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Copper River Salmon


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The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has decreed this Thursday the start of the season for Copper River salmon.

ADFG will permit 12 hours fishing this Thursday, May 15. On Saturday, ADFG is expected to announce additional dates.

The first king salmon will reach Seattle Friday. Expect to see it elsewhere soon thereafter.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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You're not being a spoilsport, Barry. Read to the end of the article. Even with air freighting, wild fish will usually have a less pronounced carbon footprint than high-input farmed salmon. An even worse offender is the farmed fish that gets air freighted from Chile or Norway or Scotland!

But I don't heavily weigh my restaurant/food buying decision by carbon footprint, anyway. It's the price/value (taste) relationship that drives me. Which is why I indulge in Copper River King just once a season. (The sockeye is considerably less expensive than the first King of the season, and just as delicious in its own way.)

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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Definitely a bad start to the Copper River salmon season, which opened last Thursday for a 12-hour period. Here's what Alaska's Division of Commercial Fisheries had to say about the haul:

The preliminary harvest from the period on May 15 was 2,400 sockeye and 800 Chinook salmon with 187 deliveries reported. The anticipated harvest was 17,105 sockeye and 5,673 Chinook salmon.

That meant prices were sky high: $30/pound for whole fish, nearly $40 for fillets in Washington State, and virtually none reached the East Coast. Apparently high winds and waves kept the fishermen from setting their gill nets with any degree of efficiency. Maybe they're doing better today, which state officials established as a second 12-hour season. The current weather at Cordova, where the Copper River fleet is based, is reasonably mild, with only 8 mph winds, clear skies and mild temperatures.

This Wednesday at 2 p.m. Alaska time, state officials will announce the parameters of the next permitted day for fishing.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just paid $39.99 for a Copper River filet entree at Ray's in Atlanta.

But it was goooooood.

...wine can of their wits the wise beguile, make the sage frolic, and the serious smile. --Alexander Pope

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More current news from ADF&G:

Copper River

The Copper River District was opened to fishing for a 12-hour fishing period on May 19 and 22. This was the second and third fishing period of the 2008 season.

The Miles Lake sonar was deployed on May 16. As of May 22 a total of 18,407 salmon have been counted. The anticipated passage for this date is 24,974 salmon.

Currently there are an estimated 425 to 500 drift gillnet permits participating in the fishery. There are no processing capacity problems to report at this point. Waters inside of the barrier islands from Steamboat Anchorage to Coffee Creek were open for the first period of the week on May 19. As stipulated in 5AAC 24.361(b) and 5AAC 24.350(1)(B), this area will only open for one fishing period per week during the two weeks of the fishing season (statistical weeks 20 and 21). The inside area was closed during the second fishing period that started on May 22.

The harvest estimate from the Monday, May 19 12-hour period was 30,137 sockeye and 2,029 Chinook salmon. The anticipated harvest for this opening was 44,823 sockeye and 6,729 Chinook salmon. The harvest estimate from the Thursday, May 22 12-hour period was 37,019 sockeye and 1,788 Chinook salmon. The anticipated harvest for this opening was 56,013 sockeye and 6,927 Chinook salmon. The cumulative harvest as of May 23 for all three periods fished this season is 69,522 sockeye and 4,560 Chinook salmon. This compares with a 5-year cumulative harvest average of 175,134 sockeye and 13,715 Chinook salmon for this date.

Gonadal material from both sockeye and Chinook salmon appears to be immature for this date and may indicate a later than normal return. Passage at the sonar, while below anticipated for a given date has been matching closely the anticipated passage for the previous date. This is also indicative of a possible later than normal return.

Edited by 6ppc (log)

Jon

--formerly known as 6ppc--

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