Maybe we should stop calling them dogs

Deckboss was checking out the state's review of the 2012 salmon season and ran across a remarkable figure: $85 million.

That's the estimated dockside value of the chum salmon catch in Southeast Alaska.

Yes, $85 million.

To put it in perspective, the Bristol Bay sockeye catch paid about $118 million.

Most Southeast chum salmon come from hatcheries. Fishermen last year took 12.4 million chums, the sixth-highest harvest since statehood.

The chums paid an average of 75 cents a pound, the state says.

Traditionally, chums have been valued mainly for their roe.

But I'm thinking the roe, or even the large harvest volume, can't fully explain how a bunch of "dog" salmon can tally $85 million.

Is it marketing? New product forms?

I mean, wow, $85 million!

Trawlers shrink grounds to avoid chum bycatch

The Bering Sea pollock industry might close itself out of as much as 5,000 square nautical miles of fishing grounds in an effort to reduce chum salmon bycatch.

Here's the press release.

Here we go on the Yukon

Commercial fishing on the lower Yukon River opens tonight from 6 to midnight.

The target is chum salmon, but fishermen will be allowed to sell Chinook salmon they catch incidentally.

Here's the announcement from the Department of Fish and Game.

The Chinook catch is expected to be quite low.

Just how coveted is the king of kings?

The Anchorage-based online retailer FishEx is offering fresh Yukon king fillets at $42.95 a pound.

Area M seiners stand down to save chums

Purse seiners in Sand Point and King Cove are voluntarily sitting out this week's salmon season opener as a way to avoid intercepting chums possibly bound for Western Alaska rivers.

Here's a press release from the Aleutians East Borough.

We saw the seiners stage a similar goodwill shutdown in 2005 when chums were running too thick in what's known as the Area M or False Pass fishery.

The seiners fear that netting too many chums while chasing their main quarry, sockeye, could result in ruinous fishing restrictions to protect Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim salmon runs.

Blotter

Interesting case of Yukon River chum waste today on The Brig.

Also, don't miss the latest Dutch Harbor report.

Gillnet gang goes west

Bowpickers raft in Whittier. Wesley Loy photo

Spent my Sunday afternoon over in Whittier, where I was surprised to see the harbor packed with gillnet boats you'd normally expect to find around the Copper River on the opposite side of Prince William Sound.

Some fishermen told me they came to the western Sound to pick up hatchery chum salmon, and maybe try for Main Bay sockeye.

It figures boats would move west, as the Copper River District was closed for most of last week.