Southeast pink seining closes at 19.8 million fish; hatchery areas stay open

Southeast Alaska's purse seine fleet is done with pink salmon for the year, having caught an ordinary number of them at the best prices in a long time.

Fish and Game closed the last open district Friday. Fishing continues only near hatcheries, in the terminal areas where returning fish are taken.

The fleet caught an estimated 18.7 million pinks against a preseason forecast of 19 million. Adding the gillnet fishery and the Annette Islands Reserve brings the region to 19.8 million fish averaging three and a half pounds, at the low end of a normal year. Roughly 60 percent of the last 65 seasons produced more. A total of 199 permits made landings, essentially flat with the last two years.

Price is where the season turned. The department's initial estimate is 65 cents a pound for pinks, with chum at $1.34, coho at $1.01, sockeye at $3.13 and Chinook at $5.52. "Salmon prices were substantially higher than they have been for many years," the announcement said, though the final numbers will not settle until winter.

The department expects what fishermen are paid at the dock to beat both of the last two seasons and the ten-year average of $56.5 million. Southeast seiners grossed $44.4 million in 2024 and about $49.7 million in 2025.

The permits themselves tell a different story. The average price of a Southeast seine permit fell to $125,000 last year, the lowest since 2010.

Sitka carried the region. District 13 produced 8.23 million pinks, more than 44 percent of the whole Southeast harvest and the third highest on record there. District 114 recorded no harvest of any species at all. The last opening of the year was a single 15-hour period in Sitka Sound on Sept. 3, which produced about 82,000 fish from 27 boats.

Hatchery chum came in at 1.4 million, below the ten-year average of 2 million.

The department is still surveying pink escapement and watching fall chum runs at six locations, including Cholmondeley Sound, Port Camden and Excursion Inlet.