Halibut harvests headed lower?
Halibut harvest quotas will likely be headed lower, based on fisheries survey data and analyses of the 2019 harvest provided to the International Pacific Halibut Commission, or IPHC. Halibut stocks are down 4 percent and the average weight of individual fish is down 5 percent. The numbers of spawning halibut continue to be down, continuing a multi-year trend, scientists told the Commission, which met in Seattle. The IPHC will set harvest quotas in February. Halibut sell for a high prices and are not only important for commercial fisheries but also sports fish charter operators, who are important to the economy of small coastal communities particularly during the summer tourist season. More restrictions on halibut harvests may also affect numbers of the fish made available for small local halibut fisheries in the Bering Sea, such as one operated from St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands.

2020: More sockeye, fewer pinks
State fisheries scientists are forecasting another strong Bristol Bay sockeye salmon harvest in 2020 based on a predicted run of 49 million fish, 6 percent up from the 10-year average. Bristol Bay has seen record sockeye runs for the past two years, with more than 50 million in 2019 and 62.5 million in 2018. Only part of the returning salmon are harvested because state fishery managers must ensure enough “escapement” of returning adults to streams for spawning. While the Bristol Bay outlook is good the forecast for Southeast Alaska is not so good, with pink salmon returns, and harvests, expected to be depressed for a third year due mainly to summer drought and higher temperatures in the region.

The Bristol Bay red king crab season ended with a harvest slightly under 3.8 million pounds. Crabs averaged 7.1 pounds each, the heaviest since 1973. However, crabs caught averaged 15.6 per pot, down from about 20 on average over the last two seasons.

Salmon permits rise, fall
Regional variations in salmon harvests have, not surprisingly, boosted or depressed the value of salmon limited-entry permits being bought and sold by harvesters, brokers who aid in sales of the permits are reporting. Bristol Bay driftnet permit values are up to $200,000, an increase over prices in the mid-$190,000 range last year, fisheries writer Laine Welch writes in her column on seafood. Prices in fisheries along the Alaska Peninsula rose to as high as $240,000. On the other hand, in Cook Inlet where harvests have been poor the permit values have dropped from a high of $40,000 to around $25,000. Prince William Sound seine permit prices appear stable in the $175,000 range with driftnet permits in the $145,000 range. Southeast driftnet prices are declining gradually from $90,000 to the mid-$80,000 range, but seine fishing permits appear to be holding steady in the $230,000 range.

Salmon permit values are important because the bulk of harvesters are independent small business operators and a permit is a cost of entry to the business for young fishers, and an asset for existing operators.

Mariculture small, but growing
Alaska’s small mariculture, or sea farming, industry continues to grow, as measured by number of new applications for state leases for aquatic farms. In 2016 there were four applications, but then 47 over the following three years through 2019. Applications were for oysters, seaweed farming, or both. Significantly, two major seafood operators, Ocean Beauty and Silver Bay Seafoods, are now involved in the industry. Larger firms have access to more capital and can leverage support from existing infrastructure in conventional seafood plants. Kelp growers in Kodiak harvested 90,000 pounds last year after a six-month undersea growing season and were paid 45 cents a pound for sugar kelp and 90 cents a pound for ribbon kelp.