20-Pound King Salmon Could Cost You $1,000 Copper River Salmon Here! Now Expect to Pay a Lot for It
Posted on: Saturday, 17 May 2008, 06:00 CDT
By John Gillie, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
May 17--Good news and bad news for you "afishiandos."
The good news first: The first Copper River salmon of the year arrived Friday at Sea-Tac Airport via Alaska Airlines.
Now the bad: High winds and waves in Alaska hindered fishing Thursday, so the first fishing day yielded relatively few fish.
That translates to limited availability and sky-high prices. Initial prices are enough to make ordinary mortals consider tapping their home equity line of credit or praying to win the Mega Millions jackpot.
At Metropolitan Market in Tacoma, meat and seafood buyer Larry Heigaard said quantities of Copper River fish are limited.
"We got the same number of fish we usually allocate to just one store that has to be divided among all our stores," he said.
Prices are set at $29.99 a pound for whole king salmon and $38.99 a pound for fillets. For Copper River sockeye, the price at Metropolitan is $23.99 a pound for a whole fish and $33.99 a pound for fillets.
"We tried to keep the price from going completely over the moon," he said.
At Tacoma's Northern Fish Co., the few Copper River king salmon were going for $50 a pound. At Johnny's Seafood Co. on downtown Tacoma's Foss Waterway, no Copper River fish were available Friday. When the fish become available, said a clerk, the price is likely to be somewhere north of $45 a pound. At those prices, a 20-pound king could go for $1,000.
Russ Casteel, seafood buyer for Haggen Food and Pharmacy and Top Food & Drug stores, said conditions in Cordova, Alaska, where the Copper River fish are landed, were rough.
"We started the day with 50-knot winds and swells of 12 to 15 feet," Casteel said Friday. "Only 50 percent of the fleet was able to get out and fish, and half of those boats returned by noon Thursday."
The first shipment of the coveted and hyped fish touched down in Seattle about 6 a.m. Friday and were hustled to Alaska Airlines' cargo hangar, where they were given a celebrity greeting complete with flashing cameras and official greeters.
Alaska expected to ship about 7,500 pounds of the fish from Cordova to Seattle and beyond Friday. The airline had planned to transport about 20,000 pounds of the fish.
The fish on the first plane went to four seafood processors: Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Bear and Wolf Salmon C., Trident Seafoods and Copper River Seafoods. Except in rare cases, expect to see the Copper River fish begin to reach restaurants and stores early next week after the weather calms.
Alaska will further transport some of the fish to the upscale eateries on the East Coast on passenger flights where restaurant patrons will pay even more for the privilege of biting into the first of the oil-rich salmon of the year.
Alaska and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, transport 150 million pounds of seafood a year. Alaska has invested in conversions of six 737-400 aircraft into freighter and freighter/passenger configurations to handle the seafood and other cargo loads.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
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