Wild Premium Salmon
Since 1987
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Alaska's Salmon Harvest is Wild, Sustainable,and Pure.There
are five species of wild Alaska salmon:   Sockeye or Red
(Oncorhynchus nerka), Chinook or King(Oncorhynchus
tshawytscha), Coho or Silver(Oncorhynchus kisutch), Keta or
Chum (Oncorhynchus keta), and Pink or Humpy
(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha).   

Wild Alaska Salmon are anadromous, meaning they grow in the
ocean, and spawn in the rivers. Salmon spawn only once in their
lives. After spawning, the adults die; their own decomposing
bodies feeding their young fry.   
Wild Salmon return to their natal stream to spawn, passing
through enclosed bays and shallow water, on their way to the
upriver spawning grounds. Alaska’s fishery managers take
advantage of the anadromous behavior of salmon. They observe
and count the fish, and ensure that sufficient numbers of adult
spawners escape the fishery, and swim up the rivers to spawn.
Salmon also school tightly, and do not mix very much with
other species of fishes. This means that commercial salmon
fishing has virtually no incidental catch, or bycatch, of non-
salmon fishes.   

Alaska wild salmon are caught only in specific, tightly regulated
areas within state waters up to three nautical miles offshore.
They are harvested by commercial and sport fishermen; many
of whom are families, and Alaska Natives. Most Commercial
Fishermen in Alaska are owner-operators, meaning they are
independent business men and women operating their own
boats.   Every aspect of Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries is strictly
regulated, closely monitored, and rigidly enforced.

The State of Alaska’s statutes and regulations control such
factors as:   
  • Fishing areas – prohibit harvests too far offshore where the
    incidental catch of wild salmon bound for other rivers
    would be too high, or too close inshore where the salmon
    are crowded, and too vulnerable. In managing the fisheries
    on an in-season, day-to-day basis, Alaska’s salmon fishery
    managers can open and close certain areas to fishing in
    response to fish behavior, water levels, and other
    conditions. This allows a reasonable separation of salmon
    so that each fishery targets a specific run of fish.   
  • Fishing licenses – rigidly limited by a system known as
    “limited entry”. This means that anyone wishing to fish for
    wild salmon must purchase an existing license from
    another license owner, because new licenses are not issued.
    This allows for rational management of the fishery,
    without undue impacts to the long-term health of the
    salmon stocks.   
  • Fishing gear – purse seines and gillnets must be
    constructed of multi-filament mesh, rather than the less-
    visible monofilament. They must float at the surface where
    their catch can be observed. All nets are limited in their
    length, depth, and periods of operation, as are the gear and
    operation of troll (hook) gear. Trawl nets are not allowed
    for wild salmon. The fishing gear itself, and the way it is
    fished, virtually eliminates incidental catch of marine
    mammals or birds.   

Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries management system is well-
crafted and has served well for almost four decades, as
demonstrated by the sustainability of Alaska’s salmon harvests.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries sets harvest policies, regulations,
and allocations, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game
(ADFG) conducts biological research, and enforces the Board’s
decisions. The dominant goal is the harvest policy known as
“fixed escapement”. This means that management’s first
priority is to ensure that sufficient numbers of adult spawning
wild salmon escape capture in the fishery in the ocean and are
allowed to spawn in the rivers, thus maintaining the long-term
health of the stocks.  
Escapement goals can be reliably achieved for each species,
each stock, every year. All human uses of salmon, especially
commercial fishing, are subordinate to this guiding principle.
Because of the natural variability of environmental conditions
such as El Niño, the total number of adult fish returning to
spawn may vary. In order to maintain escapement, it is the
commercial harvest that fluctuates from year to year.   The
salmon fisheries are tactically managed while they are taking
place.
Alaska has led the way with its in-season salmon management
approach, which has become a model among fisheries
management agencies around the world. In addition, the in-
season management decisions are made from a local office, by
the biologists most knowledgeable in that fishery, rather than in
some distant headquarters. This allows ADFG to account for the
natural variability of the runs. ADFG manages over 15,000
salmon streams throughout the state.

Alaska’s abundant, well-managed commercial salmon fisheries
support a thriving commercial fishing and seafood processing
industry, by far the largest employment sector in the state. The
overwhelming majority of Alaska’s salmon are landed and
processed at seafood plants in scores of small coastal
communities all along Alaska’s 34,000 miles of coastline. These
long-established villages and towns depend on salmon as their
economic base, and therefore have a strong incentive to support
long-term, sustainable management of the fisheries.   

Alaska’s management of its fisheries is ecologically sound, in
other important ways:  
  • All Wild Alaska salmon live in their natural habitat in the
    cold, clean waters of the North Pacific Ocean. Here they
    grow to adulthood at their natural pace, eating only their
    natural foods like shrimp, herring, squid, zooplankton,
    and other marine life. They swim free on the high seas and
    then return to their natal streams on their own schedule.
    This is why Alaska’s salmon fisheries are seasonal, rather
    than year-round. Alaska salmon are wild; there are no
    salmon farms in Alaska. In order to protect Alaska’s wild
    fisheries from potential problems, salmon farming was
    prohibited by the Alaska legislature in 1990 (Alaska
    Statute 16.40.210).   
  • Alaska's wild salmon helps to support robust populations
    of bears, eagles, and a host of other species of birds and
    mammals. The abundance of these predator and scavenger
    salmon-eating species is testament to the success of Alaska’
    s salmon management. Alaska salmon are an important
    and integral part of their natural ecosystem. Unlike those
    in other parts of the world, no Alaska salmon stocks are
    threatened or endangered.  
  • Alaska’s wild salmon have been abundant for millennia,
    and they are managed to ensure their future abundance. In
    Alaska, the fish come first!
  •  Although Alaska is, by far, the largest state in the union, it
    has a population less than an average U.S. city. Owing to
    this small population and its remote location, Alaska hosts
    the cleanest and most natural marine environment of its
    size on earth.  
The State of Alaska recognizes seafood as a precious natural
resource, and the seafood industry as a vital component of the
state’s economy. Therefore, Alaska leads the nation in resource
management, quality control and conservation to ensure that
Alaska Seafood remains the world’s finest for future
generations.  

Unfortunately, other Pacific Northwest States have not been as
diligent in the long-term management and care of salmon
habitat. It is only since the listing of some species of salmon on
the National Endangered Species list that serious state and
federal attention has been drawn to the plight of salmon
habitats. Over-logging, multiple dams on major rivers, toxins
and pollutants being flushed into the rivers, population
explosions around historic salmon streams and rivers all
combine to create a unhealthy and unihabitable environment
for Pacific Northwest Salmon.   

If you would like to support salmon habitat conservation
and/or rehabilitation efforts in the Pacific Northwest, visit www.
metrokc.gov for volunteer opportunities and conservation tips.
Be sure to take their wild salmon conservation quiz.   
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