Salmon fishers eligible for aid
Feds step up assistance plan as prices continue to fall

Ericka Pizzillo, The Bellingham Herald

The federal government is offering Washington and Alaska salmon fishers financial assistance because foreign imports have caused Pacific salmon prices to drop by one-third during the last five years.

The federal Foreign Agricultural Service determined that increasing imports of farmed salmon fillets, mostly from farmed Atlantic salmon raised in Chile and British Columbia, have "contributed importantly" to a 32.6 percent drop in the price of salmon in Washington during the past five years, said Roy Henwood, spokesman for the federal agency.

The service found that prices on Alaska salmon dropped by 34.7 percent during the past five years, Henwood said.

Frozen farmed salmon fillets have flooded U.S. markets, increasing from 81,400 tons in 1997 to 205,700 tons in 2002 and causing the prices of salmon worldwide to decline, according to the research from the agricultural service.

For example, the price paid to Puget Sound gill-netters for sockeye dropped from $1.23 per pound to 91 cents per pound during the past five years, according to the petition for assistance filed by the Puget Sound Salmon Commission.

There are about 6,000 permit holders and crew members in Washington eligible for the assistance, said Chris Bieker, outreach coordinator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is taking applications for the program.

There are 38 Puget Sound salmon permit holders in Whatcom County, a decline from 260 in 1999 when the state started a permit buy-back program to reduce the fishing fleet. More Whatcom County residents may hold permits to fish for salmon in Washington waters outside the Puget Sound.

There are also more than 1,500 Alaska salmon permit holders who live in Washington state, but it's unclear how many are from Whatcom County. Some county residents fish in for sockeye in Bristol Bay and sockeye and kings on the Copper River delta.

An unknown number of commercial tribal fishers may also eligible for the program, Bieker said.