Commercial fishing for Copper River red salmon in the Gulf of Alaska has been closed since June 11, but the scramble for the celebrated sockeyes remains hot, at from $14.99 to $34.99 a pound in Pacific Northwest retail markets.
The best price as of June 17 was $14.99 a pound for fresh Copper River red fillets atCostco stores in Anchorage, where sales were closing in on 200 pounds for the day. Of the two seafood retail shops, New Sagaya was sold out of Copper River reds and 10th & M Seafoods was selling all Alaska red salmon fillets, including the Copper River catch, at $19.95 a pound, while online Anchorage seafood shop FishEx was offering its Copper River sockeye portions for $29.95 a pound.
The famed Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle had limited availability on its supply of Copper River reds at $34.99 a pound and whole Alaska sockeyes for $99.99.
Through June 13 Alaska commercial fishermen caught an estimated 1.1 million salmon, about 1 percent of the total projected harvest, according to McKinley Research Group, which compiles weekly reports for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute during the salmon season.
The statewide Alaska salmon harvest forecast for all five species this year is 120 million fish, a lower forecast than last year's harvest for sockeye, keta, coho and Chinook salmon, but higher than the historically poor 2024 pink salmon harvest.
Pink salmon returns tend to fluctuate between larger in odd numbered years and smaller in even numbered years because the fish has a two-year life cycle.
Commercial fisheries in the Copper River District opened on May 22. Since then about 227,000 sockeyes were caught, similar to the 2025 harvest to date, over five open periods. Most of the rest of the Prince William Sound harvest was in the Eshamy District in Western Prince William Sound. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game forecast a harvest of about 1.6 million Copper River sockeyes this year, an average run size.
In the Alaska Peninsula the early season keta harvest and sockeye harvest are up from a year ago.
