Not only are the Southeast Alaska commercial fishing fleets earning higher prices this summer for king and chum salmon, but chums are weighing in about 30% heavier on average than last year.

At 6 million chum hooked or netted by the commercial troll and net fleets as of Aug. 14, the extra weight is worth more than $18 million over last year’s average size.

This summer’s chums are averaging 9.1 pounds, more than 2 pounds chunkier than last year and 1.9 pounds better than the five-year average, the Department of Fish and Game reported in its weekly statistics summary on Aug. 14.

The average price paid for Southeast chums was $1.55 a pound as of Aug. 14, more than double last year’s 66 cents.

Prices for troll-caught chums have been reported as high as $1.75 per pound. Grant Hagerman, the department’s Sitka-area fisheries biologist, said that’s the highest he can remember in his 20 years with the department.

High market demand is driving the record price for chum this year and spurred buyers from Haines, Pelican, Ketchikan and Wrangell to send tender vessels to buy chum from Sitka trollers, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reported on Aug. 14.

Since processors preserve chum eggs for Japanese “ikura,” or salmon caviar markets, Southeast fishermen sell their chum salmon whole and don’t have to clean or even bleed the fish, which makes for easier fishing, the newspaper reported.

As an added bonus, pink salmon also bite trollers’ chum gear, and troll-caught pinks are fetching a strong price of between 60 and 85 cents per pound this season, according to the Daily Sitka Sentinel.

Summer chum salmon runs, however, have concluded for the year in most areas, the department said.

Similar to chum prices, the average price for Southeast king salmon this year is $9.33 a pound, up 40% from last year’s $6.67 average, according to Fish and Game reports. The $9-plus price is more common during the winter season, when there are not many fish on the market.

But unlike their chum cousins, kings are weighing in smaller this year, at an average 10.3 pounds, down from last year’s 11.2 pounds and down by half a half-pound from the five-year average.

Coho also are fetching much higher prices this year, averaging $2.47 a pound, the department said, up from $1.84 last year, and coming in heavier, at 5.8 pounds, up 0.7 pounds from last year’s average.

The department has not released any prices for pink salmon, which averaged 25 cents a pound last year for the net fleet.

Seafood processors are generally private about releasing prices paid for commercial harvests.

In the Wrangell area, Districts 6 and 8, the gillnet fishery for pink salmon opened for four days on Aug. 9 and for another four days on Aug. 16. “Effort was above the recent 10-year average in District 6 and below average in District 8,” the department reported.

“Pink salmon fishery performance was above average” for the opening of Aug. 9, with 54 boats fishing in District 6 taking 2,000 sockeye, 9,000 coho, 67,000 pink and 8,000 chum salmon. The 23 boats working in District 8 during the Aug. 9 opener netted 100 sockeye, 2,000 coho, 3,000 pink and 30,000 chum.

“Harvests and harvest rates of pink and coho salmon were above average in both districts,” the department said, adding, “sockeye salmon runs throughout the region are generally coming in near or above expectations.”

It’s been a good season — not great — for pinks, the department said. “Overall, this week’s (Aug. 9) pink salmon fishery performance continued to be very strong for the time of year,” it said for Districts 6 and 8. 

“Management emphasis will transition from pink salmon to coho salmon abundance starting in late August or early September.”

Most of Southeast’s commercial pink salmon catch is netted by purse seiners, which started their season with an Aug. 6 opening, followed by a two-day opening on Aug. 14.

“Despite a historically slow start to the season, pink salmon harvest is on track to meet forecast,” the department reported on Aug. 14. “Over 8 million pink salmon were harvested during the past two openings, bringing the season’s total harvest to over 10 million pink salmon.”

The department now expects the Southeast harvest to come in around 19 million pinks, at the lower end of the pre-season forecast range of 19 million to 33 million.