Smaller salmon, fewer of them and reduced prices paid by buyers dropped the gross value of the Lynn Canal gillnet harvest to its lowest point in at least five years.
Based on figures from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the value of the Lynn Canal gillnet fishery was $4.5 million in 2015, less than half of a $10.7 million season in 2014.
Fisherman Stuart DeWitt said that means “there were a lot of $40,000 seasons” instead of $80,000 ones. Subtracting out expenses, that doesn’t amount to much take-home pay, DeWitt said.
“I think it will be tight for a lot of people. Fishermen are always broke in the spring. Now they’re going to be broke around Christmastime,” DeWitt said.
The smaller size of chum and sockeye salmon – the drivers of the fishery here – also played a factor. At 6.96 pounds, the average chum caught in 2015 was 2.5 pounds smaller than last year’s average chum. The average weight of a sockeye dropped from 6.64 to 5.85 pounds.
Buyers’ prices tumbled across the board, including chum, 52 cents per pound from 62 cents in 2014; sockeye, $1.19 cents per pound from $1.81 in 2014; pinks, 18 cents per pound from 30 cents in 2014; and coho, 75 cents per pound from $1.03 in 2014.
The total number of salmon harvested in Lynn Canal, 1,618,570, was down only 20,000 from last year’s total, but the near parity was due to strong catches of pinks, the smallest and least profitable of the salmon caught here.
Fishermen had a harder time catching the more profitable sockeye and chum, even when they seemed to be sitting on top of them. Some gillnetters said Chilkat-bound sockeye “ran deep” under their nets, as 135,000 spawning reds returned to Chilkat Lake, reaching the upper side of the 70,000 to 150,000 goal Fish and Game sets to ensure future returns.
Commercial fisheries biologist Mark Sogge, however, cited fewer storms that bring sockeye to the surface, making them easier to catch. A single storm can amount to harvest of as many as 30,000 fish, he said. “I wouldn’t say they’re going deep. I’d say they react differently to different weather conditions.”
Fisherman Gary Graham said chum and coho fishing in September was the worst he’s seen in years. “For being able to fish the whole month, three days a week, we couldn’t hardly catch them.”
Biologist Sogge estimated this year’s wild chum harvest at 37,000 and escapement at 211,000, on the upper side of the state’s escapement goal of 75,000 to 250,000 fish. At a meeting last week, gillnetters asked Sogge if the commercial season couldn’t be extended into October to capitalize on late-run coho and chum.
Graham has fished here 30 years and operates a retail business in Seattle. For him, the lean season means “he won’t have much left over” after paying expenses, and not enough to make his annual contribution to the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation.
“This year I won’t be able to give anything… We’ve had a lot of good years. Every now and then you have a bad year. You just have to tough it through,” Graham said, adding the downturn will be harder on fishermen whose boats and permits aren’t paid off.
The question for fishermen is whether lower prices and reduced harvests will become the norm. Chum salmon represent 66 percent of the total value of this year’s fishery and 96 percent of the 836,463 chums caught in the canal originated in Juneau’s DIPAC hatchery. Last year’s catch totaled 1.29 million chums.
The shrinking size of hatchery chum – wild chum this year averaged 8.2 pounds – accounted for about a $1.1 million loss, using this year’s prices, but the drop in number of chums harvested – 454,633 – also was significant.
DIPAC executive director Eric Prestegard said the downturn is relative to about five high years of strong hatchery returns and high prices. “We’re coming off some pretty historic numbers. The last four to five years were really historically high for us… Overall, it was still pretty good when you look at the past 10 years.”
Prestegard said he couldn’t explain the drop in size and return of hatchery chums, but said size of the fish seems to be cyclical. He said the hatchery would issue an assessment of the season and forecast for next year in the coming weeks.
Fisherman Cynde Adams said the future of DIPAC chums is “incredibly” important to her – “The hatchery built my house and puts fuel in my car” – but the drop in size of this year’s fish and the reduced numbers aren’t a big concern for her yet.
In her 16 years of gillnetting here, she said she’s seen a drop in hatchery chum size before. “I don’t know if it’s an evolution or something in the ocean environment (but) I haven’t seen a pattern yet that disturbs me.”
The local sockeye harvest of 132,000 compared to 231,000 in 2014 and a 10-year average harvest of 129,000. A coho catch of 23,127 compared to a 2014 harvest of 24,366 and a 10-year average harvest of 43,000.
Only 33,000 of the sockeye harvested were from Chilkat Lake, compared to a longtime average harvest of 80,000 Chilkat sockeye. “We’re not doing well in terms of meeting the long-term harvest,” biologist Sogge said. About 71,222 reds escaped into Chilkoot Lake, on the high side of an escapement range of 38,000 to 86,000 sockeye.
Sport fish biologist Brian Elliott, who tracks coho returns in Haines, said escapements of 50,000 coho this year and 130,000 last year compare to an escapement goal of 30,000 to 70,000 coho. Gillnet catches of coho can vary widely from week to week, Elliott said.
This year’s harvest of 626,548 pink salmon (compared to 90,139 harvested in 2014) coincides with a strong, statewide harvest that occurs every other year. Pinks contributed $477,969 to the value of this year’s fishery. The 10-year average harvest is 180,000 pinks.
“It’s just sad the (pink) value wasn’t higher for fishermen,” said biologist Sogge.
On a positive note, commercial fishermen apparently intercepted fewer Chilkat king salmon, a species that can be harvested only in the sport fishery. The reported harvest in the canal dropped from 1,274 to 432. Area gillnet closures to protect kings apparently worked, biologist Elliott said.