SALMON GLUT SPAWNS MIXED BLESSING IN ALASKA.

Byline: Timothy Egan The New York Times

At a time when coastal communities in most of the United States are left with the spectral remains of once-abundant fish runs, Alaska this fall is grappling with the opposite problem: salmon so bounteous that millions of fish are being thrown away.

Like a parable of nature primed beyond its limits, Alaska's attempt to maximize its salmon output has worked so well that it has produced a crisis. Anglers complain about record low prices for their catch. Processors say the market has fallen. And food banks bemoan a missed opportunity to feed the hungry.

``We have been more than successful, and now we're paying for it,'' said Carl Rosier, the former state fish and game commissioner.

About 2.5 million pink and chum salmon, reaching the end of their life cycles, have been scooped up near shores, ground up, then dumped at sea over the last three months.

Experts say the dumping amounts to one of the biggest single incidents of wasting a valuable fish species in modern times.

``It's not something we're proud of, or something we want to repeat,'' said Geron Bruce, a special assistant to the commissioner of fish and game. ``There were no buyers for the fish, and the food banks could not figure out a way to get them.''

The glut was caused in part by a huge surge of hatchery-bred fish that occurred when the wild fish runs were also reaching a peak. Buyers say the prices are depressed because of the enormous growth in farm-raised salmon from countries like Norway, Chile and Japan.

But beyond the swings of the global fish market, Alaska's disposal of its surfeit of salmon has left many biologists scratching their heads over what the state has created. Millions in below-market state loans were used to build hatcheries for fish that nobody seems to want.

The waste of a valuable source of fresh protein has spurred plans to ensure that it never happens again. One Alaska

charity, One Heart Ministries in Anchorage, says it will use $3 million in pledged donations to begin a venture in the fish canning business. The organization plans to take all the available surplus next year, can it and distribute it to food banks across the United States.

``We're going to be there next year for all the fish that they might have to dump,'' said Patrick Bradley, a longtime fisherman who is the manager of the fleet the ministry will use to collect the fish.

Typically, the fish are caught using large nets placed near the mouths of rivers where the fish come back to spawn.

Alaskan fishermen caught about 186 million salmon a year in the five years that ended in 1995. By comparison, in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, where more than $3 billion has been spent trying to restore vanquished Pacific salmon runs, a good year's commercial catch might total 5 million fish.

``To think that we are throwing away this many fish at a time when food banks are full of people who need help and the Lower 48 is suffering with lost fish runs is just mind-boggling,'' Bradley said. ``I don't think the public is going to put up with this anymore, either.''

Gov. Tony Knowles tried to interest a number of charities and food banks in taking the excess fish this year. But he was told that it would be logistically difficult, and too costly, to catch, freeze, process and ship fish from distant Alaskan coastal villages to the rest of the country, according to Bob King, a spokesman for the governor.

Among the five species of Pacific salmon, chinook and coho are still fetching good prices, though they are down considerably from past years. The final spawning spurt of coho, also known as silver, is just occurring in Alaskan streams, during a week when most of the state is getting its first taste of winter snow. It is the last fish run of a season that begins in the spring with reds, or sockeye salmon.

There is almost no market for the smaller species, like pink and chum, King said.

``The bottom just fell out,'' he said. ``There were literally millions of these fish milling around hatcheries. We let everyone who wanted a salmon get one for free. But at one point, these fish would have caused a health hazard if we just let them rot on beaches near people's homes.''