In the runup to this year’s fishing season, Haines fisherman Dan Kendryna made some expensive but much-needed upgrades to his gillnetter.
“That was before I knew the prices. But I can finally breathe a little bit now that that’s done and the season covered it,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t.”
He said this year has been “pretty incredible,” financially speaking. That has more to do with sky-high fish prices than with the fishing itself. Overall, Kendryna said the fishing hasn’t been extraordinary, but high prices made up for it — and then some.
“A lot of people have been doing some upgrades that they haven’t been able to justify in a long time,” Kendryna said.
Haines Packing Company, a local processor, did not respond to a request for comment about this summer’s prices. But local fishermen say prices for all of the salmon species were higher than any they remember in decades.
Fishermen said sockeye, for instance, went for as much as $3.25 per pound at the dock. Around $2 is more typical. Chum, meanwhile, usually goes for less than $1 per pound. This year, prices were as high as $1.65.
“The fish run’s been kind of mediocre. But the price is very good, so it’s been a really good season,” said gillnetter Steve Fossman, who added that he hasn’t seen sockeye prices this high since 1988.
“We’re finally getting paid for salmon what they’re worth,” he said.
The season isn’t completely over. The Lynn Canal fishery’s coho and wild chum runs are just getting going. Fishermen say the next week or two will give a better indication of how those runs will fare.
But preliminary state data backs the idea that the runs have been mediocre so far.
“It wasn’t huge, it wasn’t terrible,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Nicole Zeiser, describing the sockeye run on the Chilkoot River. “It came in below average.”
The fish are still trickling in, but for now, the Lynn Canal fishery’s total estimated sockeye harvest — including the Chilkoot and Chilkat runs – is about 114,000 fish. The ten-year average is 126,000 fish.
Still, the below-average harvest was much higher than what the commercial fleet saw the last two years. In both 2024 and 2025, the total harvest was closer to 65,000 sockeye.
Notably, both the Chilkoot and Chilkat sockeye runs hit the state’s escapement goals this year. Last year, the Chilkoot run did not.
“There’s been much better performance in terms of escapement versus the last two years,” Zeiser said. “It still overall wasn’t a very good run.”
The area’s other runs performed similarly. So far, the fleet has harvested 79,000 pinks, and more are coming in. But Zeiser said it wasn’t a big pink salmon year. The 10-year average is 99,000.
The area’s harvest of hatchery-produced chum was likewise just shy of the 10-year average.
