Products | Fresh and Frozen | Sockeye Salmon

Sockeye Salmon

(Oncorhynchus nerka)

Physical characteristics: In ocean-caught fish, skin color is bright silver, and the back is a bright blue to blue-green. The sockeye will have very faint, small speckles on it's back as well, but none on it's fins. An ocean-going sockeye and chum are often confused due to their similar appearance. In more mature fish entering fresh water to spawn, the skin color darkens from a gray-pink ("watermark" or "blush") to a red ("redskin"). Mature male sockeye develop a strong ridge on their backs and ultimately become bright red with green heads. The weight range on sockeye is from 2-15#, but most commercially caught fish range from 2-10# on a dressed headless basis.

Seasonality: Typically May through September, depending on area.

Major catch areas: Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, California, Russia, Japan.

Harvest method: Most sockeye are net-caught, using gill-net or seine. A small amount of production out of Canada and southeast Alaska is troll-caught.

Product forms:

• Fresh: Dressed head-on (troll fish) and headless (net-caught fish), and as skin-on fillets (skin-on or off and with or without skin). Also sometimes available in steak or roast form.
• Frozen: Dressed headless and dressed head-on, graded 2/4#, 4/6#, 6/9# and 9#/+ by quality grade of bright, blush and redskin.
• Value-added: IQF and vacuum-packed steaks in 2 ounce increments from 4-10 ounce, IQF and vacuum-packed fillet portions in 2 ounce increments from 4-10 ounce. Portions can be produced either bone-in or boneless and either skin-on or skinless. Additionally, product is often sold as sides (meaning skin-on and rib-bones/pinbones-in), whole fillets (skin on/ boneless) and roasts. Other product forms include smoked and canned.

Flavor/texture profile: Sockeye salmon has the reddest meat color of all the salmon species. With an oil content slightly lower than the king salmon, sockeye is nonetheless very oily and rich. Texture is firm. Meat color does not lighten as much as other species with the reaching of sexual maturity, nor does it with cooking. Flake size is medium.

Notes: Because of it's traditional high value and abundance, the sockeye salmon is the most valuable salmon species caught in the United States. It is traditionally prized by the Japanese for it's red flesh color and high oil content, and as a result this fish can all but disappear from US and European markets on occasion when Japanese buyers push the market price to levels other world markets can't pay. Sockeye is a premium fish for smoking and food service applications, but wild market fluctuations can make it difficult to slot into long-term programs. Sockeye salmon is also referred to as red salmon and blueback salmon.