Big Increase In 2021 Southeast Alaska Commercial Salmon Haul; Mostly Pinks

Here’s more on the breakdown of a massive commercial salmon haul from Alaska Public Media:

Commercial fishermen in Southeast harvested 58 million salmon across the five species this year: almost 7 million chum salmon, 48 million pinks, 1.5 million coho, 1.1 million sockeye and 216,000 king salmon.

That’s a marked improvement in harvest for every species. Even the embattled Southeast king salmon had a commercial harvest increase of more than 16,000 fish. In total, commercial salmon fishermen in the region caught and sold 44 million more salmon than last year.

Even taking into account the odd-year pink salmon peaks, this year’s pink salmon harvest was more than double 2019’s Southeast Alaska pink salmon catch.