Saving Seafood

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

Arctic Warming Is Turning Alaska’s Rivers Red With Toxic Runoff

December 17, 2025 — Record-setting temperatures and rainfall in the Arctic over the past year sped up the melting of permafrost and washed toxic minerals into more than 200 rivers across northern Alaska, threatening vital salmon runs, according to a report card issued by federal scientists.

The report, compiled by dozens of academic and government scientists and coordinated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, documented rapid environmental changes from Norway’s Svalbard Island to the Greenland ice sheet and the tundra of northern Canada and Alaska.

Between October 2024 and September 2025, the period from when the ground begins to freeze until the end of summer, surface air temperatures were the warmest on record dating back 125 years, the report found.

“The Arctic region has a powerful influence on Earth’s ecosystem as a whole,” said Steve Thur, NOAA’s assistant administrator for research and acting chief scientist.

This year’s 153-page Arctic report card is coming out despite a shift at the agency, including a focus on commercial aspects of the ocean, such as deep-sea mining. In April, the Trump administration proposed eliminating NOAA’s research arm, a move that would hobble early warning systems for natural disasters, science education and the study of the Arctic. The Trump administration fired 1,000 NOAA employees earlier this year, but has since tried to rehire 450 of them, mostly in its National Weather Service branch.

Read the full article at The New York Times

ALASKA: Study probes environmental drivers of salmon bycatch in Alaska pollock fishery

December 1, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries scientists are examining how ocean conditions influence Chinook and chum salmon bycatch in the eastern Bering Sea pollock fishery, one of the world’s largest seafood harvests. The new study, led by researchers at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and partner institutions, analyzes more than a decade of observer data to identify environmental factors linked to salmon encounters.

Alaska’s pollock fleet lands more than 2 billion pounds annually, but unintentional salmon catch remains a longstanding management concern, particularly for western Alaska Chinook and chum stocks that have declined sharply in recent years. These salmon are important to regional communities and vulnerable to bycatch because their migration routes overlap with pollock fishing grounds. NOAA and the industry have implemented multiple avoidance measures, but managers say a clearer understanding of what drives bycatch is needed.

“This is an issue that’s the subject of ongoing discussions at North Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings,” said lead author and fisheries biologist Lukas DeFilippo. “There’s limited information available on how environmental factors affect bycatch, which could potentially be useful for informing ongoing scientific and policy discussions.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman