Bristol Bay’s famed wild Alaska sockeye salmon is going to improve as the processors told fishermen that better quality is important to survive in this fast changing market. Scott Blake, president of Copper River Seafoods, was speaking in a meeting of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association during the 2009 Pacific Marine Expo. He told that this a better option to run good business.
Blake and spokesmen for three other processors of Bristol Bay sockeye were united in their emphasis that better quality of red salmon is the need of the hour so that it will compete with more readily on a global scale and garner harvesters a better image and a better price. The industry also has to add value, said Greg Blakey, president and owner of Snopac Products Inc., in Seattle.
Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association is on the right track to help with improvements. It is informed that the association, which represents 1,850 driftnet vessels, advocates for continued improvements in the handling of sockeye, from the moment the fish are brought on board and picked from the nets.
The Bristol Bay fishery in 2009 had an estimated value of nearly $130 million. The overall world supply of sockeye is generally a split of 70 percent farmed and 30 percent wild salmon. Most of the world’s wild sockeye is caught in Bristol Bay, but the bay contributes only 3 percent of the world’s supply.
