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laskans Bank on High Salmon Prices
Where's the next Copper River?
by: Nadra Angerman
 Tourists pay top dollar to enjoy Wrangell, Alaska – and no wonder. Wrangell stands next to the Tongass National Forest, an area that teems with bears, bald eagles, sea lions, whales, and all the other wildlife and scenery that make Alaska’s Inside Passage an upscale tourist mecca. But when the travel bug bites, it flies the other way for Kayla Hay and many other kids who live in Wrangell. Kayla, age 5, likes going on family excursions to Seattle where she can go up and down the Space Needle, eat Krispey Kreme donuts, drink hot chocolate at Starbucks, and shop at Toys R Us.
Like vacations in Wrangell, excursions to Seattle don’t come cheap, so Kayla’s dad Chuck Hay and other commercial fisherman throughout Southeast Alaska are preparing for the coming salmon season with hopes it will bring prices like those of last year.
“Every year that the price of fish rises, I get a little more optimistic,” says Chuck, who started fishing with his father back in the ’80s. Since then, he’s seen the good times and the bad. Swamped in the 1980s by competition from cheap, farm-reared salmon, Alaska’s salmon fishing industry went into a depression for 15 years. Fish prices hit rock bottom in 2001. Since then Alaska salmon prices have rebounded, thanks to successful marketing and rising international demand from high-end consumers who want seafood grown and caught in the wild.
International Markets
Combined with growing harvests and sales of Pollock, the rising salmon prices have contributed to a dramatic increase in Alaskan seafood exports. Over the past five years, the dollar value of the exports doubled, reaching sales of almost $2 billion.
Asia remains Alaska’s largest export market, with sales up 56 percent over five years to reach nearly $1.5 billion. The growth rate in Europe was even higher, growing by 557 percent, to surpass $415 million in sales.
Salmon remains Alaska’s most visible seafood product, but the biggest portion of the state’s annual seafood harvest is now comprised of Pollock, a ground fish caught by enormous oceangoing trawlers that operate in the Bering Sea and near the Aleutian Islands.
Pollock is a mild-tasting white fish that is highly versatile. It can be processed into surimi or cut into fillets and fish sticks. Pollock roe – the eggs – are pound for pound the most valuable part of the catch.
Pollock roe is sold at auctions in Seattle. An auction earlier this year pulled in about $250 million. Puget Sound provides the home base for most of the Pollock trawlers, processors, and fishermen who work Alaskan waters.
Salmon Still King
But while Pollock has become a major cash product for the Washington-based fishing fleet, salmon remains the “king” in dozens of Alaskan villages and towns where salmon fishing is a key source of much-needed jobs and cash.
According to the State of Alaska, salmon accounts for about one quarter of the total seafood harvest, but it provides one half of all seafood jobs. Peak salmon harvest employment reached about 15,000 jobs in 2005, up from 13,000 in 2002. Salmon-related employment is particularly important in remote communities that have few job opportunities.
Because of salmon’s contribution to local communities, the State of Alaska helps seafood companies market salmon around the world.
China is a primary target for this year’s sales campaign, according to Heidi Bundy, a marketing specialist at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), a trade association jointly funded by private firms and the state.
ASMI has secured premium ad placement for wild Alaskan salmon in Betty’s Kitchen, a popular cooking magazine in China that some liken to Martha Stewart’s Living. Salmon is also being added to the menu of Greenery Café, a Western-inspired casual dining chain in China similar to casual dining spots like Red Robin or Applebee’s.
Japan is still Alaska’s biggest export market in Asia, with sales over $800 million, closely followed by South Korea. But China is catching up fast with 2005 sales of $262 million, up 200 percent since the year 2000.
Copper River
The State of Alaska is now encouraging local communities to undertake their own marketing efforts for local products through the formation of Regional Seafood Development Associations. The associations give local fishermen the authority to assess fees and impose taxes on local fish harvests to support collective marketing efforts and construction projects to support their local fishing communities.
 The gold standard for such efforts was established in Cordova, several hundred miles north of Wrangell. Twenty five-years ago the Cordova District Fisherman’s Union established a coordinated effort to market the high-fat-content salmon that spawn in the nearby Copper River. Their efforts paid off in prices that even a few years ago were unthinkable.
The first batch of Copper River salmon delivered last year to the Pike Place Market in Seattle commanded a retail price of $25 per pound and helped set the tone for a 2005 Alaskan salmon harvest that, by dollar volume, was the third best in state history.
Many Alaskan communities, including Wrangell, believe their local runs of salmon are just as good as those than spawn in Copper River and they would love to replicate Cordova’s success. But according to Chris McDowell it’s not just about marketing.
McDowell owns an Alaska-based marketing company that tracks the fishing industry and he also serves on the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, which represents Alaska’s largest regional salmon fishery.
McDowell said marketing is not yet the top priority for Bristol Bay. Local fishermen are working instead to improve their equipment and techniques for handling fish to avoid bruising them as the salmon are transferred from boats to the docks. They are also experimenting with ways to cool the fish down more quickly after they are caught.
It is not as easy to provide quick cooling as it might seem. Some boats are simply too small to provide for high-tech cooling systems. Fish, fridge, or engine? Sometimes there’s only room aboard for two of them. But as McDowell says, “I haven’t heard of anyone wanting to buy warm fish.”
While Bristol Bay felt some of the sharpest pains from the low prices brought on by farm-raised fish, McDowell said the cheaper fish had a positive impact, too. “It ultimately created consumer awareness for the superiority of wild Alaskan salmon,” he said. “And there is only one place in the world where you can get it.”
White Kings and Wrangell Spots
Fishing is a key source of cash for the 2,200 people who live in Wrangell. Once supported by the timber industry, Wrangell was hit hard when federal government actions restricted timber production from the nearby Tongass National Forest. Tourism helps ease some of the sting, but fishing remains essential to the town’s economic health. “PAF” is an acronym heard often around the town. It stands for “Pay After Fishing” and it reflects the reality that some bills can’t be paid in Wrangell until after fish are caught and sold.
Wrangell fishermen have formed their own seafood development association and will vote this spring whether to impose a small fee on themselves to provide additional funding for the new cooperative, known as Southeast Alaska Rainforest Wild.
The fishing grounds around their gorgeous homeport provides plenty of fine seafood products to crow about.
Wrangell is located near the mouth of the Stikine River, the fastest, free-flowing navigable river in North American. The Stikine provides spawning grounds for all five varieties of salmon and produces fish comparable to those from the Copper River. White king salmon from the Stikine is a product that is little known outside the region but its high oil content and rich taste make it a local favorite and a good candidate to fetch sky-high prices at high-end restaurants in the Lower 48.
Wrangell’s saltwater coastline also produces exceptional prawns that often grow as long as 12 inches. The locals refer to them as “Wrangell Spots.”
Kayla’s dad, Chuck Hay, does his fishing out of Wrangell in the F/V Denali, a 40-foot gillnetter. He works the boat alone to avoid the cost of taking on a deck hand – one lingering impact of low fish prices and rising operating costs.
In the past, his wife Ada would accompany him on fishing trips but she now stays home to tend their 5-year-old daughter Kayla and 2-year old son, Jacen. The family plans for Jacen to join dad as a deckhand when he is old enough.
While fishing is always unpredictable, Alaska’s fisheries are in excellent health for the long term. Both the Pollock and salmon fisheries in Alaska are rated “sustainable” by the international Marine Stewardship Council, based in England. Only 12 fisheries in the world are rated sustainable by the MSC, and the Alaska fisheries are among the largest on the list. So, if Jacen wants to fish as he grows up, there will still be plenty of salmon to go around.
This year’s fees for Alaskan salmon and gillnet permits were the highest since 2002. The permits are required for all commercial fishermen and the higher fees reflect improved fish prices.
“It’s always good news when permit values are better than they were last year,” said Chuck.
For Chuck, it’s one more good reason to anticipate more cash for Kayla and the family trips to Seattle.
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