WHY

Any troller knows that troll caught salmon is the ultimate in premium quality seafood, but our fleet lacks the branding and marketing needed to grow premium markets for our fish. We face increasing competition from other salmon producers, both wild and farmed, that have effective marketing programs, putting trollers at an immediate disadvantage in the marketplace. Southeast Alaska’s trollers are often being paid less for dressed coho than fishermen in other regions are being paid for round gillnet sockeye. These poor circumstances have resulted in S15B permit prices falling by 63% over the past 10 years and dwindling participation in the fishery. The future of our fishery is in jeopardy as trollers struggle to run profitable businesses under current market conditions.

The good news is that Southeast Alaska’s trollers can do something about these concerning trends and create a more profitable future for our fishery. We have the product, the story, and the opportunity to grow market demand and prices for troll-caught salmon, but it will require a robust regionally-focused marketing program dedicated to serving and promoting Southeast’s troll fleet.

Copper River’s drift gillnet fishery is a prime example of what’s possible through regional seafood marketing. Using funds generated through an annual 1% assessment paid by Copper River’s drift gillnet fleet, they have developed a regional brand for its salmon and now command the highest prices in the salmon marketplace.

The above photo from 2023 shows Copper River gillnet king salmon fetching a 55% higher price in the marketplace than SE hook and line caught troll kings. Prices were likely even higher for Copper River kings in other markets. Why? Copper River has an effective fisherman-supported marketing program.

The chart above shows the last 50 years ex-vessel pricing/lb for SE troll caught coho from 1975-2024. The blue line is ex-vessel price and the red line shows ex-vessel price adjusted for inflation.

Due to inflation, the purchasing power of the dollar has decreased over time.  For example; in 1975, $1 would buy the same amount of goods and services as would cost $6 today.  When looking at the chart, we see that fishermen were paid around $1-2/lb (blue line) in the mid 70's and 80's for troll coho, however, when we factor for inflation (red line) we see that they were being paid far more in true purchasing power for their coho during that time period than we are today.

Following these trendlines out, we can see that our dockprices aren't keeping pace with inflation (if they had, we'd be receiving roughly $6/lb for iced coho at the dock). We are effectively getting paid less for our fish year over year, creating tighter operating margins and making a successful trolling business more difficult to keep afloat.

There is nothing stopping Southeast Alaska’s troll fishermen from doing what other fisheries have done by establishing our own Regional Seafood Development Association (RSDA). By pooling together our resources and investing in a marketing program tailored to Southeast’s unique troll fishery and story, we can be more competitive in the marketplace and get the premium price that our premium fish deserve.

See the FAQ section to learn more about how we can set up an RSDA for Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery.