Overview
There are 5 types of commercially caught salmon – sockeye, pink, coho, chum and chinook. Figure 20 shows the total number of pieces (fish) of salmon caught in BC waters between 1982 and 2002. Over the last five years, there have been very few chinook and coho caught for conservation reasons (mainly just as by-catch), with chum (1.4 million in 2002), sockeye (3 million in 2002) and pinks (5.9 million in 2002) being the primary commercial species. It is important to note that, in 1982, 1.2 million chinook were caught with a value of $31.2 million at the landing dock and 3.2 million coho were caught with a value of $26.1 million. During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, with the exception of 1982 and 1984, the annual volume of catch of all salmon was at least double the annual catch over the last 5 years. The volume of fish available, and therefore volume caught, is down significantly over last 20 years.
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igure 20. Total Pieces of Catch by Species
Source: BC Salmon Market Database
The value of salmon caught in 2002 was $37.45 million of which sockeye made up 57% of the value (Figure 21) while they made up only 34% of the weight pointing to the higher price paid for sockeye over other types of salmon.
Salmon processing in BC takes place at the coast as historically all commercial fishing took place at sea or at the mouth of key rivers, e.g. Fraser, Skeena, and Nass. The move to more selectively regenerate stocks has required the Federal Department of Fisheries (DFO)21 to limit commercial fishing at sea and at the mouth of major rivers when stocks from a variety of sources are migrating together. The impact of these decisions in areas where runs are strong, e.g. Babine Lake sockeye run, is an over abundance of fish at specific locations inland on specific years.
Figure 21. Total Value of Catch by Species
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ource: BC Salmon Market Database
Lake Babine Sockeye Run
The main salmon species, surplus to escapement needs, on the Babine River is sockeye. Figure 22 shows the sockeye count on the river, 560 km from the ocean, up to August 20 each year for the last 23 years. In low or late run, years (1997, 1999, and 2002) between 200,000 and 300,000 sockeye are counted coming through the Lake Babine fence before August 21. In heavy or early years (2000, 2001 & 2003), the number varies from 875,000 to 1.41 million. If escapement requirements in 2000 were 400,000, many more than 1 million sockeye (29% more than was caught in all of BC that year) would have been available for harvest. It is critical to understand the significance of the size of the Babine River sockeye run relative to all the sockeye caught in BC. There is a wide variability on timing of the run and size of the run by August 20 each year over the last 23 years.
Figure 22. Babine Adult Weir: Accumulated Large Sockeye Counts (1990- 2002)
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ource: Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Pacific Region
Fish Processing - Viability
Fish processing facilities have the on-going limitation of being able to operate only when fish are available. In the case of the Babine River, when sockeye would become available commercially is at some point in the season when DFO estimates that the required escapement has or will be reached. The viability of a fish processing plant depends on the regular annual supply of fish, the quality of the fish and their success at marketing the fish at prices greater than the cost to purchase, process, hold, sell and transport the fish.
Fish processing plants, the world over, struggle where there is a large volume of fish that arrives over a short period of time and none the rest of the year. To deal with the large volume over a short period of time requires substantial investment in plant and equipment. The large investment is in flash and holding freezers and/or canning lines. A processing facility on the Babine would face this challenge.
To protect the general public, and the valuable West Coast salmon markets, the federal government has imposed strict regulations on the building and operating of fish processing plants including the handling of waste material (awful). These restrictions add to the price of constructing the building to hold the fish processing facility, well above the cost of usual industrial buildings.
Markets – River Fish Sockeye and Roe
Canadian sockeye has two main products and two main markets. Its dark read flesh holds strong demand in Japan as a whole frozen dressed product and in the UK as a canned product. In 2000, 85% of all frozen sockeye went to Japan (1989 tonnes). In the same year, 79% of canned sockeye exports went to the UK (1654 tonnes) and 12% more to Australia. Historically, only 8% are sold fresh.
The strong Japanese economy in the 1980s and 1990s combined with the Japan’s “insatiable desire for red-fleshed fish”22 created a premium price for Canadian sockeye salmon. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, prices have softened as a result of the slump in the Japanese economy and the growth of farmed salmon from Norway (trout) and Chilean coho. In 2000-01, Japan still imported a record volume of salmon but sockeye comprised only 20% of the total down from 57% in 1993-94. “Prolonged recession, the weak yen and influx of farmed fish have changed Japanese consumers purchasing habits altogether.”23 This fall in demand for BC sockeye has resulted in a significant drop in the recent price of sockeye as shown in Figure 23. The dominance of these two markets forces processors to have to guess what amounts to freeze and what amounts to can to maximize revenues.
River fish in general are sold at lower prices than fish caught in the ocean given (often assumed) quality differences. Fish caught at the Lake Babine weir have traveled 560 km from the ocean and are therefore they are assumed to be in poorer shape than ocean salmon. There are a few exceptions where fish are caught relatively short distances up short rivers, e.g. Taku River (20 km from the mouth) and achieve the same price as sea caught fish.
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igure 23. Average Fish Price by Species over Time
Source: BC Salmon Market Database
The market for very poor quality fish is as a high protein component in feed for agriculture and aquaculture. Surplus poor quality river salmon that return to some of the very successful hatcheries, e.g. Nanaimo in the 1980s, has been processed into salmon meal that is mixed with other ingredients to form high quality food for the growing salmon farm industry.
S ockeye roe sold in the sack, sujiko, is also a product sold to Japan. Cleaning and selling roe from the females that are caught is a by-product of harvesting river fish. Carefully handled, this by-product would add to the viability of processing Babine Lake sockeye.
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Salmon Roe
arketing river salmon from a remote part of BC would present a few, presently uncharted, challenges. The business would need to understand and select what roles and what marketing channels would they use to sell a substantial additional volume of sockeye into international markets.
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