Anchorage Daily News

KODIAK -- It's been a nail-biter all summer, but latest counts indicate that Alaska's salmon catch will indeed come in on target. By Friday the statewide harvest topped 134 million fish, just shy of the preseason projection of 137 million salmon. And there is still lot of fishing left to go.

Coho catches -- 2.5 million so far -- will continue into October and should reach the 4.4 million forecast by state managers. Chum harvests, at 16 million, are approaching the 18.7 million projection.

The biggest slump for the season will come from a shortfall in the big money fish: sockeye salmon, which were expected to yield a harvest of 47 million fish.

"Bristol Bay came in a little short at 27 million reds, but the rest of the sockeye fisheries in the state were projected for a total harvest of 16 million, and the combined catch for those other regions is closer to 10 million," said market analyst Chris McDowell of the Juneau-based McDowell group.

Alaska salmon go to market in many different forms, and it takes months for sales to play out across the globe. Prices to fishermen are higher in most regions, but the dockside value for the season isn't likely to top last year's catch.

"In 2007 the value ended up at $416 million, and it was the first time in 12 years that we cracked the $400 million mark -- but that was the third largest harvest on record at 212 million salmon," McDowell said.

Market trends that could boost the value of the 2008 catch include the hot market for salmon roe.

"There is a lot more demand from Russia and Eastern Europe, and that has drained off some of the volume that goes to the traditional market of Japan. I wouldn't quite call it a bidding war, but they are certainly competing against one another," McDowell said.

Alaska salmon also could benefit from misfortunes with its biggest competitor -- farmed fish from Chile. Since last July, more than 100 fish farms have tested positive for infectious salmon anemia (ISA), and at least 25 million pounds of fish have been discarded.

"As a result, that has kept the Chilean growers from expanding their production as much as they had expected, and it has helped to keep the salmon market somewhat stronger than it might have been," said fisheries economist Gunnar Knapp at the University of Alaska Anchorage. "It hasn't caused the salmon supply to decline, but press reports from Japan say that Chilean coho is in short enough supply that it has led to a strengthening in salmon prices over there."

A Chilean government task force cited the $2.2 billion farmed-salmon industry for the "intensive" use of antibiotics, according SeafoodSource. Antibiotics not allowed in American aquaculture are legal in Chile and might increase antibiotic resistance for people. However, less than 2 percent of the U.S. fish imports are inspected by federal agents, according to industry reports.

Americans can reassure themselves by checking labels at seafood counters -- new federal laws require that labels must identify country of origin, and if the product is farmed or wild fish.

FUNDING US FISH FARMS

True to its commitment to expand U.S. aquaculture, NOAA Fisheries has backed growing operations for cod and shrimp farms. Nearly $500,000 in federal grants has been awarded to the University of New Hampshire and Great Bay Aquaculture to advance offshore farming of cod and other North Atlantic species, including halibut. UNH and Great Bay have pioneered hatchery techniques to mass produce cod fish and are set to stock 100,000 juveniles into cages off the coast of Maine.

The feds also awarded a $2.3 million grant to the Oceanic Institute to pioneer shrimp farming in Hawaii. The so-called U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Program is a partnership of several universities to collaborate on high yield, sustainable production techniques.

Perhaps most interesting is a $270,000 project designed to train fish to return to nets when they hear a tone that signals feeding time. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts began the experiment last week by placing 5,000 sea bass into an underwater dome in Buzzards Bay. The researchers will try to train the fish with a special tone that signals feeding time. After a few weeks of training, the fish will be released into the ocean. The ultimate goal is to learn if hatchery-raised fish can be trained to return to be caught by commercial fishermen. The Woods Hole sea bass training project will continue through October.

Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Her Fish Radio programs can be heard on stations around the state. Her column appears every other Sunday. This material is protected by copyright. For information on reprinting or placing on your Web site or newsletter, contact msfish@alaska.com.

ADVERTISEMENT