Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Bristol Bay prices — a disappointment?

We now hear that one major Bristol Bay salmon processor, Alaska General Seafoods, is paying a base price of $1.20 per pound plus 15 cents for chilled fish.

Other major processors are apparently also paying $1.20.

That's the word from AIFMA, the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association.

Most likely, this price will disappoint Bristol Bay fishermen. Coming into the season, many expected $2 per pound or more for sockeye.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well that sure is extreme and with no silver lining

Anonymous said...

With nearly twice as many fish landed than originally anticipated, $1.20 makes sense. If Fraser River doesn't amount to anything then you might see a nice retro. Then again, if it does you might not see any retro.

Anonymous said...

If fisherman had paid any attention to the origin of that $2 a lb rumor started by Extreme Sfds they wouldn't be so disappointed, after Silver bay's entry into the fishery last year processor then remarked the $1.50 a lb we were paid was not sustainable. Combine that with tiny fish, 10 million more than forecasted, Russian's massive sockeye return and the threat of the Frazier River and I'm happy with what we are getting. Icicle confirmed $1.20 grounds price last night throw chilling on top and we made the season. Anyone banking on $2 was just asking for trouble!

Johannes said...

Really? I'm pretty sure $1.20 is way better than 40 cents a pound like in the early 2000's. Further, what do you expect when you harvest 8 million more than forecast along with strong sockeye runs in the Frasier River? It's basic economics.

If we wanted a higher price- Bay fisherman should have collectively stopped fishing when the harvest reached 29 million to keep supply low.

Anonymous said...

$2 per lb for short run, low fat sockeye! Give me a break!
SBS might have paid the price, though their fisher/owners were put on low limits! Oh, I see they burned less fuel catching less fish for more dollars per lb. Now that makes sense!

Anonymous said...

7 Billion people on earth and 28 million sockeyes flood the market, hard to believe . Don't listen to the processors BS , $2 would be cheap , hamburger is over $5 in stores. Just remember, it is carved in stone: "All fish buyers will go to hell"

Anonymous said...

Definition of Retro...".We made so much money off you fools who fish without a price even we feel guilty"

Anonymous said...

All that 2$ a pound BS was needed to get simpleton types to jump ship and change processors. Lie and they will come...

Anonymous said...

Liive cattle on hoof is more than 1.20.although no one knows what the demand is after two short years, the msrket has been decidedly short the past two.the frazier is a real threat because one buyer controls canada and if anyone remembers four years ago the puget price went to .90.And the overall market was unchanged!!!! In these inflated times 1.20 is a very poor price!!!

Anonymous said...

How much was fuel this season?

Anonymous said...

What else went down in price this year?
Fuel? -No
Web?- No
Groceries?- No
Airfares?- No
Gear of any kind?- No
Insurance? - mine did because its a pool!
Maybe our taxes will go down- what do you guess?

Anonymous said...

Guess what??? These are the years that processors dream of. For the most part, the run was evenly spaced, there were no major snafus warranting limits of any degree. The major buyers all decide what fishermen need to make in a season that will keep their whining to a low hum.
The profit taking will be huge, so bend over, the boys are back in town!

Anonymous said...

Chums started at .60 in SE, chums are a total flop for most of the state, none to catch,,price is still .60
$1.20 is criminal, the State of Alaska needs to investigate.

Anonymous said...

I miss BobbyT.

Anonymous said...

Can we get our millions back from ASMI ? Obviously they haven't done the market any good. Time to do away with that parasite.

Anonymous said...

#alwaysdisappointed

You Bay guys with poor fish quality and big egos are funny.

Anonymous said...

#alwaysdisappointed is right.

Us Bay fishers are the weakest, most unorganized, and marginalized fishery in the US except for herring fishermen-(excluding Sitka). Poor saps that fish for $50 a ton.

Yeah, there are bigger suckers than you, unless you fish the Bay and choke herring too, I used to, biggest suckers on the water.

I'll never fall for that song and dance again.

But Togiak sure is beautiful in the Spring......

ASMI has done great job, sockeye are selling for great prices to the consumer. Sockeye have been selling for the highest sustained retail/wholesale price averaged over the 10 years that I've seen in my 40 fishing the Bay. If you can't praise ASMI, you really got your head up...

I know, I've bought and sold fish the rest of the year my whole life, my fish choking vacations in the Bay don't pay all the bills.

Stop whining about continuing to get shafted on price, SBS isn't going to lose money at $2 bucks, all the processors can make money at $2. But the big boys will never pay it cause we will still go fishing for 0.40 and they know it.

And you know it.

Watch what the price is going to fall to next year, with another good run coming. You'll still show up.

And just half the fleet refrigerates, and our socks are still the lowest quality out there. Stop fooling yourselves, every other fishery bleeds, chills, and delivers beauties. Only seined pinks are lower quality than our fish.

I know, I've bought and sold fish the rest of the year my whole life, my fish choking vacations in the Bay don't pay all the bills.

We run a huge volume, low quality fishery, and we can't organize worth shit. When we let the scabs break the strike 20 seasons ago, we lost control forever.

Get a clue, supply and demand.

Until we get organized and control supply, we have no power, we take the price they give us.

So all you Sea Lawyers out there just shut up and fish, like the SCAB Highliners do. It's all about volume baby, slam 'em, and jam 'em in the hatches, take your pittance for your labor, and catch as many as you can. I'm so tired of hearing you crying on the radio.

Any yahoos left who still argue and this point just proves that any uneducated dumbshit can run a Bay operation.

I've fished the Bay for 40 years and the whining never stops, and the price never gets better.

Look at yourself in the mirror, seriously look, you are weak, you fish for the company store, and you're too lame to do anything about it. This old man has heard enough for another whole season. Take your check and go home to Mama.

Unless your willing to strike, and hold the line, you weak pieces, shut up and fish, just shut up.

Cuz your never gonna do anything about it, you big tough Bristol Bay Guy.

I'm so tired of hearing you whining babies crying on the radio.

Anonymous said...

You're fishers, but you are not men.


Real men strike, use their control of the means of production to dry up supply and force the buyers to capitulate and pay a higher price.
Strike for one whole season until you get $2 bucks, sacrifice most of that season to prove your power, and never fish again unless the price is $2 bucks.

All the processors will cave in and pay.

It's that easy you surrender monkeys.

Anonymous said...

I retired from fishing some years ago. I get this odd twitch every spring when I'm around the docks but it goes away, especially when I read the comments section @ Deck Boss.

OT - Thank gawd that someone with basic intelligence got rid of the insane ant-robot sign-in on this site! It used to be not worth the effort.

Anonymous said...

Strikes don't work with salmon fisheries. Never have, never will. Don't fool yourself in believing BB fishermen will "stand down" and don't say "if they did a strike would work"! You might as well wish for a winning lottery ticket.

Anonymous said...

I don't know who the moron is that talked about Silver Bay low limits is but that happened for one tide.They had the highest fleet average by far do your homework before you speak.

Anonymous said...

Poster at 8:39 is correct about SBS on limit for one tide only. The mis-information about SBS limits and the Ponzi scheme comments come from one who is no doubt a Trident shill.

Anonymous said...

Take the money, kiss some more ass, take some more slander and duplicity from the rabble,hire some more kids to babysit,and come back for more suckers.it is so obvious that it is pathetic. But what a 2 weeks!! Poorest investment around,boats are expensive and permits are ridiculous!!gear will soon hit 30 a pound.what the hell the cost of entertainmment value is worth it.all in all beats SNL easily

Anonymous said...

What a joke put on us fishermen in Bristol Bay. All that
Talk at the beginning of the year put out by the buyers how Silver bay is the (Low Cost) producer using the walmart model, and how they (trident,red salmon,peter pan) have worked to build costumer relations and loyalty. All that crap put out by them is just a reflection of themselves. They are the ones with no customer loyalty, just selling product to there parent companies in japan and the easiest way to just move on to there next ripoff operation. Innovation ?? They have none, customer loyalty?? They don't have any for it goes to there own shell company to show no profit in the USA.
These guys should get out of Bristol Bay. Remember, they are the scab companies---YAK, Trident, Icecle,---these are the king scab companies that broke our strikes in the 1980's and 1991. Watch now, they could move the Bay forward with the price but they will not, instead they will try to take it back down in price to try to out do SBS by having low cost high volume operations, my god thats what they are, just what they blame SBS for being... Please get out of the bay all you managers for the super seven, you guys suck and couldn't make it in any other industry. Retire please, we don't need your type....

Anonymous said...

If Fraser reds come in strong, there may not be much more price beyond the going home advance. Russian red harvest is supposedly good and dressed fish going into Japan at less than $3.00.

Even the edge we had from MSC certification is gone. What could have trumped "MSC certified Alaska salmon" for marketing power? Send a note to Bundrunt and his boy thanking them for making our fish worth less.

Anonymous said...

Bristol Bay boats need to be bigger and better so the salmon can be treated like food instead of getting destroyed before its processed.

The sooner we make changes to the boats, the better our finished product will be. Let's all work on making a higher quality so we can demand a better price!

Anonymous said...

The comments that come from people about quality of fish from the bay dont fish the bay. We make deliveries less than every 12 hours. More and more boats have RSW, slides and padded decks. Yet I still dont hear anyone talked about smaller brailers and higher quality. This is not 20 years ago the quality is there and the price should be also. Come on really waiting on the Frasier river when most of this product is already sold. All I know is $2 bucks is a joke and $2.50 to $3 should be what we are getting with $5 a gallon fuel and $4 bucks for a loaf of bread its 2014 not 1984

Anonymous said...

Don't even go there with your bigger boat crap, next will be everyone two permits then fishing general district out to the high seas.. Get back to the point, price...why do we want to spend more money on boats and permits when we are all ready over capitalized.. Next you will want a seine.... Leave all that stuff out. Price is all that matters, if we didn't have the greedy scab types we could get somewhere.

Anonymous said...

"So we can demand a better price"??.....you are a fisherman, you don't get demand anything of anyone but your crew

Anonymous said...

Area M salmon are high quality....bigger boats higher quality

Anonymous said...

the bigger boat argument means nothing. Many boats in the bay can pack well over 20k. Even on good days this hold capacity and deck space cannot translate into better quality fish

Anonymous said...

In Canada, Canfishco (AGS) owns the rights to salmon and hires day workers to go catch their fish. In Alaska Trident owns the salmon rights, by loaning fisherman money, sometimes tiny little preseason loans, and then lowering their grounds price and binding the fisherman to sell them their fish. They are buying Seine permits, drift etc with these loans. It should be illegal to hold terms on a fishing permit. The Cfec needs to sniff this out. Trident is also fueling this over capitalization by throwing money at fishermen if they sign their power chip away.

Anonymous said...

Area m.. my ass, we have caught more in one tide than they get all year. Our boat size is fine, quality is way up with RSW, flush decks, small brailers. The guys putting this stuff out about quality and boat size are self interest nut jobs. Has your buyer ever told you he doesn't want your fish for the quality is bad?? No.. He wants all he can get from you because he can rip you off on the price. That talk comes from idiots like yourself wanting a bigger boat to push locals and others away from the fishery. It does no good that talk, it takes away from the real issues. Your small contingent of guys wanting bigger boats just hurts us, stay on the point, price. The one the buyer gives you.. We got more in the 80's without any quality talk..
1978-$1.20. 4000lb brailers you fool

Anonymous said...

Any joker that fools himself into thinking that Bristol Bay fish are high quality obviously has never fished salmon anywhere else. Buyers elsewhere would not even buy 90% of bay fish for anything more than what we're getting.

Keep fooling yourself.

We slam out quantity, not quality. Hard too change that dynamic when we catch over 500,000 fish daily for days on end. All the processors are geared up to do massive volume, not boutique fish like Copper River(we catch their whole season in one massive day).

Now, imagine, if we kept those plants-(all geared up for massive volume) from buying any fish for a couple weeks?

Anonymous said...

Strikes don't work with salmon fisheries. Never have, never will. Don't fool yourself in believing BB fishermen will "stand down". Feel free to " imagine, if we kept those plants-(all geared up for massive volume) from buying any fish for a couple weeks" You might as well imagine a winning lottery ticket.

Anonymous said...

Last season the price was artificially inflated as the "big boys" fought valiantly to retain their top producing boats. This season, with the early folding of the tent of the clown offering two bucks, it became apparent there is no place to go. SBS has a model that no major should be able to compete with. Its called fishermen ownership. It works better than a strike, especially for salmon. It is funny to listen to some of the complaints. This whole thing is a business, and we all know the ethics of business are stretched everyday. The majors WILL buy the fish as cheap as they can. Whether you love or hate Troy Denkenger, excuse my spelling, we should be building a statue of this motherfucker.

Anonymous said...

A statue may be a bit too much, but the SBS model looks like it works. Give them two years in BB to get their plant fully built and fine tuned and they will be the number one buyer with the best overall return for fisher shareholders. Denkinger is kind of like a new Bundrunt, but more focused on returning value to the fleet.