Wednesday, July 10, 2013

A subpar season in Bristol Bay

Well, we're now well past the traditional season peak at Bristol Bay, and the catch stands at a fairly dreadful 13.7 million salmon.

Coming into the season, the state had forecast a weak harvest of 16.6 million sockeye. Now it appears unlikely gillnetters will be able to scratch up enough fish to meet even that modest projection.

And so, Deckboss imagines the docks, canneries and bars in Naknek, Dillingham and elsewhere are becoming more lonely by the hour as folks head home.

I'm guessing no one is more dejected than the setnetters at the Igushik River, where persistent fuel leakage from the sunken fish tender Lone Star has kept the fishery in that area closed for days now.

Still no word on the base price processors are paying fishermen this season. Anyone heard anything?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those damn Shore side Draggers are catching all the Sockeye and Chums now!...Works great for them!...Icicle and Trident both heavily vested into farm salmon these days! Just makes more room in the freezers for whitefish.

Anonymous said...

And they all went fishing with out a price get ready for some fireworks. One cannery said the price could be .50-1.50 we just don't know yet

Anonymous said...

Red salmon sent fishermen home at a $1 per pound advance with no deductions.

Jason Miller said...

Considering there is a shortage of sockeye product in the US market alone, should bode well for the ex vessel price paid.

Anonymous said...

Negative...1.50 Base