A cheer went up Monday afternoon as the Madrone, a local gillnet boat, pulled up to the public docks in Steveston, heavily laden with sockeye salmon.

Claudia Vallance of White Rock was near the front of a very long line of people waiting to buy Fraser River sockeye at $15 a fish, or four for $50.

"It doesn't get fresher than this," said Vallance, who had been standing in line for about two hours for a chance to buy sockeye at about half the price they typically sell for.

The Madrone had just returned from the Fraser after a fifth commercial opening Monday, something local gillnetters haven't seen for years.

The lineups had started earlier in the day.

"There were about 400 people waiting at one o'clock," said John Mauriks, a northern troller who sells fish from his boat at the public docks. "They (the fish boats) sold out quickly."

This is the first time local gillnetters have been able to fish for sockeye for four years.

The returns this year have stunned everyone. This year's return is now predicted to come in at around 30 million -- more than double the best estimates.

The public docks were just as busy on the weekend, with the public lugging away several fish per customer.

Agnes Jackman of New Westminster came away with several seven-pounders at $20 per fish.

"It's less than three bucks per pound -- that's pretty darned good for salmon," she said.

Mauriks doesn't have an Area E gillnet licence, so the only salmon he had to sell -- springs and coho caught in the Queen Charlottes in July and August -- sold quickly.

There has been a spillover, he said, with consumers also buying his frozen tuna.

"Our tuna business has just gone through the roof," he said.

Mauriks thinks public attitudes towards conservation has a lot to do with how brisk fish sales have been.

When returns are low, many consumers are reluctant to buy fish that they fear may be threatened. So with an estimated 30 million sockeye returning, he thinks consumers feel good about buying and eating fresh fish -- even fish other than sockeye.

"It's a situation where there's a big surplus. People feel good about eating salmon now," Mauriks said.

While he's happy to see commercial fisherman having a good year for once, Ernie Crey, fisheries advisor for the Sto:lo First Nation, worries that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is allowing the commercial sector to catch too much fish too fast.

"There's been too much fishing too quickly and the catch has exceeded the ability of industry to handle it," he said. "I'm saying they (DFO) are being too generous with these openings."

Fishermen have been having a hard time finding ice and totes, and processors are now turning some fishermen away, saying they have no more cold storage.

"The big trouble is a lot of these companies have had difficulty getting employees," says John Cummins, (MP for Delta-Richmond East).

Crey advocates for allowing more fish to escape up river to spawn.

Recently, Carl Walters, a fisheries biologist at the University of British Columbia, has criticized DFO's harvest targets of 30 per cent, saying it could be a lot higher, which would mean allowing commercial fishermen to catch even more fish.

Crey doesn't buy the theory that lakes and streams can be overloaded with too many spawners.

He said fish that find a spawning ground overcrowded simply move on to some other stream bed and lay their eggs.

What's more, he said there is a wider ecological benefit when there is an abundance of spawning, dying salmon.

Bears and eagles, in particular, thrive on spawning salmon.

"Fish find a place to spawn," Crey said.

"What's more, those fish meet the needs of other critters besides human beings."

While most fishermen have contracts to sell their fish to processors and seafood companies, many also like to sell some of their fish right off their boat or out of the backs of trucks, because they get a better price.

Crey fears the market will soon be so saturated that some fishermen may resort to dumping fish they can't sell.

There are already signs of market saturation, with the price of fish sold to processors dropping from $1.75 to 80 cents per pound, according to Cummins.

But he doubts any fisher would bother going out to catch more fish if he knows he will have a hard time getting rid of it.