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KODIAK -- Salmon fishermen at Bristol Bay were bracing for another surge of reds over the July 4 weekend -- and likely more catch limits.
The peak of the sockeye run is on its way, said Susie Jenkins on Friday. Jenkins is a "company liaison" at the state Department of Fish and Game office in Dillingham, where she is in daily contact with fishermen and processors. The second pulse of fish gives processing crews barely enough time to catch their breath after last week's huge haul of 10 million reds, taken throughout the bay in about three days. The major processing companies were unable to handle the glut of fish, and last Sunday, the earliest date ever, they put fishermen on catch limits; some suspended buying altogether. The first run of sockeye salmon arrived several days early and seemed to catch some processors off guard, Jenkins said, plus "all the bays were hitting at the same time, so they were getting it from all sides." "The fishermen are angry. All winter long we've been told the processors have the capacity to handle large runs. The fishermen have been told they are going to work hard to keep them off limits and bring more tenders into the bay. This is the sixth season in a row that they've gone on limits, and they've been caught unprepared. "When this peak comes, this is the time for these guys to make money. This is the time for them to catch fish. And the bulk of the run is going past their nets and they're only allowed to catch 4,000 pounds? They can catch that in an hour," Jenkins said. A study last year by the Juneau-based McDowell Group found that 37 million fish worth $131 million to fishermen went unharvested at Bristol Bay in the past five years. In the 2009 processor survey, 13 companies said they could handle the projected catch of 24 million sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay this summer. A 3 percent boost in tendering capacity was also added to haul excess fish to King Cove and Kodiak plants. But it still doesn't seem to be enough, agreed Cora Crome, fisheries aide to the governor. "We have a consistent pattern in the bay where it's clear that there is a need out there for a little bit more processing right at the peak," Crome said last year after a "foregone harvest" of 3 million harvestable red salmon swam away upstream. Fishermen for years have urged the state to let foreign companies come into the bay to pull up the processing slack. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who visited Dillingham last week, posed that question to Tom Winihan, manager at Peter Pan Seafoods. "If we allow foreigners to come in and process, they should have to adhere to all the same regulations that we do, the same hiring and wage standards, bonding standards for paying fishermen," Winihan told KDLG. "If they do that, great; we will compete with them. But they won't do that, so we can't compete with them." "Everyone is frustrated," said Susie Jenkins. "When their fishermen are unhappy it's hard to have a good working relationship. It's tough on all the managers. ... But nothing has been done to remedy the situation and it just reverberates to everybody." Meanwhile, a fleet of 1,300 drift gillnetters are working in Bristol Bay, similar to last year. Ditto the advance sockeye prices of 62 to 68 cents a pound.