Copper River salmon a bust?

Is the famed Copper River sockeye shery a bust this year, or are the sh just late? A third scheduled “opener” for the shing near Cordova was cancelled after the rst two openers were ops, with a frac- tion of the predicted sh netted. Fisheries experts think the salmon could be running later due to a
cold spring and cool ocean temperatures, but they just don’t know. About 500 vessels were on hand for the opening of the shery, but those are now mostly idled. Meanwhile, other salmon sheries are opening in Prince William Sound on May 31, Kodiak on June 9, and shing in other regions soon after.

What worries sheries managers is that poor ocean conditions that may have affected the Copper River run may also affect other sockeye sheries. One upside is that the Copper River king salmon run appears on target, with an expected catch of 43,000.

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Seafood exports set a record

Alaska seafood exports set a record last year at 1.1 billion tons worth $3.45 billion. Markets are looking strong this year, with the salmon inventory down, the dollar down a bit in currency markets (which helps our sh sell), and a medium-size harvest expected in Alaska this year – 149 million sh, down 34 percent from last year. The decline in 2018 is in the relative- ly low-value pink salmon (half as many as last year), while the high-value sockeye catch looks to remain nearly as high as 2017, including in Bristol Bay.

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Life in the Bay: Pizza by water!

There will be waterborne pizza delivery in Bristol Bay during the busy 2018 shing season, which gets underway in late June. The Aleutians Marketplace Competition awarded one of its cash prizes to a local entrepreneur to deliver pizza by skiff from an Island Packing Co. tender as the larger vessel made its rounds. The award will be used to equip the vessel for on-board pizza-making.