One dollar in three earned in Alaska’s salmon harvest was earned in Southeast Alaska this year.
Southeast was also the most productive region in number of fish and pounds of fish, hauling in 73.5 million fish weighing 324.5 million pounds.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game has compiled its preliminary estimate of the value of the 2011 Alaska commercial salmon harvest.
Regionally, Southeast Alaska enjoyed the most valuable salmon harvest in the state, worth more than $203 million. Bristol Bay, usually the most valuable salmon fishery in the state, came in second with a harvest worth $137 million. And Prince William Sound took third with a harvest worth $101 million.
Salmon harvests the last two years are among the largest in the last 30 years — $603 million in 2011 and approximately $540 million in 2010.
Alaska fishermen harvested 176 million salmon in 2011, short of pre-season predictions. However, high prices buoyed overall harvest values.
“High prices for all species, especially pink and chum salmon, pushed the value of the harvest to an extraordinary level,” according to Geron Bruce, Division of Commercial Fisheries
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• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (12)
Add commentSE is Tops - Without the USFS
SE Alaska and the Tongass national forest are the best remaining natural salmon habitat in the world. The best way to sustain this top salmon, bear, bird and sea mammal habitat is to end all logging on US Forest Service lands.
Hatchery fish
I wonder what proportion of that catch was from hatchery fish? Note that the high price of pink and chum were key.
Chip, your response is as extreme as the loggers who want to clearcut every old growth tree out there like in the 'good old days'. Neither of you offer real world solutions and should be ignored. Sorry.
Salmon catch in SE
The closest hatchery to Tenakee Inlet is Hidden falls, and I don't think they produce near the number of pinks that were caught in and near Tenakee last year. The Hidden falls chum run was pretty much a bust also.
Maybe...
Just a thought...
I wonder how it would affect the salmon/halibut/herring harvests if we made commercial and/or charter fishermen take one year in every three or five off? How would it affect the stocks if they were completely untouched except by the sports/subsistance fishermen every few years or so?
Chip, I'm with Latitude. /ignore
Our state needs to do far
Our state needs to do far more than it does to protect and enhance our fisheries and outdoor recreational activities as an economic engine for our state.
Our state is far to wrapped up seeking to fulfil agendas that line the pockets of "outside corporate interests" of the timber , oil, gas, and mining industries, that have no problem destroying the very culture of "our" state.
USFS
You are certainly right about doing without USFS Chip. I seem to recall that Alaska's salmon industry is a prime example of gross federal mismanagement.
In 1959 the State Of Alaska took control of Alaska's fish and game from the federal government and inherited a largely decimated salmon stock in southeast. through world class management practices by the state that stock and it's associated fishery have recovered to the point that the ten largest annual catches of salmon in southeast have occurred in the last twenty years. Oddly, this occurred at a time when any impact from poor logging practices in the tongass should have had a significant impact on salmon returns.
money tree
Our fisheries are our money tree. If we prune the tree with care, it'll keep producing food and jobs. Let's not foul our nest like others have.
There are a few timber sales in Southeast that actually benefit local fellers, millers, and finishers. Those sales are the anomalies, but they shouldn't be. If we are to have a timber program, we should focus more on sales designed for small, local businesses to be competitive in the bidding process. The trees are felled in a more responsible manner, and more logs stay in the region for processing. There's no point in continuing the unsustainable clearcut regime, thus degrading habitat, so a couple short-sighted companies can bring up crews from Oregon, only to ship half of the logs to Asia and the other half to Washington, leaving SE in the same old boom and bust routine.
Pebble
Good thing Pebble doesn't want to build their mine here in SE.
Our local communities should
Our local communities should maintain and market our natural resources in sustainable ways as a way to protect our environment and our culture.
Greenpeace funded a study by a resource economist, comparing the economic costs and benefits of industrial logging to those of a small scale development.
The report found that the cash value to local communities of small scale options, such as eco-forestry, fishing, tourism, carving and other crafts, food and building materials, was at least three times more than the destructive industrial options.
Small scale options give landowners more direct control of their resources, distribute benefits more fairly and do not expose them to the high risk of fluctuations in international commodity markets.
pebble
Nuttjobjo doesn't even make sense because there are two mines here that i imagine he is against, yet no poor dead fish. Why dont you get off your soapbox and wash off the patchouli.
Responsible cultivation
There are a lot of contributors here that stand for fishing but hate mining/logging. Aren't they the same? We need responsible resource extraction with a recovery plan. They can co-exist, and yes this is our core income producer. Perhaps we need vigilance with logging as we have done with fishing. Mainly, replant what you cut (Kake) so there is more for the future. But an accomplishment nontheless. Far more prosperous than gov't subsidized solar panels. Yes, fish and lumber is something we can sell to the Chinese AND make a profit!
gov't subsidized
Quit whining about solar panels, Jim. Or at least be honest and include the $2 Billion the oil companies got in government subsidies this year rather than just parroting Fox talking points.