Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Aleutians East Borough files ethics complaint after Board of Fisheries Area M decision

March 9, 2026 — The Aleutians East Borough is asking the state to investigate whether a member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries acted ethically during a vote on restrictions to the Area M salmon fishery.

Borough Mayor Alvin Osterback and representatives from several tribes in the region say they filed a complaint with the Alaska Department of Law on Feb. 23. They say a member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries had a conflict of interest when he cast a tie-breaking vote last month in favor of restricting the Area M fishery.

The complaint argues that Curtis Chamberlain of Anchorage should have recused himself because he is an attorney at the Calista Corporation, a Western Alaska Native corporation that has advocated for stricter limits on the fishery.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Alaska Natives, advocates hail state’s new restrictions aimed at helping chum salmon recover

March 5, 2026 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries is cutting chum salmon fishing by 30 per cent in southwest Alaska.

Alaskan Native communities, who have been facing increasing food insecurity from lack of salmon in the Yukon River for years, say the move is a good first step.

In the interior of Alaska, along the Yukon River, is Beaver, a remote village that has relied on chum salmon for years as a main food source. The closest grocery store is in Fairbanks, 170 km due south by plane, and food has to be flown in at a high price.

Rhonda Pitka is the Chief of the Village of Beaver. She said 2019 was the last good fishing year before the “Yukon River salmon crash.”

“The salmon sustained us for so long. It was our lifeline,” she said. “We live in these incredibly cold communities in the winter. So when we were fishing in the summer we will put enough away for all winter long and then we would have enough to share with our relatives in their communities.”

Read the full article at CBC

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: 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

ALASKA: Science symposium emphasizes Indigenous knowledge, finfish, kelp

February 9, 2026 — Gulf of Alaska maritime issues, from halibut and herring to kelp farming, were on the agenda during the four-day Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage from Jan. 26-30.

The importance of engaging Indigenous knowledge in policy making for fisheries management in Alaska was the focus of a presentation by Hekia Bodwitch of the University of Alaska Southeast, and Alex Jenkins of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

They noted that historically western government leaders and scientists have excluded Indigenous peoples from policymaking and research, and that uneven power dynamics persist today.

In their studies they examined perceived successes, shortcomings and limitations of recent initiatives in Alaska’s fisheries management focused on engaging Indigenous knowledge. These efforts included those of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Alaska Board of Fisheries. Their study involved interviews with more than 30 fishery policymakers and advisors, as well as analyses of policymaking meetings.

Those interviewed spoke of barriers to change stemming from legal frameworks, political-economic dynamics, and policy implementation challenges.

Some of these challenges reflect a mismatch between how Indigenous knowledge is typically shared and public testimony processes. Those interviewed also emphasized that Indigenous peoples remain underrepresented in policymaking, while their participation is essential in order to engage Indigenous knowledge to effect meaningful change.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Advocacy groups call on Alaska to eliminate pollock trawling in Prince William Sound

December 10, 2024 — Salmon industry advocacy group SalmonState is calling on the Alaska State Board of Fisheries to limit or eliminate the Prince William Sound pollock pelagic trawl fishery – the only such fishery managed by the state.

The state board will consider four separate proposals that would either add further restrictions on the state-managed pollock fishery or eliminate it entirely at its annual meeting in Cordova, Alaska, taking place 10 to 16 December.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: BOF declines to lower hatchery production levels

March 13, 2024 — A proposal to lower hatchery production to its 2000 level went down in defeat at the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting on Monday, March 4 in a 1-6 vote, after the majority of the board concluded that hatchery raised salmon were not causing undue harm to wild stocks.

The decision came after extensive testimony, mostly from fishing industry activists opposed to Proposal 43, which was offered by the Fairbanks Advisory Committee to the Board of Fisheries.

The board also took testimony at its Lower Cook Inlet meeting in Homer Nov. 26 through Dec. 1, but postponed any action until its Upper Cook Inlet meeting, from Feb. 23 through March 5 in Anchorage.

Stan Zuray, of Tanana, the only board member to vote for the proposal, said the effects of the state producing commercial opportunity for hatchery fisheries has made for great opportunity for commercial fisheries, while at the same time destroying significant subsistence and commercial economy and opportunities for village communities and processors in places like the Yukon River drainage. What is needed, said Zuray, is an open, continuing, independent review of research into the impact of hatchery salmon on wild stocks.

“Since my first hatchery meeting here in Anchorage in 2000, there has been a systematic unwillingness to do that,” he said.

Zuray has served for many years as chair of his local ADF&G advisory committee and as secretary of the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Board votes to continue conservation measures for weak Southeast Alaska king salmon stocks

March 28, 2022 — Alaska’s Board of Fisheries this week voted to continue with conservation measures for chronically low returns of king salmon in Southeast Alaska. Some stocks are forecast to be at their lowest levels on record this year and others have rebounded a little under fishery closures.

The region has 34 stocks of king salmon and the board has listed seven as stocks of concern. That means for four years or more, those runs have not had enough fish making it back to spawn, or what managers call an escapement goal.

Ed Jones is an Alaska Department of Fish and Game coordinator specializing in king salmon research. He outlined to the board the measures taken to reduce harvest of those fish.

“Through the actions taken beginning in 2018 with the action plans, we have taken good steps towards achieving the escapement goals,” Jones said. “The problem is the production of these stocks has just continued to be low. And so right now we’ve not been able to provide a harvestable yield annually. The hopes are that that production will change, escapement goals will be met and we’ll also be able to identify yield.”

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Board of Fish will consider moving Southeast meeting back to Ketchikan

January 26, 2022 — Alaska’s Board of Fisheries is considering moving its Southeast meeting back to Ketchikan, and it’s asking the public to weigh in.

The board — which sets the state’s subsistence, commercial and sport fishing rules — plans to discuss more than 150 proposed changes to Southeast Alaska finfish and shellfish regulations at the meeting, which was originally slated to be held in Ketchikan this month but was postponed due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in the region.

Read the full story at KTOO

 

ALASKA: Fisheries board member steps down, citing workload and bout with COVID

January 5, 2022 — Indy Walton of Soldotna has resigned from his seat on the state Board of Fisheries, the seven-member board that makes decisions about fish allocation and management in Alaska’s waters.

Walton said he’s dealing with a confluence of health issues that have been exacerbated by stress and a bout of COVID-19. While he thought he could balance those issues when he accepted Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s nomination in September, he said he has since had to reconsider.

“I hoped when I accepted the position that things would be different and change as far as my schedule, and I didn’t realize some of the health issues that I was being faced with until doing some tests,” he said. “And I know now I’ve got to alleviate some of the stress and lighten my load a little bit.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media