Article Category: News

Eight legislators tasked with helping to lift the Alaska seafood industry out of a financial crisis have recommended 27 specific steps related to marketing, workforce development and more, including annual meetings of the Alaska Board of Fisheries for each region. The report of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry, approved on Jan. 31, also included four primary recommendations aimed at catalyzing public and private investment, removing barriers to modernization and innovation, supporting critical infrastructure development and creating requisite conditions for the industry to thrive. Potential changes for the Alaska Board of Fisheries include replacement of the three-year rotating meeting cycle with annual meetings for each region, the addition o...

State fisheries biologists are predicting strong runs of sockeye salmon into the Copper River and wild pink and chum salmon into Prince William Sound for the upcoming 2025 commercial salmon fisheries in Alaska. An Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast released Jan. 23 estimated the run of wild sockeye salmon into the Copper River fishery, which is scheduled to open in late May, as having a forecast range of 2.2 million to 2.9 million fish, 55% above the total run 10-year average of 1.6 million fish. The Chinook salmon run into the Copper River, by comparison, is forecast with a range of 25,000 to 51,000 fish, or 25% below the total run 10-year average of 48,000 kings. For the odd-year run of pink salmon into Prince William Sound, biologists forecast a range of 8.5 million to 28....

A processing agreement forged between the cities of Saint Paul and Unalaska, thanks to an annual exemption approved by National Marine Fisheries Service, will allow for processing of 1.5 million pounds of snow crab at Unalaska, with tax benefits going to Saint Paul. “Under the circumstances, it’s a win-win for both communities,” Saint Paul City Manager Phillip Zavadil said when the deal was announced Jan. 21.  The low north region snow crab total allowable catch (TAC) is 1,576,624 pounds. Zavadil said capacity issues associated with processing low amounts of crab at the Trident Seafoods plant on Saint Paul Island had made processing and custom processing of snow crab in the northern region non-viable. “After careful consultation with crab industry partners and consideration by our cit...

The Washington state-based non-profit conservation organization Wild Fish Conservancy has notified NOAA Fisheries of its intent to sue for failure to meet deadlines under the Endangered Species Act related to Chinook salmon in Alaska. The conservancy’s notification, issued Feb. 6, noted that the once abundant Chinooks are experiencing dramatic declines in Alaska, threatening food security, indigenous cultural practices, economics and coastal communities. The WFC formally petitioned NOAA on Jan. 11, 2024, to grant ESA protections for Chinook salmon from rivers that flow into the Gulf of Alaska. The WFC said NOAA responded May 24, confirming that the petition contained substantial information indicating ESA-listing and protection may be warranted. The initial finding triggered an in-dep...

Wild Chinook salmon, a perennial favorite of seafood aficionados at upscale restaurants, is also becoming increasingly popular with a hungry, hot-blooded predator found in ocean waters from the Central Bering Sea to the coast of Oregon. “Predation by salmon sharks is on the increase,” Andrew Seitz, a researcher at the University of Alaska College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, in Fairbanks, Alaska, said. “We don’t know how long because we haven’t been doing this long enough, but signs are (that) there are a lot of them out there in the ocean.” Seitz presented his research on the decline of Chinook salmon abundance in the North Pacific Ocean during the Gulf of Alaska plenary session of the 2025 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage on Jan. 28.  “The ocean is a dangerous place ...

A collaborative project to replace a weir critical to the Copper River salmon fishery in Alaska is in jeopardy after the Trump administration froze millions of dollars in funding, including $3.5 million in construction funds for the weir project. The Copper River Watershed Project (CRWP) in Cordova, Alaska, had been working for over five years to replace the failing weir in Eyak Lake, a barrier built to control water flow, which had been in place for years.  They had worked with their project partner, The Eyak Corp. in Cordova, to finalize an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration, including $3.5 million for construction, which is a significant chunk of the overall construction cost.  Bids on the project came in just days after the Trump administration announced a funding fre...

In a somber and tense meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission in Vancouver, British Columbia, stakeholders faced with the lowest spawning biomass in 40 years opted to cut the commercial catch limits for the 2025 season by just over 18%.  The 2025 quotas were announced Jan. 31. The fishery has been scheduled to open at 6 a.m. on March 20 and run through 11:50 p.m. on Dec. 7. “The halibut spawning biomass is at historic low levels,” said Linda Behnken, a veteran commercial harvester and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “Stock productivity is low with no obvious strong year classes on the horizon,” she continued. “Reductions in catch limits are necessary, but would be less painful if Canada’s harvest was proportional to the abundance in ...

Crew training opportunities for the 2025 fishing season are being offered by the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) in an effort to match the needs of skippers with young people interested in a career in commercial fisheries. ALFA is partnering with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) in the Young Fishermen Initiative, which dates back to 2015. The objective of this crew training program is to attract younger entrants into an industry where the average fisherman’s age in Alaska is over 50. To date, over 100 apprentices have been trained and placed on local fishing vessels in Southeast Alaska, according to the two organizations. “There are always skippers looking for crew and crew looking for skippers,” ALFA communications and program director Natalie Sattler said...

The Deckhand electronic logbook, software for digital data collection, has been officially approved by the Alaska Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service for use in two fisheries, the Alaska catcher vessel trawl and fixed gear longline, the company said Jan. 24. “This approval helps advance modernization in fisheries data collection and reporting by enabling operators to finally say goodbye to traditional paper logbooks,” the Deckhand, a Bellingham, Wash.-based company, explained in a statement. Fishermen who report federally using the NMFS Daily Fishing Logbook (DFL) in catcher vessel trawl and fixed gear longline fisheries in Alaska now can subscribe to Deckhand as a fully electronic option. Those who were trialing Deckhand over the last two years and reporting to N...

By NOAA Fisheries Scientists and law enforcement officers team up to lay a foundation for strengthening NOAA Fisheries’ efforts to improve observer safety on commercial fishing vessels and in seafood processing plants. In the United States and other countries, scientists known as “fishery observers” deploy alongside fishing crews for weeks and months at a time. They also take part in shore-based monitoring in seafood processing plants. Their job is to collect essential biological data on commercial fish and crab species, information on species taken as bycatch and report on fishing regulation violations they may witness. Although U.S. fisheries are among the safest in the world, there are inherent risks that observers face while working in remote and offshore locations. Their work ...