Silver Bay's big sale to Uncle Sam

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased more than $7.5 million in canned pink salmon from Silver Bay Seafoods.

The purchase is in support of child nutrition and other domestic food programs, the agency said in this announcement.

Uncle Sam's salmon

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased nearly $4.5 million in canned pink salmon from three companies — Silver Bay Seafoods, OBI Seafoods, and Trident Seafoods.

USDA buys $12.8 million in canned pinks

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently completed a major purchase of canned pink salmon, spending a total of $12.8 million.

Four seafood processors made sales: Icicle, Ocean Beauty, Peter Pan and Trident.

The fish will go to child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs, the USDA says in this purchase summary.

The government purchase helps reduce high inventories built after last year's enormous pink salmon catch in Alaska.

Parnell seeks salmon bailout

Alaska's salmon industry is stuck with a crushing inventory of pinks, and it would really, really help if the federal government would buy a bunch (again).

That's the upshot of this letter from Gov. Sean Parnell to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.