be caught this season, along with 889,000 sockeye and 207,000 coho salmon.
Alaska’s total salmon catch for 2017 is estimated at 204 million fish, almost 1 million more than in 2016, comprising 41 million sockeye, 5 million coho, 142 million pinks, 17 million chum and a catch of 80,000 kings in regions outside of Southeast Alaska, where the harvest is determined by a treaty with Canada.
The all-gear king salmon catch for the Southeast in 2017 is 209,700 fish, which is 146,000 fewer than last year.
