By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Commercial harvesters in Bristol Bay took no holiday break, raising their catch total to 16.6 million sockeye salmon by the time most other folks ended the Independence Day weekend.

That compared with about 17.3 million reds harvested in Bristol Bay through July 10, 2006, said Charlotte Westing, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Dillingham.

Overall weather in the bay was about normal for the sockeye run, a combination of sunshine, rain and wind, with July 9 a particularly sunny, warm day, Westing said.

It was a fast-paced Independence holiday weekend for the fishermen, whose Bristol Bay catch through July 6 was 11.9 million sockeyes, according to cumulative reports compiled by department officials. Statewide through July 6, the total wild Alaska salmon harvest included 239 kings, 12.3 million reds, 53 silvers, 4.2 million pinks and 4 million chums, a combined total of nearly 25 million salmon of all species. “It's busy,” said Dannon Southall of 10th & M Seafoods, a retail and wholesale Anchorage firm. “We've been rocking and rolling through fish. We're on autopilot.”

Tenth & M's retail prices for fresh wild Alaska salmon, now coming in from Bristol Bay, the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound, were $5.95 a pound for whole sockeyes and $7.95 a pound for fillets, Southall said. Kings prices were $11.95 a pound for whole fish and $16.95 a pound for fillets. At New Sagaya, whole reds were $7.99 a pound, sockeye fillets $9.89 a pound, and king fillets $15.99 a pound. New Sagaya had no whole kings for sale as of July 9.

Ed's Kasilof Seafoods on the Kenai Peninsula was online (www.kasilofseafoods.com) offering 5-pound packages of wild Alaska silver salmon, cut in 8- or 12-ounce portions, for $46.95, wild king salmon fillets, also in portions in 5-pound boxes, for $67.95, and sampler boxes of 5 pounds of king, sockeye, coho and keta salmon for $80.95.

In Seattle, meanwhile, whole Copper River sockeyes, all over 5 pounds each, were priced at $44.94 apiece, with fishmongers willing to cut them to order into steaks or fillets. Wild troll caught kings, subject to availability, were going for $10.99 a pound, also whole or cut to order.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska journal.com.