Saving Seafood

Area M salmon restrictions remain sidelines as subsistence groups weigh legal action

June 8, 2026 — As hundreds of fishermen prepared for the June 6 opener in Alaska’s Area M salmon fishery, a dispute over new harvest restrictions remains unresolved after Alaska Acting Attorney General Cori Mills invalidated regulations approved earlier this year by the Alaska Board of Fisheries.

The regulations, adopted in February after years of advocacy from Western Alaska subsistence users, would have reduced fishing time and harvest levels in parts of the Aleutian Islands fishery, expanded a regulated area and added net depth restrictions intended to protect salmon bound for Western Alaska rivers.

Mills overturned the measures on May 19, ruling that the board’s vote was improper following ethics complaints filed by the Aleutians East Borough and commercial fishing interests against several board members who supported the restrictions. After Mills’ decision, the commercial fishing groups and borough dropped their lawsuit challenging the regulations.

A subsequent effort by the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association to intervene in the case was rejected by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Herman Walker Jr., though subsistence advocates say they may appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court or pursue separate legal action.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

High fuel prices could hurt Kodiak’s salmon fishermen

June 5, 2026 — The high cost of diesel, fueled by the war in Iran, coincides with a projected weak salmon harvest for this summer.

Down at the dock in Kodiak’s St Paul harbor on a windy Tuesday in May, Darren Platt organized his boat, a 42-foot seiner called the Agnes Sabine, ahead of the upcoming salmon season.

“Before a season, you just tear everything apart, and then just desperately try to put it back together,” he said. “I’m still in the tearing everything apart phase.”

This time of year, Platt would normally be excited to hit the water. This summer though, he said he’s feeling apprehensive, mostly about the price of diesel.

“It’s probably going to be close to double what it was last year,” he said.

Platt is one of many who work on the water who are concerned about the price at the pump. Gas prices are still high as a result of the war with Iran, and even a small increase could make or break an already short season.

Last summer, Dave Kubiak, owner and operator of the fishing vessel Lara Lee, said he paid around $3.75 a gallon for fuel. But when he filled his tank on May 20, diesel was $6.70 a gallon, an increase of more than 80%. He calculated that filling the vessel’s tank from empty would have cost him nearly $10,000.

Read the full article at KMXT

US Supreme Court declines to hear case brought by Alaska commercial fishers

May 12, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition brought by Alaska commercial fishers challenging federal management of the Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) salmon fishery.

The lawsuit was the latest attempt by commercial set net and drift net fishing groups in the region to force the federal government to take an active role in managing the salmon fishery instead of deferring to state managers, which has resulted in the closure of commercial fishing opportunities. The Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund claimed that Alaskan regulators intentionally limit the amount of salmon commercial fishers may harvest, instead prioritizing salmon for the personal use, sport, and guided-sport fishing sectors.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Bristol Bay sockeye forecast drops below recent average for 2026

May 11, 2026 — University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program researchers are forecasting a 2026 total Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run of 41.5 million fish, with slightly larger fish than in 2025.

The report, released on Wednesday, May 6, in Seattle, projects that most of the returning sockeye will be fish that spent either two or three winters in the ocean before returning to Bristol Bay to spawn. Researchers expect about 46 percent of the run to be 2-ocean fish and 54 percent to be 3-ocean fish, with average weights ranging from 4.9 to 6.6 pounds.

The forecast is 32 percent below the recent 10-year average of 60.1 million fish, according to data made available in November 2025,

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in a separate forecast of March 24, projected a run of 45.32 million fish, allowing for a projected harvest of 32.26 million red salmon.  That forecast is 26 percent lower than the recent 10-year average, but still 21 percent higher than the long-term average.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: 126 million salmon – that’s the estimated harvest by Alaska’s commercial fishermen this year

May 5, 2026 — Every year, state biologists predict how many salmon can be commercially harvested in relation to expected run strengths. It guides how they manage the state’s fisheries, like when and where they open and for how long. The state Department of Fish and Game announced in April that this year’s expected overall harvest is 126 million fish, which is 90 million fewer fish than what was expected last year.

“It’s not, not particularly concerning to me,” said Forrest Bowers, who heads the state’s Division of Commercial Fisheries. He said there is inherent uncertainty in the forecasts. “Keep in mind, this is a projection. You know, the accuracy of the projection varies across the state, particularly for stocks like coho salmon, they are very difficult to forecast. Chum can be difficult to forecast as well.”

Still, it’s less than two-thirds of what they ended up harvesting last year. That huge gap mostly boils down to one species – pinks, also known as humpies. Their two-year life cycle is the shortest of all salmon. And for whatever reason, their runs in Alaska are far smaller in even-numbered years.

Pinks are the most commercially harvested salmon. Last year, they made up about 61% of the total expected commercial harvest. This year, they make up nearly 44%.

Read the full article at KFSK

In court, Pebble developer says 27 salmon stand in the massive mine’s way

April 23, 2026 —  No mining proposal in recent Alaska history has generated more concern for the state’s salmon runs than the Pebble project.

The huge copper and gold deposit extends into multiple salmon-bearing watersheds, and sits upstream from Alaska’s most lucrative salmon fishery.

But now, in a new court filing, Pebble’s developer says just a tiny number of salmon are blocking the mine’s construction — 27 fish, to be exact, and all one species.

Federal regulators, who halted the project in 2023, are “preserving” 27 coho salmon “at the cost of $800 billion” in minerals, lawyers for Pebble Limited Partnership wrote in a recent brief filed in Alaska’s federal district court.

The remarkably specific fish figure aligns with the number of spawning salmon counted years ago in a stream directly within the proposed mine site.

Read the full article at the Northern Journal

ALASKA: Alaska salmon harvest projected down sharply in 2026

April 15, 2026 — A draft report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game indicates a lower statewide harvest of 125.5 million salmon this season, compared to last year’s tally of 194.8 million fish. That adds up to 69.3 million fewer salmon, a decline of nearly 36 percent.

The preliminary data show drops in all projected catches except for Chinook salmon.

Comparisons by species show that for 2026, the projected Chinook harvest is pegged at 197,000 compared to 181,892 in 2025.

For sockeye salmon, the harvest forecast of nearly 50 million compares to more than 52.6 million last year.

Coho catches are expected to top 2.4 millon, down from nearly 2.5 million.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Unalaska’s pollock industry anticipates upcoming chum bycatch decision

February 2, 2026 — The Unalaska City Council took up the issue of salmon bycatch at its two January meetings, ultimately agreeing to support industry-run bycatch avoidance programs.

Salmon bycatch has been a flashpoint for years. And the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees federal fisheries in Alaska, including in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, will now weigh in on whether to impose stricter limits on chum salmon bycatch at its upcoming February meeting.

That’s got Unalaska leaders worried the decision could threaten the pollock industry that underpins the island’s economy.

“This is one of the most important items in the last few years,” said Frank Kelty, the city’s fisheries consultant at the city council’s Jan. 13 meeting.

Kelty warned council members that proposed limits could have major consequences for the community, whose economy revolves around the fishery.

Kelty told council members that the pollock B season — which accounts for about 60% of the annual pollock harvest — is particularly at risk.

He pointed to one proposal that would cap incidental catch of chum salmon at 100,000. Kelty said under that scenario, the pollock B season would have shut down early in eleven of the past twelve years.

That, he said, would ripple through Unalaska’s economy — affecting processors, harvesters, city revenues and support businesses, like refrigeration companies.

Read the full article at KMXT

Researchers: parasites help measure in salmon populations

January 22, 2026 — Opening a can of worms may prove the answer to a salmon fishery researcher’s question, especially dead anisakid, roundworms found in old cans of wild Alaska salmon.

Results of the initial study on what four decades of canned salmon reveal about marine food webs were released in the spring of 2024.  Now using new grant funds, Natalie Mastick of Arizona State University is again collaborating with Chelsea Wood at the University of Washington to further explore the history of marine parasites to determine the impact on the health of a marine ecosystem.

The current research award from the North Pacific Research Board in Anchorage began in the summer of 2025 and runs through December 2027, Wood said.

According to the Seafood Products Association in Seattle, parasites can reduce the growth, survivorship, and marketability of commercially important marine fish species, particularly in Alaska.

While finding worms in salmon fillets, even dead ones, may cause concern, their presence is not a threat to human health and often signals that the fish originated from a healthy marine ecosystem.  High-pressure canning, including the timing and temperatures involved, kills the parasites.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Eastern GOA salmon trollers may keep groundfish bycatch

January 12, 2026 — Salmon trollers operating hand or power troll gear in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska may legally retain and sell bycatch of several species of groundfish taken incidentally during their fishery.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) officials on Jan. 2 identified those species as lingcod, demersal shelf rockfish and other rockfish, spiny dog, sablefish and other groundfish.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times