Kotzebue chum fishermen get a better price but have just one buyer left

Kotzebue Sound permit holders are getting nearly 20 cents more per pound for chum salmon this season than last, but they have fewer places to sell it. Fish and Game listed two registered buyers for the fishery last season; this year only one, Copper River Seafoods, is registered. The company is paying 57 cents a pound for fish iced in the boat and 60 cents iced and bagged.

Deliveries after the July 10 opener have run well ahead of a year earlier, when almost nothing was landed early in the season.

Fish and Game's inseason summary, current as of Friday, says 22 eight-hour commercial periods have been scheduled in the Kotzebue District since July 10, and that catch rates have improved, though the running harvest is kept confidential. The department forecasts 50,000 to 150,000 chum for the season, against last year's harvest of about 35,000 fish.

The department's advisories continue to tell permit holders to confirm a market before starting operations, and this season that warning carries more weight. With a single company buying, permit holders' access to a market depends on that one buyer's willingness to take deliveries and the prices it sets. The season is scheduled to close Aug. 31.