By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Above average 2009 harvests of more than 32 million Bristol Bay salmon of all species were worth nearly $130 million to commercial fishermen, 8 percent above the 20-year-average, state fisheries officials said Sept. 22.

The bulk of the catch - 30.90 million sockeyes - the seventh largest such harvest since statehood, came from an inshore run of 40.43 million fish, which was 7 percent above the 20-year average of 37.68 million reds, and 20 percent higher than the preseason forecast of 33.78 million fish.

The preliminary price paid to commercial harvesters for sockeye salmon was 70 cents a pound, and the finalized sockeye price last year was 73 cents, said Chris McDowell, a fisheries analyst with the McDowell Group in Juneau.

"As post-season adjustments are tabulated, the value typically goes up," he said.

The preliminary value of the harvest does not include future price adjustments, loyalty bonuses and differential prices for refrigerated versus non-refrigerated fish.

While most of the world's sockeye salmon is caught in Bristol Bay, the bay still contributes only 3 percent of the overall world supply, McDowell said. They general split is 70 percent farmed and 30 percent wild, he said.

Increased value of the salmon harvest was due in part to production problems experienced by some of the world's major farmed salmon firms, which reduced the global supply of salmon overall and increased commodity values, he said.

Meanwhile, there has been steady growth in consumption, he said. The commodity value of salmon represents the general health of the salmon prices, which are a result of combined supply and demand forces.

The big surprises this year were that despite a cold winter and late spring, there was an early run of sockeyes in the bay, and that the run vastly exceeded the forecast, he said.

All districts came in above forecast, most notably the Ugashik and Egegik districts at 64 percent and 33 percent above forecast, fish and game officials said. The Nushagak district total run was 12 percent above forecast, while the Togiak and Naknek-Kvichak districts came in 15 percent and 7 percent above forecast.

The commercial harvest of sockeye salmon was 29 percent above the 23.99 million preseason forecast. Bay wide, total escapement was 9.53 million reds.

The chinook salmon run in the bay of 30,000 kings was 47 percent of the average harvest for the last 20 years, and significantly below the preseason forecast of 70,000.

The chum harvest of 1.37 million fish was 34 percent above the 20-year average of 1.02 million fish, and the coho harvest of some 59,000 fish was 63 percent of the 20-year average of 93,000 silvers.

The pink salmon harvest came in at about 499 fish, an expected low catch for an odd year life cycle return, state officials said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska

journal.com.