Alaska Governor Bill Walker has sent a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, requesting that federal government declare a disaster for four of the state’s regions hurt by one of the poorest pink salmon catches in decades.
The correspondence highlighted that salmon fishing in the Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet and Chignik areas had failed and that the fishermen dependent upon these fisheries for their livelihood had been significantly impacted. Walker also urged the soonest possible review by the government because of the fisheries’ economic importance.
According to local reports, fishing at Kodiak remained closed during 70 percent of the pink salmon run and the catch of 3.2 million represented just 28 percent of the expected harvest. Walker estimated the value to the fishermen would be just over USD 2.2 million (EUR 2 million), compared with a five-year average of more than USD 14.6 million (EUR 13 million).
The total pink catch at Prince William Sound was 12 million, 46 percent lower than the pre-season forecast, while the dockside value of USD 6.6 million (EUR 5.9 million), compared with a five-year average of nearly USD 44 million (EUR 39.1 million).
Lower Cook Inlet’s pink salmon catch of 97,000 was just 13 percent of the forecast, earning fishermen USD 78,000 (EUR 69,273), compared with the recent average of USD 501,000 (EUR 444,969).
Chignik fishermen didn’t get any directed openers for pink salmon this summer, while the pinks taken during the region’s sockeye fishery were valued at USD 110,000 (EUR 97,699), down from the five-year average of USD 740,000 (EUR 657,249).
Should the pink salmon disaster declaration occur, it would not set a precedent as Alaska has received USD 20.8 million (EUR 18.5 million) in federal money for fishery failures following three years of low king salmon returns on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers and in the Cook Inlet region.
