Alaska’s commercial salmon harvests plummeted this year, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The department’s annual report shows that the statewide harvest of just over 100 million fish was the third lowest on record. And the pounds harvested — 450 million — were the lowest on record. The numbers came with a decline in the fishery’s overall value, too.
The poor harvest results were driven mostly by weak pink salmon returns statewide. Bristol Bay’s annual sockeye run – the most valuable salmon fishery in the state at $128 million – saw another good year. The Southeast region saw lower runs across the board, except for chums. But pink salmon, which are harvested in the millions across the state, drove the overall harvest numbers way down.
Pinks run on a two-year cycle and even years are always lower than odd years. But 2024 saw a dramatic swing. The overall harvest was 42% below projections.
“So that was a bit unexpected,” said Forrest Bowers, the state’s Deputy Director of the Division of Commercial Fisheries. “Even with that awareness of the distinct, even odd year cycle of pink salmon, returns for pink salmon were poor in 2024, even for an even year.”
The weak returns dragged down the salmon fisheries’ overall value, too. This year’s statewide salmon harvest across all species was worth $94 million less than last year, according to Fish and Game’s report.
Bowers said the pink salmon harvest gaps between even and odd years have become more pronounced over the past decade. And biologists don’t know why. They have lots of data from managing salmon in freshwater rivers and lakes.
“Knowing that our freshwater habitat in Alaska is largely intact and is very productive, then you know, you’re sort of left with the question of what happens to those fish when they’re in the ocean and we believe that those ocean condition and survival of salmon in the ocean is largely what drives the strength of these returns.”
And that’s the million-dollar question, right? What’s going on in the ocean?
“Right,” said Bowers. “When these fish leave fresh water as juveniles and enter the marine environment, you know, if the food that they need at that point in their life history isn’t there where they needed to be, that can certainly contribute to mortality.”
Southeast Alaska is the state’s second most valuable salmon region, after Bristol Bay’s sockeye run bringing in about $80 million. The region commercially harvests all five salmon species through seining, gillnetting, and trolling. Southeast’s harvests for chinook, sockeye, and coho were below average this year. Chum salmon, which are supplemented with several hatcheries, were abundant. The region’s pink harvests actually bucked the statewide trend and came in above predictions by two million fish. State managers predicted 18 million pinks and fishermen harvested 20 million.
Bowers said another trend this year was smaller-sized fish, which affects overall pounds being sold. He said they’ve noticed smaller fish in many salmon stocks statewide, especially kings and sockeye.
“We’re seeing fish not only return at younger ages, which would generally lead us to see smaller fish, but also fish that are smaller for a given age,” he said.
However, people should keep this year’s commercial harvests in perspective, said Bowers. Yes, 2024 was a small harvest compared to recent years. But, he says, overall, the state is in a period of relatively high abundance. For instance, there have been just 10 seasons that Alaska’s salmon harvests have exceeded 200 million fish, going all the way back to the mid-70s. And six of those years have been in the last decade.
“You know, 2024 isn’t that much different than the harvest that we saw in 2016, 2018, and 2020,” Bowers said. “Between those poor even-year harvests, we had some of the largest harvest on record in those odd-numbered years.”
A statewide Alaska Salmon Research Task Force worked for a year to come up with recommendations for managing the state’s salmon stocks, particularly declining runs in western Alaska. In its final report released this summer, the task force found that more scientific research is needed on several factors impacting salmon from climate change to harvesting to predators and habitat.
Another task force focusing on the state’s seafood industry is working on recommendations for next year’s Legislative session.
