King salmon arrive, but they’ll cost you
Short commercial fishing season is result of 2015 drought
Struggling against windy seas, fishermen began bringing in the first of the season’s California king salmon in Moss Landing and Monterey this week during a weeklong opener. The limited quantity means the prized fillets are going for $30 to $35 a pound in stores.
The price didn’t deter Alexander Hong of the new Sorrel restaurant in San Francisco from being one of the first Bay Area chefs to order it.
“It’s a bummer that it’s a short season, but we’ll put it on the menu every day and hopefully people will notice it’s different than the normal salmon,” said Hong, who will grill the salmon over Japanese charcoal and serve it with celery root pudding and Meyer lemon sauce for around $34. He said the quality of the richer, fattier wild fish is “night and day” compared with farmed salmon.
The local commercial salmon season opened Tuesday, but only in
“The conditions are really good down there. The bay’s full of life.”
Larry Collins, of the San Francisco Community Fishing Association
the region south of Half Moon Bay for a weeklong period. It will reopen for a 12-day period in late June. The region north of Pigeon Point/Half Moon Bay to Horse Mountain/Shelter Cove (Humboldt County) will be open for salmon fishing from late July through September and part of October. The Klamath Management Zone, a coastal area in Northern California and Southern Oregon near the Klamath River, will be open for salmon fishing for most of May through August, with daily and monthly quotas.
Two fishermen from the San Francisco Community Fishing Association planned to bring up 1,000 pounds of salmon Friday after landing them in Monterey, said member Larry Collins.
“The conditions are really good down there. The bay’s full of life,” said Collins, who noted there are a lot of squid and anchovies for the salmon to feed on and that the fish are coming in larger than normal for this early in the season.
Boat prices are around $12 per pound for whole fish, sellers said. Additional unloading fees and transportation and filleting costs are then added to determine the retail price.
Monterey Fish Market in Berkeley has California king salmon for $29.99 per pound, while Bi-Rite in San Francisco is selling it for $34.99 per pound at its two locations. Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley planned to start selling it Friday.
Usually open from at least May to September, this year’s California commercial salmon season is very limited because the current batch of adult salmon were born during the drought in 2015, which made their Sacramento River spawning grounds too warm and killed off many juvenile salmon.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council, the government organization that sets seasons for California, Oregon and Washington, limits what fishermen can take in part to make sure there are enough adults to return to the spawning grounds from year to year and maintain the population.
Dave Budworth of Marina Meats in San Francisco said he’s not going to carry king salmon for now because of the high prices. He thinks it would be better to wait it out until there is more fish on the market.
“I personally think they shouldn’t have a season this year,” Budworth said, “and just let the fish replenish.”