Chairman of the Board for Ocean Beauty Seafood's Talks Sockeye in Dillingham

This year’s sockeye fishery in Bristol Bay was a major topic of discussion Saturday during the first “Business of Fish” workshop of the season. The workshop was held in Dillingham and was sponsored by the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation. Robin Samuelsen Junior is the Chairman of the Board. He observed that the price fishermen receive for their sockeye catch has been increasing in recent years. “Today we are looking at between $1.75 and $2-dollars a pound for sockeye this season.” This past season saw the base price for sockeye increase from $1-dollar a pound in 2012 up to $1.50-a pound. The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation is heavily invested in the commercial sockeye fishery in Bristol Bay, including owning 50-percent of Ocean Beauty Seafood’s. Samuelsen is the Chairman of the Board for Ocean Beauty, which produces about 165-million pounds of salmon products a year in Alaska. “This year I think there will be a real shortage of fish. So demand should be up.” Saturday’s “Business of Fish” workshop in Dillingham was just the first of 3 workshops in the region. A similar workshop will be held Wednesday in Togiak and the workshop in Naknek will be Saturday, April 26th at the Bristol Bay Borough School. The workshops are open to the public and they are free.