Sunday was the first opener of the commercial salmon fishing season. The runs in Lynn Canal are predicted to be strong, but the prices are low.
The Lynn canal gillnetting fleet headed out on Sunday to stretch their nets for the first opener of the season.
Davis: “I thought it was a pretty good opener.”
Matt Davis owns and operates the gillnetter the Aftermath.
Davis: “One of the things about it is the weather was just really what you would not want for gillnetting. It was super calm, and super sunny, and warm. And so typically we don’t look forward to those kinds of days, because the fishing is often very poor when it is like that. But the fishing wasn’t super poor, I was pretty happy with it.”
Fishing was restricted by night closures and a six-inch maximum mesh size to protect chinook salmon. Despite those restrictions, the fleet overall did well.
Zeiser: “It looks really good for chum salmon, it started off really great, the harvest was above average.”
Nicole Zeiser is the Haines area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Zeiser: “And sockeye are still running a little slow, but the overall harvest was above the ten year average.
Zeiser says the local runs are predicted to be strong this year.
Zeiser: “For the first time in several years the forecast is to be within the escapement goals. So we’ll see if that pans out. But so far, it looks like it’s going to be a good fishing year.”
Zeiser says she is already seeing a good number of fish trapped in the fish wheels on the Chilkat River, and that the sockeye have already reached Chilkat Lake. On the other hand, the run hasn’t really started at the nearby Chilkoot River. As of Wednesday, 15 fish had been counted, a small portion of the thousands that usually pass by this time of year.
Zeiser: “I think the Chilkoot fish are waiting, the river is still really clear and cold, and low, so maybe that is why they are holding off. But the fishery caught a fair amount of sockeye salmon, which tells me they are on the way.”
The runs may be good, but the prices aren’t.
Davis: “The price this year is the big disappointment.”
Fisherman Matt Davis says he sold his fish at half the price from last year. He got a dollar a pound for sockeye and 40 cents a pound for chum.
Davis: “I don’t think it’s because the fish are any worse than last year. I think Bristol Bay had a bumper crop last year. I’ve heard that there is over 70 million pounds of fish still frozen and in the warehouses of the fish brokers down in the lower 48. And that’s keeping our demand for the fish kind of low right now.”
But Davis is optimistic.
Davis: “I think it’s going to be a good season and I’ll be happy with it in the end.”
The Lynn Canal commercial fishery will reopen on Sunday at noon, for two days, with the same restrictions.
