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Of the 169 million fish, 55 per cent were caught in Prince William Sound and Bristol Bay. (Photo: YouTube)
Alaskan salmon yields historic USD 534 mln in 2010
UNITED STATES
Monday, November 15, 2010, 05:10 (GMT + 9)
Alaskan wild salmon fishers brought in USD 533.9 million – the largest amount in 18 years, said the state's preliminary estimates. Despite the exceedingly high harvest of 169 million salmon, fish prices did not take a dive.
The reasons include problems in the farmed salmon sector.
All salmon species this year fetched higher prices than in 2009 as part of a gradual price recovery happening since prices plummeted in 2002, according to Geron Bruce, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's (ADFG) assistant director for commercial fisheries.
He noted three reasons for the upturn - rising consumer awareness of the health benefits of wild versus farmed salmon, a general falling production of farmed salmon due to disease and other issues and growing production of value-added Alaska salmon products like burgers and fillets.
Of the 169 million fish, 55 per cent were caught in Prince William Sound and Bristol Bay, reports Channel 2 News.
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“It would've been nice to have some of the other areas that didn't have such a good year have as a good of a year as Bristol Bay and Prince William Sound. They were the stars of 2010. There were some areas that didn't do very well,” Bruce pointed out.
No commercial fishing took place on the Yukon River in 2010 and sockeye returns were weak in Copper River and lower Cook Inlet.
Back when the salmon industry sagged in the 1990s and early 2000s, the state’s congressional delegation invested millions of dollars into Alaska’s commercial fisheries to market and develop new seafood products.
Locally, Alaska fishers and seafood processors made efforts to "change the equation" that bred low prices and bankruptcies in the last 10-15 years, told David Harsila, president of the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association.
Related articles:
- North Pacific swarming with salmon
- Alaska salmon season update
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
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