Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Bering Sea crabbers buoyed by increased catch limits this season

October 13, 2026 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently released catch limits for the upcoming Bering Sea crab seasons. The seasons for Bristol Bay red king crab, Bering Sea snow crab and Tanner crab open on Thursday.

The Bristol Bay red king crab total allowable catch is up over half a million pounds from last year, set at 3.4 million pounds this season.

The Tanner, or Bairdi crab, limit increased significantly to 32.1 million pounds, with most of that — 27.2 million pounds — in the western Bering Sea.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Alaska announces total allowable catch for red king, Tanner, and snow crab for 2026-27 season

October 9, 2026 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) released total allowable catch (TAC) numbers for Alaskan red king crab, Tanner crab, and snow crab ahead of the 15 October season opening.

“These TACs reflect the continued careful, science-based management of Alaska’s crab stocks,” Mark Pedersen, CEO of crab processor and wholesaler Keyport, said in a release. “Harvest levels remain measured, and at the same time, the cost of fishing, processing, and getting crab to market continues to climb.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: 2026-27 catch limits set for red king, snow, and Bairdi crab

October 8, 2026 — Alaska crab fishermen will head into the 2026-27 season with total allowable catches set for Bristol Bay red king crab, Bering Sea snow crab, and Bairdi Tanner crab, with all three fisheries scheduled to open Oct. 15.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) set the Bristol Bay red king crab TAC at 3.41 million pounds, while the Bering Sea snow crab, or opilio, TAC was set at 5.1 million pounds, according to an Oct. 6 release from seafood supplier Keyport LLC.

Bairdi Tanner crab will account for the largest harvest, with a combined 32.1 million pounds available across the eastern and western Bering Sea. The western Bering Sea TAC is set at 27.2 million pounds, while the eastern Bering Sea TAC is 4.9 million pounds.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Managers use last year’s fishery to set Southeast Alaska’s red king crab harvest goals

October 2, 2026 — Southeast Alaska’s first consecutive commercial red king crab fishery in decades opens Nov. 1.

Expectations for the season are underpinned by knowledge from last year’s fishery.

“I definitely think guys are excited. I think they know what to expect after last year,” said Adam Messmer, regional shellfish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Messmer said the upcoming fishery will be managed much like last year, with some changes based on what fishermen and state managers saw that season.

“We got a little bit better handle on where crab was coming out of, and where crab wasn’t coming out of, and where there was effort,” Messmer said.

Read the full article at KFSK

ALASKA: Trump administration order urges ‘robust’ harvest of sharks, seals and sea lions

September 28, 2026 — The White House this month issued an executive order to support the sportfishing industry by, among other things, paving the way for increased harvests of sharks and pinnipeds, including sea lions and seals.

The order specifically aims to help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators — an industry in Alaska that, with its copious fish populations, generates thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in economic impact, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

If all of its provisions are enacted, fishing groups say, the directive could improve fish abundance in Alaska by reducing predation by marine mammals. It could also lead to potential conflicts with federal laws that currently protect the animals.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

ALASKA: Southeast gets rare back-to-back red king crab season

September 11, 2025 — Commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska will get another shot at red king crab this fall, marking the region’s first back-to-back fisheries in more than two decades.

 The 2026/27 Southeast Alaska commercial red and blue king crab fishery will open as a competitive fishery at 10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, with a regionwide guideline harvest level of 213,076 pounds, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

It will be the second consecutive year the Southeast fishery has opened following several years without one. The last time the region saw consecutive commercial red king crab fisheries was from 2001 through 2003.

“So, you know, 20-plus years since we’ve had fisheries back to back,” Adam Messmer, ADF&G regional shellfish biologist, told KFSK.

This year’s 213,076-pound guideline harvest level is slightly higher than last year’s harvest level. ADF&G developed its estimates by surveying seven bays and assessing the available crab stock. Messmer said this year’s consecutive opener is being supported by a population increase in several bays.

Readv the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Record-breaking pink run surges into Sitka

August 26, 2026 — Sitka purse seiners broke the area’s single-day pink salmon harvest record twice this month, as a strong late run and increased fishing effort turned around what had initially looked like a difficult season.

According to an Aug. 20 report from Raven Radio, seiners in District 13 harvested 1.23 million pink salmon on Aug. 6, surpassing the previous single-day record of roughly 950,000 fish set in 2017.

Four days later, the fleet broke the record again, harvesting 1.28 million pink salmon on Aug. 10.

“We’ve just been seeing really strong harvests of pink salmon and really strong escapements, which was kind of unusual for an even year, and fairly unusual, given what’s been going on with pink salmon in the rest of the Gulf of Alaska,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Sitka area management biologist Aaron Dupuis told KCAW. “So it’s pretty special to have a good pink run in the Sitka area this year.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Kuskokwim Bay commercial salmon fishery returns after five-year hiatus

August 4, 2026 — Commercial salmon fishing returned to Alaska’s Kuskokwim Bay this summer for the first time in five years, offering dozens of local fishermen a chance to earn income despite persistent logistical and financial challenges.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the fishery reopened in early July, with about 70 permit holders targeting primarily sockeye salmon. Larry Strunk, a founding member of the Independent Fishermen of Quinhagak Cooperative, told KYUK that some fishermen had already earned more than $10,000 during the season with the potential for individual earnings to reach $15,000.

The fishery, however, was short-lived. Strunk told KYUK that the cooperative wrapped up fishing around July 28 after declining sockeye catches and rising operating costs made it difficult to continue.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Kuskokwim Bay commercial salmon fishery opens after 5-year hiatus

July 30, 2026 — Dozens of ocean-going skiffs have been busy unfurling gill nets along the shores of Kuskokwim Bay. But the catches haven’t been headed to fish camps. Instead, the salmon are quickly bled, put on ice, and offloaded onto vessels bobbing in the waters in front of Quinhagak and Goodnews Bay.

If the fishery is successful, an at-sea processor with hundreds of thousands of pounds of frozen, mostly sockeye, salmon will return to Washington state to bring the catch to market.

According to Larry Strunk, a founding member of the Independent Fishermen of Quinhagak Cooperative, local permit holders could earn upwards of $15,000 each by fishing the openers.

“We have some fishermen that have already been paid over $10,000 this month,” Strunk said.

But as of July 28, Strunk said that diminishing sockeye numbers and logistical issues have spelled the end of this year’s fishery, just three weeks after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game opened it.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Bristol Bay comes off decade of historic runs with moderate and early returns in 2026

July 28, 2026 — Bristol Bay’s sockeye salmon run is coming to a close, and it just surpassed the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s pre-season forecast of 44 million fish.

The thing that stands out most this year was that early run timing, said Curry Cunningham, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and part of a team that creates pre-season and in-season forecasts for the commercial fishery.

“If we look at the large-run-size years in Bristol Bay, we’ve seen generally since about 2015 they’ve been predominantly on time,” Cunningham said.

The last two years have bucked that trend, he said.

“In 2025 and this year in 2026, we’ve seen earlier run timing to Bristol Bay,” he said. “So a bit of a shift back towards run timings we hadn’t seen in quite a while.”

One of the variables that correlates most strongly with run timing is the extent of sea ice in the late spring, Cunningham said. Bristol Bay sockeye tend to return earlier during years with more sea ice in May.

This year’s run was about three days earlier than the long-term average, according to Cunningham, with a midpoint around July 3 or 4. While three days might seem like a small difference, he said it can have big impacts.

“In Bristol Bay, where the vast majority of the run comes through and arrives inshore over the course of two or three weeks, it actually makes a huge difference,” he said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media