It’s that time of year when I start getting asked, “How is the salmon season going?” It’s a hard question to answer because Alaska is such a huge state. With over 20,000 documented salmon streams — and many thousands more waterways that produce salmon but aren’t officially documented — everything really depends on where you are.
The distance between Alaska’s northernmost salmon watersheds and its southernmost runs is over 1,300 miles. And within the tens of thousands of watersheds, there’s even more diversity from river to river, because different salmon species return to spawn. Each species has uniquely evolved to fill a specific biological niche within the watershed. That means that within the same river system, some salmon species return more fish than others. Even within each species, there are early and late runs—making it even more complicated to answer, “How are the salmon running?”
Since we’re still in the peak of the season (at the time of writing) and the late runs haven’t been counted yet, I’m going to focus this update on the runs that return early and are mostly complete.
photo courtesy Jane Cavagnero for Mad Agriculture
Let’s start with the world’s biggest sockeye run in Bristol Bay. This incredible watershed has allowed fishermen to harvest nearly 30 million sockeye this year. That’s down about 27% from the 40 million harvested last year, but a roughly 30% higher dock price helped offset the lower harvest. The Bristol Bay sockeye season is brief — many boats fish for less than six weeks total — so it’s still an incredible catch. With higher prices, you will see higher retail prices for wild sockeye in your local grocery store, if they carry it.
Bristol Bay may be the biggest salmon watershed, but the most famous belongs to the Copper River. This was a down season for the region’s salmon fishermen, with around 50% less sockeye harvested than last year. With smaller returns and strong market demand, we weren’t able to buy any frozen Copper River sockeye this year. I know it’s a bummer, but it’s part of eating what the ocean provides. Sockeyes are bigger across the board, so even without Copper River fish, you should still see some nice, fatty sockeyes later in your boxes. Kings are a smaller part of the Copper River harvest and were down slightly from 2025, with prices remaining strong due to strong demand for these fatty fish.
Copper River watershed
Back down to Sitka, where the bulk of your fish is harvested, things have been a mixed bag. King salmon — marking the start of the troll season — have a larger quota this season, but there have been fewer fish around Sitka. Our quotas are negotiated with West Coast states and British Columbia, based on returns across the West Coast. We welcomed higher quotas than last year, but harvest has been slow, and the king season is still open in August, which is a rarity. For trollers, this means less of a quick, profitable king season and more of a continued trickle of fish.
Prices are at historic highs, and fishermen who have been able to find fish are having a good season. For our trollers, coho salmon are the bread and butter of their summer seasons, and it’s still too early to know how the season will end. Early-season cohos have been slow, but there’s still plenty of time for trollers to make up ground. Prices are strong and fleet members that are putting the hours in have been able to do well so for this season. Many coho fishermen have been targeting keta early as prices are at an all-time high, and a few runs south of Sitka have been coming on strong. Sitka’s keta troll season peaks in early August, so fishermen are hopeful for a big return — especially with prices up almost 100% over last season.
For gillnetters in Southeast Alaska, it has also been mixed. Strong keta prices have helped ease smaller harvests and fewer sockeyes. Just like the troll fleet, Southeast gillnetters are hoping for robust late-season keta and cohos to finish their season strong.
It’s tough to make a living on the ocean with changing temperatures and plenty of unpredictability, but markets like ours and a continued focus on protecting salmon runs for future seasons help keep our fleets going.
copper river sockeye
Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch up with you next month!
Your fisherman,
Marsh
Marsh Skeele
Marsh is our original fisherman and helped start Sitka Seafood Market over a decade ago. He grew up fishing with his family outside of Sitka and began his own fishing journey captaining the F/V Loon in 2011. Shortly thereafter at a dinner party sharing his catch, he met friends that figured out how to get his fish to the Midwest and Sitka Seafood Market was born. He loves finding the highest quality ingredients and sharing the stories of their harvest over a dinner party. You can find him fishing with his family in Sitka and searching for the next delicious piece of seafood to share with you.
