Near record runs of pinks and a strong coho harvest were the highlights of the Norton Sound commercial salmon fishery, which saw its chum harvest ending up less than half of the season forecast.
The sockeye harvest, although representing a small part of the overall total, was the second highest in the region’s history at 2,635 fish. However, the king salmon run was again poor and so commercial fishing targeting the species was not allowed, said the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).
Norton Sound’s combined commercial harvest of all salmon species – 365,452 fish – ranked third highest in the last 10 seasons, while the fishery ex-vessel value of USD 1,237,229 (EUR 1,156,009) ranked fourth highest and was the sixth time in the last seven years that the value exceeded USD 1 million (EUR 934,353).
The pink catch of 208,745 fish accounted for the majority of the 2016 harvest, although the catch was an incidental harvest during the larger mesh openings targeting chum and coho. The coho catch of 102,722 fish was 23 percent above the five-year average and the seventh time the harvest exceeded 100,000 fish in the 56-year history of the fishery. But the chum catch of 51,167 fish was less than half the recent five-year average.
Only one salmon buyer operated in Norton Sound during the 2016 season. The Unalakleet fish plant operated by Norton Sound Seafood Products (NSSP) was the base of commercial fisheries operations. Salmon were delivered to the Unalakleet dock and also tendered from all other subdistricts, except from the Nome Subdistrict. The Nome Subdistrict catch was processed at the NSSP plant in Nome.
The average price paid for king salmon was USD 2.45 (EUR 2.29) per pound, while USD 0.90 (EUR 0.84) was paid for sockeye, USD 1.39 (EUR 1.30) for coho, USD 0.10 (EUR 0.09) for pinks and USD 0.48 (EUR 0.45) for chum.
