Icicle Seafoods was the first buyer at Bristol Bay to post base prices for sockeye at $1.35 a pound, up from the average $1.26 last year, and $0.40 for chums, an increase of 4 cents.

KDLG in Dillingham reported that Icicle also is paying 15-cent bonuses for iced or RSW fish for both drift and setnetters, plus 8 cents more for chilled/bled, and a 5-cent premium for floated fish. All told, that’s $1.63 per pound for sockeyes at Bristol Bay.

Alaska General Seafoods, North Pacific Seafoods and Peter Pan Seafoods at Bristol Bay also have posted a sockeye base of $1.35.

Kodiak base prices have taken a dip with reports of $1.45 for sockeyes, $0.27 for pinks and $0.25 for chums. That compares to last year's averages of $1.56, $0.39 and $0.51.

At Cook Inlet, sockeye prices were reported at $1.70, down from $2.27.

Southeast Alaska trollers were averaging $5.13 a pound for kings, $1.56 for silvers and $0.61 for chums, according to fish tickets. Prices for seine and gillnet salmon were reported at $0.55 for chums, down from $0.90; sockeyes at $1.90, a drop of six cents, and $0.30 for pinks, down from $0.38 per pound on average last year.

At Norton Sound, chum prices at $0.50 were down from $0.80, and coho at $1.40 was the same as last year.

Average Alaska salmon prices per pound across all regions (not including bonuses) for 2018 were:

King - $5.98

Sockeye - $1.33

Silver - $1.34

Chum - $0.78

Pink - $0.45

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Laine Welch has covered the Alaska fish beat for print and radio since 1988. She has also worked “behind the counter” at retail and wholesale seafood companies in Kodiak and Cape Cod. Click here to send her an email.

You can read more from Laine at alaskafish.news. 

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