Sound woes.

• Author: Schneider, Doug
• Position: Commercial fishing in Prince William Sound, Alaska - Industry Overview

Prince William Sound fishermen continue to hook onto bad fishing seasons.

Like most people in Cordova, Heather McCarty depends on salmon. She manages marketing and public relations for the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. (PWSAC), the region's largest salmon producer. PWSAC's five hatcheries grow most of the fish that hundreds of fishermen, including McCarty's husband, haul in each year.

But for each of the last three years, pink salmon returns have gone askew in the Sound. In 1991, pink salmon came in late and all at once, flooding processing capacity and driving down prices paid to fishermen. The next two years, pink salmon returned in dismally low numbers. The 1993 herring run was a bust, too. Biologists called off the season when diseased herring returned to spawn.

"There are people who don't have anything to live on," says McCarty. "A lot of people are just getting by, hoping things will get better."

Ed Maxwell also depends on the Sound's fisheries. Owner and operator of Alaska Power Services, a boat repair and sales shop that caters to fishermen, Maxwell says that eight mechanics worked in his shop before the fishing went bad. Now there are just three. And where craftsmen once built $300,000 worth of skiffs for commercial fishermen each year, no skiffs have been built since 1991. Maxwell says he doesn't expect things to turn around anytime soon.

"I've been here 27 years," he says. "We've had our ups and downs, but this has definitely been the longest down I've ever seen. People just aren't repairing their boats or buying new equipment because there's no money."

Hardest hit have been the Sound's pink salmon fishermen. Already wobbling from low fish prices, the region's economy took a knockout blow when salmon runs failed. To stave off bankruptcy, Gov. Walter Hickel asked the state Division of Investments not to foreclose on overdue boat and permit loans. The state agency oversees $65 million in loans to fishermen. More than half of the state's 1,200 fishermen with loans through the agency have asked for extensions since 1991, according to Martin Richard, director of the Division of Investments in Juneau.

"A big chunk of this debt is owed by fishermen from the Sound, so we're real concerned," he adds. "But we are partners in this, and we want to see these difficult times through. We have a positive outlook that things will turn around."

But even if the state decides to foreclose, it's unlikely that anyone will buy the boats and...