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Jason Velie, head filleter at Peninsula Processing and Smokehouse, packs ice onto fresh king salmon. Processors, like many who rely on salmon for their livelihood, are feeling the strain of the weak sockeye return to the Kenai River.
Photo by Josph Robertia
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From dipnetters to commercial driftneters, and packers to processors, the weak return of sockeye to the Kenai River is being felt by many who look to salmon for their livelihood.
“It’s been slow, really slow,” said Mercedies Piercee of Soldotna who, along with her family, hadn’t reaped many fish for the time they invested holding a dipnet in the water under the Warren Ames Memorial Bridge.
“We fished (Wednesday) night for two to thee hours and only got one that was so small we let it go. Today we’ve been at it for about a half an hour with nothing,” she said Thursday.
Red Piercee, Mercedie’s mother, said the slow dipnetting was upsetting.
“We’ve only got two fish toward our household limit of 65. Normally we could be about half-way there by now. This year is really depressing,” she said.
Personal use fishermen aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch from the lack of sockeye. Many commercial fishermen are seeing near-empty nets.
Rather than fishing more to compensate for low harvests, though, some fishermen are opting to fish less in an effort to cut their losses.
“I can’t justify going out,” said Cosmo Mercurio, a driftnetter from Cohoe.
“It’s a fuel issue. At close to $3 a gallon for diesel, you need a minimum catch to break even, so I’m fishing less,” he said.
Mercurio said if things pick up, he’ll be on the water more, but as is stands right now, “This is the weakest catch I can remember, and I’ve fished since ’72,” he said.
Mercurio added that restrictions pulling commercial fisherman over to the roughly three-mile-wide corridor have hindered fishing, but he stands by biologists’ decisions because, to him the sustainability of the resource is more important than making a buck.
“I can live with the restrictions. I want the resource to survive and be there in the future. But, if it is a resource issue, than I hope all users group share in the restrictions, if necessary,” he said.
No sockeye for Mercurio also means no fish for the packers and processors that would normally buy from him and other commercial fishermen.
“The run levels projected are a concern,” said Paul Dale, president of Snug Harbor Seafoods in Kenai.
“The obvious downside is we all have a minimum breakeven point,” he said
A capital investment must be put out to have equipment, supplies and paid employees on hand prior to the arrival of salmon, Dale said. But, if few fish come in, then little money is made to offset these expenses.
“(Employees) are here wheth-er you do a pound or 10 million pounds,” he said.
Dale said he is looking to other areas beyond the Kenai River in order to keep the plant’s production in line with its costs.
“I’m trying to fill the void with products from other areas, such as kings, sockeyes and chums from Bristol Bay, the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim region.”
David Brindle, plant manager at Pacific Star Seafoods in Kenai, said he has had to make similar changes in his operation.
“With the fishing so slow here, the vast majority of our production will likely come from different areas, such as Bristol Bay, Prince William Sound and Lower Cook Inlet,” he said.
Tim Berg, owner of Peninsula Processing and Smokehouse on Kalifornsky Beach Road, said his business also is feeling the strain of so few salmon.
“It’s tough with no sockeye. As far as processing goes, business is down about 50 percent,” he said.
Berg added that no fish was also a downer for him because he recently invested in several pieces of equipment to increase the amount of salmon his operation can process, such as a roll-stock vacuum packaging machine capable of vacuum-packing 1,000-pounds of salmon an hour. Berg’s said his smokers can also handle as much as 2,000 pounds of fish a day.
“We’re all geared up, we just need to get the sockeye now,” he said.
Berg — like Piercee, Mercurio, Dale and Brindle — said he will remain optimistic that a big return of sockeye is still coming, it’s just running late.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.
