I worry the most when times are good. That might be true for commercial fishermen too. Take pinks. If you hold a Southeast purse seiner permit, it brought in an average of $454,190 in 2011 and $313,658 in 2012. That number is going to be even higher for 2013, when Alaska fishermen harvested a record-breaking 219 million humpies.

We should all have that problem, right? That's a lot of cash, but the amount has caused a glut of product.

"We don't have any marketing going on with this canned salmon. It's a problem that the industry has at the moment," Bruce Schactler of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said at the Pacific Marine Expo in November.

What I like about Alaskans is they don't just talk about problems, they take action. Schactler said the industry has committed several million dollars to address this concern. As Schactler, also a commercial fisherman, explained, "We're very fortunate here in Alaska that we have a marketing association like that where we can actually get up and make something happen."

Marketing efforts are good news for the industry, but I hope pinks aren't elevated too high (if that's the intention). I like pink canned salmon. I like that I can throw it in an omelet or a frittata without a lot of planning or expense. I was happy to see that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to buy $20 million of canned pink salmon for food assistance programs.

I know more pinks are being flash-frozen and sent to Asia for processing. I hope they also stay in the can. We may not be getting top dollar for pinks that go to food pantrys, but I think those efforts will put them in the minds of more people looking for a protein to feed their families who will realize it's cheaper than chicken and healthier than ground beef. That's not a bad place to be.

I am writing a story about pinks for the next issue of Seafood Business magazine (a sister publication of National Fisherman aimed at seafood buyers). If you have any thoughts about the future for pinks, I'd love to hear from you.

Permit holder statistics from the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. Photo by Jessica Hathaway