Saving Seafood

Alaska salmon groups hail legal filing on Pebble Mine

July 21, 2025 — Salmon fishers, Tribes, and associated businesses in Bristol Bay, Alaska, U.S.A. have welcomed a recent legal filing regarding Pebble Mine, claiming the Trump administration is backing their opposition to the development of Pebble Mine.

“We thank President Trump for defending this one of a kind natural resource from short term exploitation by foreign controlled interests,” SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol said in a statement. “Bristol Bay’s world class salmon runs generate upwards of USD 2.2 billion (EUR 1.9 billion billion) in economic activity, are a vital source of clean, nutritious food, and represent one of the great hunting and angling destinations on the planet. Simply put, Bristol Bay is the biggest and the best and it’s clear the President knows this based on his wise decision today.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: The June salmon harvest in the southern Alaska Peninsula was the worst in 4 decades

July 16, 2025 — Last month’s commercial salmon harvest in the southern Alaska Peninsula was the lowest in four decades, according to the state’s preliminary data for the management region known as Area M.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, fishermen in the Shumagin Islands and South Unimak areas harvested about 720,000 salmon through the end of June — the second-lowest June on record since the 1980s.

Technically, the lowest harvest occurred in 2001, but Area Management Biologist Matthew Keyse said that year was an outlier due to a price dispute that kept many boats off the water.

Read the full article at KTOO

Court affirms split federal-state Cook Inlet salmon management system

July 14, 2025 — A federal judge has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s new system to manage commercial harvests in federal waters of Cook Inlet, concluding that the agency has no obligation to extend that management to state waters.

The July 1 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason lets stand a split federal-state management regime for commercial salmon harvests in Cook Inlet, the marine waters by Alaska’s most heavily populated region.

The ruling is a win for the NMFS, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a loss for fishers who sought federal management of all Cook Inlet commercial salmon harvests because they were dissatisfied with state management.

NMFS had previously deferred all Cook Inlet commercial salmon harvest management to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Read the full article at the Alaska Public Media

As glaciers melt, salmon and mining companies are vying for the new territory

May 28, 2025 — The Tulsequah Glacier meanders down a broad valley in northwest British Columbia, 7 miles from the Alaska border. At the foot of the glacier sits a silty, gray lake, a reservoir of glacial runoff. The lake is vast, deeper than Seattle’s Space Needle is tall. But it didn’t exist a few decades ago, before 2 miles of ice had melted.

On an overcast day, a helicopter carrying three salmon scientists zoomed up the valley. As it neared the lake, the pilot banked to the right and flew over the south side of the basin, whirring over a narrow outlet where it drains into the Tulsequah River. He landed on a beach of small boulders and the researchers clambered out one by one.

“We don’t think there are fish here yet,” said one of them, Jon Moore, an aquatic ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. “But there will be soon.”

The lake, so new to the landscape that it doesn’t have an official name, is still too cold and murky for salmon, but that’s likely to change soon. As the Tulsequah Glacier above it retreats, the lake is getting warmer and clearer, becoming a more attractive environment for migrating fish. “It’s going to be popping off,” Moore said.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Bill targets watershed protection for Bristol Bay salmon

May 23, 2025 — Legislation aimed at protecting the Bristol Bay watershed in southwest Alaska, home of the world’s largest run of wild sockeye salmon, was introduced on May 20, by Speaker of the House Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage.

Coming at the end of a busy first legislative session, House Bil 233 – which would strengthen protections for wild salmon within the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve – will automatically be up for consideration when the Legislature reconvenes in January 2026.

Oil and gas development is currently prohibited in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve without legislative approval. The reserve was established by the Legislature with the leadership of Gov. Jay Hammond in 1972 – marking more than half a century of state-based efforts to safeguard the region.

Northern Dynasty Minerals, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has sought for years to mine the Pebble prospect, to extract copper, gold and molybdenum from lands abutting the Bristol Bay watershed. The mining company contends that by using state-of-the-art technology they can prevent spills from mining operations. Their plans have been challenged in court many times by concerns of potential environmental damage from copper spilling into the watershed in the event of equipment failure or other incidents.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: As glaciers melt, salmon and mining companies are vying for the new territory

May 22, 2025 — The Tulsequah Glacier meanders down a broad valley in northwest British Columbia, 7 miles from the Alaska border. At the foot of the glacier sits a silty, gray lake, a reservoir of glacial runoff. The lake is vast, deeper than Seattle’s Space Needle is tall. But it didn’t exist a few decades ago, before 2 miles of ice had melted.

On an overcast day, a helicopter carrying three salmon scientists zoomed up the valley. As it neared the lake, the pilot banked to the right and flew over the south side of the basin, whirring over a narrow outlet where it drains into the Tulsequah River. He landed on a beach of small boulders and the researchers clambered out one by one.

“We don’t think there are fish here yet,” said one of them, Jon Moore, an aquatic ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. “But there will be soon.”

The lake, so new to the landscape that it doesn’t have an official name, is still too cold and murky for salmon. But that’s likely to change soon: As the Tulsequah Glacier above it retreats, the lake is getting warmer and clearer, becoming a more attractive environment for migrating fish. “It’s going to be popping off,” Moore said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Alaska officials forecast improvements for the state’s commercial salmon harvest

May 19, 2025 — After a poor showing last year, Alaska’s statewide commercial salmon harvest appears poised for a rebound, according to projections by state biologists.

This year’s total salmon harvest is expected to be more than twice as big as last year’s total, thanks primarily to stronger returns of pink salmon, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s annual statewide run forecast and commercial harvest projection. The report was released this week.

The department’s projected 2025 total harvest is 214.6 million fish, above the 2000-2023 average of 175 million fish, though well below the record 280 million salmon harvested commercially in 2013. This year’s projected total is much higher than the 103.5 million salmon harvested commercially last year.

If the harvest occurs as projected, it would be the 10th-largest on record, said Forrest Bowers, director of the department’s Division of Commercial Fisheries.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Alaska’s 2025 salmon forecast more than doubles last year

May 14, 2025 — An early advance from fishery managers shows that Alaska’s 2025 salmon season could be a doozy.

A full report on the 2025 salmon fishery and an overview of the 2024 season should be released any day, but draft projections by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) reveal big increases for all but Chinook salmon.

If the numbers hold true, a statewide salmon catch of nearly 215 million salmon would more than double a 2024 harvest that barely topped 101 million fish.

Here’s the projected harvest breakdown by species with comparisons to the 2024 season.

For sockeye salmon, the forecast calls for a catch of nearly 53 million fish, compared to just over 42 million last year.

For pinks, a huge boost to more than 138 million should hit Alaska fishermen’s nets this summer. In 2024, the pink salmon catch barely topped 40 million fish.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Salmon and lobster in harmony

March 31, 2025 — There is quite a pile of evidence at this point that wild lobster populations have historically co-existed very nicely with salmon farming, but new chapters of this story continue to be written. 

Just recently, in November 2024, a lawsuit was filed by a U.S.-based environmental group Conservation Law Foundation against Cooke Aquaculture, contending that its salmon farming sites off the Maine coast involve dischargement of “pollutants such as fish feces, dead fish and trash.” 

Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, has stated publicly that the lawsuit was a surprise as this group has worked with salmon farmers to develop environmental standards. He did not respond to a request for further comment, but Joel Richardson, vice-president of Public Relations at Cooke, says it’s irresponsible for this group or anyone else to claim that modern marine finfish aquaculture harms lobsters.

“It is simply not true,” says Richardson. “Salmon aquaculture and the lobster fishery have co-existed in Atlantic Canada and Maine waters for more than 40 years under the existing environmental compliance criteria. Cooke’s Atlantic Canadian and Maine salmon farms are routinely inspected by government regulators and subject to regular monitoring reports. Lobster landings are not negatively affected by Atlantic salmon farms. In fact, lobster fishers are welcome to set lobster gear alongside and within aquaculture lease boundaries and they tell us they have success in every location where we operate. We support wild fisheries harvesters and their families 100 percent. We all need strong working waterfronts in our rural coastal communities.” 

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

ALASKA: AK 2024 salmon hatchery catches & values plummet

March 26, 2025 — Alaska’s 2024 salmon fishery saw double-digit declines in both catch and value, and the hits also hurt the state’s vital hatchery program.

Alaska produced a total catch of just over 101 million salmon last year, a 56 percent decrease from the more than 232 million fish caught in 2023. Fishermen’s paydays also took a beating with the total salmon value at $304 million, down from $398 million the previous year.

In all, Alaska’s 2024 salmon fishery was the lowest on record for fish poundage (450 million pounds), and the third lowest in value to fishermen since 1975.

Alaska salmon that begin their lives in hatcheries and are released to the sea as fingerlings, return home as adults and typically make up about 30 percent of both the state’s total statewide production and value. The 2024 season was no exception, but the hatchery output was the 16th lowest since 1977.

Approximately 30.2 million hatchery-produced salmon were caught in Alaska’s commercial fisheries last year, valued at nearly $77 million at the docks. That compares to 80.4 million fish taken in 2023 with a dockside value of $131 million, drops by almost 63 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman