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The price for a large halibut nearly hit $4 per pound in Juneau at the close of the 10-month halibut and black cod season last Tuesday.

A fillet from that halibut could cost up to $15 per pound in a grocery store.

"Those are the highest levels that we've ever seen," said Eric Norman, general manager of Taku Smokeries/Fisheries in downtown Juneau.

Mike Erickson, co-owner of the other Juneau seafood plant, Alaska Glacier Seafood, said he also hadn't seen prices reach that height.

He and Norman marveled at the market's acceptance of the end-of-season prices. Their plants didn't see any dip in demand from the Lower 48 despite the high prices, they said.

Most of their halibut goes to the Lower 48, particularly to the West Coast.

"People are willing to pay ever-higher prices for halibut in stores and restaurants," Norman said. "It's surprising," he added. Norman believed that halibut prices wouldn't increase any further two years ago.

The end-of-season halibut prices in Juneau were likely the highest seen at any Alaska port this year, according to other seafood industry officials contacted last week.

But if one takes Juneau's end-of-season performance out of the picture, halibut prices in Alaska were only slightly better than last year's, said Tom McLaughlin, president of the Seafood Producers Cooperative in Seattle.

"Juneau has a little bit of an advantage," McLaughlin added.

The advantage is Juneau's strategic geography.

An increasing number of fishermen are drawn to unload their halibut and black cod catch in Juneau because of its better access to fresh markets.

The capital has the region's busiest airport and thus it can send out larger amounts of more-expensive fresh product.

"Juneau's landings of halibut were the highest they've been because of our ability to quickly move (fresh) fish to market by plane and by ferry," Norman said on Friday.

"It gave us the ability to pay higher prices than some other towns with (more reliance on) freezers," Norman added.

Boats from as far away as Seattle unloaded in Juneau, Norman said.

Petersburg fisherman Ronn Bushmann delivers to Juneau, but he said the main reason is because he likes how his fish is processed at Erickson's Auke Bay plant.

"They produce a finished fillet that goes directly to the store shelves," Bushmann said.

He's not one to get ecstatic over the recent rise in halibut prices, though.

"You look back at the 1990s, we got $2 and a quarter. Now, we are getting $3 and a quarter. But the value of the dollar has changed so much that the price has really gone down," Bushmann said.

According to federal records, 98 boats delivered approximately 3.7 million pounds of halibut to Juneau's two seafood plants this year.

Sitka plants also took in about 3.7 million pounds, and Petersburg plants took about 3.4 million pounds of halibut.

The total ex-vessel value for halibut in 2005 will likely remain unknown until mid-2006.

Preliminary state figures for 2004 indicate that the ex-vessel value for halibut in Alaska reached $195 million, a $24 million increase from 2003.

• Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at elizabeth.bluemink@juneauempire.com