This year it appears to be both feast and famine. About 1.7 million cases of canned pink salmon, part of 1995's catch, are gathering dust in a Seattle warehouse.
Market demand is slack at the same time that nets are coming up completely full.
Many fishermen have put their boats in dry dock rather than pull in pink salmon at the going rate of five to eight cents a pound. The salmon glut, however, has had little impact on supermarket prices. Regardless of the supply, retailers can pretty much set their own prices, says Vincent Curry of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association. Fishermen are not the only Alaskans being hit by the crisis of plenty. The salmon boats support an entire onshore economy in Alaska that is boom or bust, depending on the fortunes of the fishermen.