Over 220 million wild salmon expected from Alaska
This year’s estimates by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game show an anticipated increase in the 2015 salmon harvest of some 40% compared to 2014, when a total of 158 million fish were caught by the commercial fishing industry.
Preliminary 2014 harvest numbers & projections for 2015 commercial salmon harvest, thousands of fish:
| Species | Chinook | Sockeye | Coho | Pink | Chum | Total |
| 2014 | 487 | 44,058 | 6,272 | 95,795 | 11,332 | 157,945 |
| 2015 (est.) | 54 | 58,773 | 4,580 | 140,268 | 17,216 | 220,891 |
Of the estimated harvest, about 58.5 million fish - or 26.5% of the total commercial salmon harvest - are expected to originate from hatcheries and other aquaculture facilities.
Of interest to the salmon farming industry in the rest of the world, when it comes to the weight of the Alaska salmon fishing industry, the 2014 preliminary numbers are available, and using the average weight of each species from that year, an estimate can be made of the tonnage that one can expect to see coming from Alaska this summer:
| Species | Chinook | Sockeye | Coho | Pink | Chum | Total |
| Weight, ’14, MT | 2,685 | 112,345 | 19,909 | 149,783 | 42,228 | 326,950 |
| ’14 # of fish, ‘000 | 487 | 44,058 | 6,272 | 95,795 | 11,332 | 157,945 |
| Avg. Weight, Kg | 5.51 | 2.55 | 3.17 | 1.56 | 3.73 | 2.07 |
| ’15 # of fish, ‘000 | 54 | 58,773 | 4,580 | 140,268 | 17,216 | 220,891 |
| Weight, ’15, MT | 298 | 149,868 | 14,538 | 219,320 | 64,155 | 457,250 |
This shows that the total estimated increase in volume of salmon coming from Alaska this year is also expected to grow by 40%, although the distribution among species will be quite different. The total volume of salmon expected to come from Alaska in 2015 will be about 22 per cent of the worldwide harvest of farmed Atlantic salmon - estimated to be 2,100,000 MT this year.
Of interest is also the amount of Chinook salmon that is expected to come out of the Copper River this year. These fish are typically held up as one of the season’s first, and are one of the most expensive fish to come out of Alaska each year. But this year only about 8,500 of these fish are expected to be harvested, meaning that the typical selling price of around US$ 40 per pound (~€ 82 per kilo) might be exceeded.
