Strong global and U.S. demand for sockeye salmon has pushed prices to near record highs and boosted fishermen’s paychecks. Silver Bay and Peter Pan Seafoods a few weeks ago increased their base prices to fishermen to $1.45 per pound, a 20-cent increase from the summer, and other Alaska companies are likely to follow suit. That compares to a final price in 2020 of just $1.06.
If the forecasts are close to accurate, this year’s Bristol Bay sockeye run won’t be a record for long. Biology teams with University of Washington and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game both expect more than 70 million sockeye to return to Bristol Bay for the first time in recorded history.
Observations of Chignik’s changing ecology
The salmon runs to the Chignik River have been low for the fourt year in a row. There is no clear understanding of what environmental factors have contributed to the extremely low salmon runs over the past four years. But people there have noticed changes to the local ecosystem.
Alvin Pedersen is a retired fisherman who has lived in Chignik Lagoon his whole life. He conducted research with the University of Washington in Black and Chignik lakes, trapping sockeye through the ice.
“We didn’t find a whole lot of sockeye, so the oxygen levels were low, and they thought a lot of the fish had moved on were not overwintering up there,” he said.