Simplicity Shines with Copper River Salmon Season Opens May 22 with New Simple Consumer Focused Recipes on Deck

For Immediate Release:

May 15, 2025

Cordova, Alaska— The Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association is pleased to announce that 2025 season will launch on May 22.

The  Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game forecasts a strong Copper River sockeye season with an excellent total run forecast of 2,638,000, which is 50% above the recent ten-year average. Given the strong projection, the Association is geared up with “Simplicity Shines with Copper River Salmon.”

This campaign features new recipes, tools, and tips, all of which were designed with home cooks, both novice and experienced, in mind. Using straightforward techniques of baking, pan roasting and grilling, the recipes call for basic pantry ingredients such as butter, garlic, and panko and simultaneously add fresh seasonal flair by incorporating readily available herbs such as basil, mint, and cilantro. 

Recipes on deck include a Baked Sockeye with Basil Breadcrumbs, Pan Roasted Sockeye with Lemon Dill Compound Butter and a Grilled Sockeye with Chimichurri. Each recipe can be made in well under thirty minutes and calls for only about five ingredients. Additional recipes using those core techniques were developed to show cooks how they can use the same basic technique with slightly different flavors.

The recipes are on the website and will be available at select seafood counters around the country. On the website, cooks can find further information in the Questions on Deck and Tools for the Task sections which address some of the basic salmon cooking questions that arise during the season and offer insights into some of our favorite tools to have on hand when cooking. 

Executive Director Christa Hoover explains, “It’s been more than 40 years now since the legacy of fresh Copper River salmon leaped into the marketplace and I am really excited to be featuring Simplicity Shines for retailers and consumers alike. We know that consumers want quick straightforward recipes and insights into how to cook salmon and we have used that as our compass while crafting this content.”

Hoover has made the Baked Sockeye with Basil Breadcrumb recipe numerous times recently and reports it’s been great every time. However, she is particularly excited about the Pan Roasted recipes with the compound butters. She explains, “The classic compound butters are so quick and affordable to make, and they bring a luscious French-inspired sauce to our fish with very little effort on the cook’s end. We truly hope these recipes help consumers savor the essence of our salmon in its simplest seasonal form— fresh from our precious Copper River Delta to dinner plates across America! “

For more, check out Simplicity Shines with Copper River Salmon. 

For additional inspiration, follow along on the Copper River Salmon Facebook and Instagram pages, which will feature videos, tips and more throughout the season.

For additional information, contact:

Christa Hoover, Executive Director

Copper River/PWS Marketing Association

Box 199, Cordova, AK 99574:: t: 907.424.3459 

www.copperriversalmon.org :: www.copperrivermarketing.org 

www.soundsalmon.org