Sockeye salmon commercial harvests in Alaska reached 90% of the annual projection near the end of July, including 40 million reds from Bristol Bay, and Anchorage retail prices were holding at from $13.99 to $39.99 a pound.
Fishmongers at the New Sagaya seafood counter in Anchorage were also doing a brisk business in fresh troll-caught coho salmon fillets at $13.99 a pound, and whole trolled silvers from Sitka were on sale at $7.99 a pound. Shoppers at 10th & M Seafoods, another popular Anchorage fish shop, were stocking up on the sockeyes, at $13.99 a pound, with average orders of 10 to 15 pounds each, said store manager Tito Marquez. Costco warehouses in Anchorage also had their seafood display cases packed with sockeye fillets at $13.99 a pound.
The statewide preliminary Alaska commercial salmon harvest report compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game stood at over 89 million salmon as of July 29, including over 48 million sockeyes, over 30 million pinks, nearly 10 million chum, 402,000 coho, and 135,000 Chinooks.
Fisheries economist Simon Marks, who compiles in-season weekly Alaska commercial salmon harvest updates at McKinley Research Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said the annual harvest of sockeyes was expected to meet the pre-season annual projection of 53 million fish by season close.
Unlike the sockeyes, which typically peak near the start of July, pink salmon harvests tend to peak in mid-August. While early season harvest of this species was currently below 2023 levels, the harvest had only reached 20% of the annual projection, and the next several weeks would be important in gauging the trajectory of this fishery in 2025, Marks said.
Southeast Alaska has historically had the largest keta fishery by volume, but through this past week, the regional harvest was 53% below a year ago.
On a statewide basis year-to-date, the sockeye harvest was up 20% and the coho harvest by 13%, while the Chinook harvest was down 59% the humpy harvest by 33% and the keta harvest by 22%, Marks noted.
