Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska Board of Fisheries votes to reduce Area M salmon fishing times

February 27, 2026 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries has approved some of the most severe restrictions on salmon fishing in the Area M fishery in decades.

On Feb. 25, the board approved a proposal to reduce June salmon fishing times in the area along the western Alaska Peninsula and Eastern Aleutians in a 4-3 vote. It pencils out to a loss of 136 hours for the drift fleet and 94 hours for the seine fleet. The reductions come during periods when vulnerable chum salmon stocks are present, but also when commercial fishermen are busy scooping up sockeye.

It’s a move welcomed by Western Alaska tribes and stakeholders who have faced years of record-low chum salmon returns on the Kuskokwim River, and complete salmon fishing closures on the Yukon River.

But they also say the reductions don’t go far enough. The original version of the approved proposal was submitted by Bethel’s tribe, and it called for a 10-day consecutive closure in the June fishery.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Silver Bay Seafoods halts processing in Cordova for 2026

February 27, 2026 — Silver Bay Seafoods will be offering support and buying salmon from harvesters in Cordova during the 2026 season, but only processing the catch in Seward and Valdez.

That’s due to low salmon forecasts, according to the company.

“Silver Bay Seafoods will be buying salmon in all Prince William Sound drift and seine fisheries in 2026 and we will continue to provide fleet services in Cordova,” Branson Spiers, chief operating officer for Silver Bay, said on Feb. 24. “Given the low salmon forecasts in PWS, we’ve developed an operational plan that prioritizes fishermen opportunity and economics, with processing planned in Valdez and Seward.”

In 2027, Silver Bay expects to see higher forecasts and will adjust its operational plans accordingly, the company said.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: ADF&G forecasts excellent 2026 sockeye salmon run in Upper Cook Inlet

February 27, 2026 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is forecasting an excellent sockeye salmon season in the Upper Cook Inlet this year, with an expected run of 7.6 million fish and available harvest of 5.6 million fish.

Though higher than average, that would still be notably lower than the surge of sockeye that returned in the 2025 run. The state estimated a 2025 run of 11.5 million sockeye, 4.6 million more than the preseason forecast of 6.9 million fish. According to ADF&G, commercial fishers were able to harvest 3.4 million sockeye in 2025 – 60 percent more than the average annual harvest over the last 20 years.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Trump administration defends Biden-era rejection of Pebble mine by EPA

February 26, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble copper and gold project, saying the Environmental Protection Agency properly exercised its authority to prevent adverse impacts to a “globally significant” fishery in Bristol Bay.

The Feb. 17 court filing by the Department of Justice continues the Trump administration’s opposition to the proposed mine, a departure from the president’s aggressive pro-development agenda that includes support of U.S. mineral production in Alaska.

The Pebble project sits on state land about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership brought the case in 2024, suing EPA over its decision to block the mine under a little-used provision in the Clean Water Act. The agency had said the mine would cause “unacceptable, adverse” harm to the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Legislation would loosen restrictions on Board of Fisheries members’ deliberations

February 26, 2026 — During his 20 years as a member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, Petersburg commercial fisherman John Jensen relied on a lifetime of experience harvesting salmon, crab and other shellfish as he voted on statewide fisheries regulations.

But he couldn’t always weigh in with his wisdom. Jensen couldn’t participate in the board’s deliberations on state management of fisheries in which he’d declared a conflict of interest.

A Kodiak legislator is looking to change that this year.

“I can’t begin to explain how frustrating it was to sit on the board when you have 150 proposals and you’re out of the discussion for 50 of them,” Jensen said during an interview with the Daily Sitka Sentinel on Feb. 17.

A bill pending in the Alaska Legislature would allow fishermen who serve on the Board of Fisheries to take part in board deliberations on regulations that may affect their fishing operations.

The bill would allow those members, as well as Alaska Board of Game members, to deliberate, debate and discuss with their colleagues at the table — but not vote — on proposals that could affect them personally or financially.

Members would continue to be prohibited from voting on proposals in which they have declared a conflict of interest, which would be a personal decision based on each board member’s financial or family interests.

Read the full article at Wrangell Sentinel

The rare issue uniting Trump and green groups: Blocking Pebble mine

February 24, 2026 — The Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble mine in Alaska in what may be one of the Trump administration’s only points of agreement with environmental groups.

EPA’s rejection of a Clean Water Act permit for the mine in 2023 was justified and protective of Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, home to a globally significant salmon fishery “that is unrivaled in North America,” DOJ attorneys said in a Feb. 17 legal brief.

In doing so, federal attorneys rebuffed arguments from Pebble Partnership, a company wholly owned by Northern Dynasty that’s suing the U.S. government for blocking its plans to build a massive copper, gold and molybdenum mine. The southwest Alaska open-pit mining project would be developed in the pristine Bristol Bay watershed, prime salmon habitat.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: NOAA Fisheries identifies 77 potential aquaculture opportunity areas in Gulf of Alaska

February 24, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has identified 77 locations in the Gulf of Alaska that could be suitable for aquaculture operations, following up on an order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020.

“Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the nation combined, and we should be using that resource to its full potential,” Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said in a release. “This atlas helps identify where aquaculture makes sense in our state waters. It will support creating new job opportunities, strengthen food security for Alaskans, and add to Alaska’s already tremendous seafood industry.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: With Western Alaska salmon runs weak, managers set limits on the pollock fleet’s chum bycatch

February 17, 2026 –Federal fishery managers have approved the first-ever mandatory caps on at-sea interception of chum salmon, a fish species critical to Indigenous communities along Alaska’s river systems.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council on Wednesday voted in favor of new limits for the pollock fleet to reduce the amount of chum salmon accidentally caught in trawl nets, a phenomenon known as bycatch.

The compromise, approved at the end of a 10-day council meeting, addresses a yearslong conflict that pitted the in-river salmon fishermen and their Indigenous cultures against the economically important harvesters of Alaska pollock, the top-volume U.S. commercial seafood.

Achieving effective safeguards for Western Alaska chum salmon while balancing needs of all parties amid environmental factors that are out of managers’ control was difficult, Angel Drobnica, the council’s chair, said just before the vote was taken.

“This is the most challenging issue I’ve worked on during my time in this process,” she said, referring to her three years on the full council and six years on the group’s advisory panel. “I believe this motion is durable and enforceable and reflective of input from both sides and has maintained a clear focus on Western Alaska salmon.”

Salmon bycatch is a hot-button issue in Alaska fisheries. Total amounts of chum salmon accidentally caught in the trawl nets used by the pollock fleet can number in the hundreds of thousands — though the vast majority of the chum salmon intercepted in the Bering Sea in this manner is not of Alaska origin, according to council data.

While bycatch limits have been in place for several years for Chinook salmon, this is the first time managers have imposed limits for chum salmon. Both Pacific salmon species are important to the Yukon and Kuskokwim river system communities, and both have collapsed in recent years, at times prompting complete fishing closures all the way into Canada’s Yukon Territory.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

NPFMC rejects hard cap on Western Alaska chum salmon bycatch, but approves corridor closure to allow fish passage

February 17, 2026 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) has once again rejected the salmon sector’s demands for hard caps on chum bycatch caught by pollock trawlers in the Bering Sea, though the body did approve some limits intended to reduce bycatch.

Alaska’s salmon sector has long sought stricter limits on the amount of chum salmon commercial pollock trawlers can take as bycatch, claiming that the industrial fishing activity hurts already struggling Alaskan salmon populations.

Read the full article at  SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters

February 12, 2026 — A U.S. federal agency is considering allowing companies to lease more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places President Donald Trump has sought to open to the fledging industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Like those Pacific islands, Alaska is home to Indigenous peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean, and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns.

Deep-sea mining, the practice of scraping minerals off the ocean floor for commercial products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, is not yet a commercial industry. It’s been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting minerals that formed over millions of years. Scientists have warned the practice could damage fisheries and fragile ecosystems that could take millennia to recover. Indigenous peoples have also pushed back, citing violations of their rights to consent to projects in their territories.

Trump, however, has voiced strong support for the industry as part of his effort to make the United States a leader in critical mineral production. He has also pushed for U.S. companies to mine in international waters, bypassing ongoing global negotiations over international mining regulations.

Kate Finn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute Center for Indigenous Economic Stewardship in Colorado, said she worries the seabed mining industry will repeat the mistakes of land-based mining.

“The terrestrial mining industry has not gotten it right with regards to Indigenous peoples,” Finn said. “Indigenous peoples have the right to give and to withdraw consent. Mining companies themselves need to design their operations around that right.”

Read the full article at Mongabay