Salmon teams ride wave

Professional salmon fishermen in the Great Southern are feeling the financial pinch of the COVID-19 crisis, but for one team in Denmark, it is about much more than money. The salmon team that fish from Parry Beach in Denmark are remaining positive despite a season that has been cut short because of the dramatic drop in demand. Fisherman Mark Shepherd, who has been salmon fishing for 30 years, said the team had wrapped up for the year but the time spent fishing and camping at the beach with their families was invaluable. “We used to get up to 400 tonne and then some went to canning,” Mr Shepherd said. “The industry has been quite turbulent. We just love fishing and being out the beach with our wives and kids. “There are six of us here that do the main operation but the beach is full; it’s a pretty busy time when we are catching the salmon. “We haven’t made money for a couple of years — basically covered our costs — but we get to do what we love for a couple of months. “This started up in the 50s and the licence has been handed down through the families involved.” The Parry Beach team has a processing facility at Bow Bridge, where they blast freeze the fish, then truck it to their main supplier Mendolia Seafoods in Fremantle. Mr Shepherd said the global health crisis had limited the amount of fish their suppliers could take. “Every year is different but we got a reasonable amount of fish and were ready to fill orders,” he said. “But the flow wasn’t happening, Mendolia’s cold storage and freezer space was full and they just can’t take any more fish, so we are finishing up this week.” Fellow commercial fisherman Tony Westerberg, who catches salmon from Cheyne Beach, said it had been a low-key season. “We have our cannery and have done a few for the bait market but it’s all been low key,” he said. “There has been a few fish around but we haven’t been able to catch many — everything has been impacted.” The salmon team at Betty’s Beach, headed by Paul Benson, was also finishing up due to low demand. “We’ve sold 21/2 tonne to the cannery in Fremantle and another 8-10 tonne to Tony Westerberg, but we’ve been unable to catch lots of salmon due to the poor market demand,” Mr Benson said.