Saving Seafood

ALASKA: NOAA firings and cuts will reduce services used to manage Alaska fisheries, officials say

June 11, 2025 — Trump administration job cuts in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will result in less scientific information that is needed to set and oversee Alaska seafood harvests, agency officials have warned fishery managers.

Since January, the Alaska regional office of NOAA Fisheries, also called the National Marine Fisheries Service, has lost 28 employees, about a quarter of its workforce, said Jon Kurland, the agency’s Alaska director.

“This, of course, reduces our capacity in a pretty dramatic fashion, including core fishery management functions such as regulatory analysis and development, fishery permitting and quota management, information technology, and operations to support sustainable fisheries,” Kurland told the North Pacific Fishery Management Council on Thursday.

NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which has labs in Juneau’s Auke Bay and Kodiak, among other sites, has lost 51 employees since January, affecting 6% to 30% of its operations, said director Robert Foy, the center’s director. That was on top of some job losses and other “resource limitations” prior to January, Foy said.

“It certainly puts us in a situation where it is clear that we must cancel some of our work,” he told the council.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Newport, Oregon, sets harvest levels and rules for commercial seafood harvests carried out in federal waters off Alaska. The council relies on scientific information from NOAA Fisheries and other government agencies.

Read the full article at KTOO

US senators reintroduce working waterfront legislation

June 10, 2025 — U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) have reintroduced the Working Waterfronts Act, legislation that would provide several sources of financial support to the nation’s commercial fishing sector and the coastal businesses that support it.

“Maine’s coastal communities are changing. From a warming climate to an evolving economy, the Gulf of Maine faces both historic opportunities and challenges that will define our state’s success for generations,” King said in a statement. “The Working Waterfronts Act would provide Maine’s working waterfronts up and down the coast with the necessary financial, energy, and infrastructure resources to adapt to the rapidly shifting dynamics of natural disasters affecting economic and tourism operations. It would also help support the necessary workforce to sustain our coastal businesses.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Trump’s cuts to fisheries science have industry and conservation groups sounding the alarm

June 10, 2025 — Alaska’s fishing industry and environmental groups don’t always agree. But this week, they were on the same side — both warning that recent cuts to federal fisheries science could jeopardize Alaska’s oceans.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which helps set fishing rules in federal waters, wraps up its meeting Tuesday in Oregon.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials attending the meeting, the Alaska Science Center has lost 51 employees since February — about a quarter of its staff.

“You can’t lose 51 people and not have that impact our ability to provide our products in a meaningful and timely way,” said Bob Foy, who directs NOAA’s science operations in Alaska. “It’s been a challenging process.”

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: NMFS reports 24 percent cut in Alaska staffing

June 9, 2025 —  The National Marine Fisheries Service reported 24 percent of its staff in the Alaska region have left the agency so far in 2025, after layoffs imposed by the Trump administration, voluntary resignations and workers moving on amid uncertainty nd belief there will be future cutbacks.

In a May 30 management report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the fisheries service said its Alaska region staff “had 115 Federal employees on January 1, 2025 which is now reduced to 87 accounting for a loss of 28 staff (24% of existing staff) due to a combination of probationary terminations, the deferred resignation program, voluntary early retirement, and voluntary separations in anticipation of a reduction in force.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: It’s getting harder and more costly for Alaska fishermen to get insurance. Will new legislation help?

June 6, 2025 — On a sunny day in an otherwise dreary spring, Cynthia Adams was catching up with fellow fisherman in Haines’ small boat harbor during the runup to the summer salmon season.

Stepping onto her boat, she apologized for the smell wafting through her 1980s cream-colored, fiberglass sternpicker.

“Sorry,” she said. “It smells a little bit like a fishing boat.”

The vessel, dubbed the Ladyhawke, has earned its scent. Adams has fished for salmon in the Upper Lynn Canal for 25 years. But in that time, all of her costs have soared as fish prices have stagnated.

Amid the squeeze, she said she constantly weighs whether one of those expenses – insurance – is worth it.

“I haven’t had to use it ever and it just keeps going up and up and up,” Adams said. “So you just have to stop and think, OK, is this in my budget? Is this smart?”

Adams said she will pay about $500 per month for crew insurance this season – more than twice what it was several years ago. On top of that, she paid more than $4,000 to insure her boat for the summer. She estimates that’s about four times what it cost when she first started.

Insurance for commercial fishermen has never been cheap. But the cost has risen dramatically in recent years, experts say. The result: major financial strain for fishermen, like Adams, who still pay for it. Others forgo it entirely, leaving them with no financial protection in the case of disaster.

That’s a risky situation, said Susan Erickson, owner of P-W Insurance Inc., an independent insurance agency based in Petersburg.

“If it’s your boat and you’re a one-man operation and your boat sinks, that’s your choice,” Erickson said. “But if you’ve got a deckhand that is injured on your vessel, you are responsible.”

In response, state lawmakers have passed legislation that could provide an alternative path — part of a broader effortto boost the beleaguered industry

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: New bill seeks to vastly expand Bristol Bay mining protections

June 6, 2025 — A new bill introduced in the closing hours of Alaska’s legislative session seeks to expand protection for the Bristol Bay region, home to a prolific wild salmon fishery that produces over $2.2 billion in economic output and supports over 15,000 Alaskan jobs. The bill, introduced by Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon (I- Dillingham) and Representative Andy Josephson (D- Anchorage), would ban metallic sulfide mining, also known as hard-rock mining, throughout the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve, where oil and gas development is already banned without approval of the Alaska legislature.

The ban would greatly expand the area currently protected by the EPA under the Clean Water Act, which is centered around the proposed Pebble Mine. The new reserve-wide protections would encompass the entirety of the Bristol Bay watershed, where over 20 mining claims remain active in the wake of the battle over the Pebble Deposit. Additionally, if passed by the state legislature, the bill would create multi-layered protection — based on both state and federal regulations — for the region.

The Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was first established in 1972 under the leadership of then state senator and later Alaska Governor Jay Hammond, recognizing the need to protect the sensitive region and its immensely valuable wild salmon fishery from the dangers of fossil fuel extraction and development.

According to Daniel Schindler, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, “The iconic fisheries in Bristol Bay ultimately depend on the vast and productive watersheds that provide the spawning and nursery habitats for salmon. Industrial scale efforts to extract metals from the sulfide-rich deposits found throughout Bristol Bay watersheds pose substantial and unavoidable risks to salmon fisheries because it is clear that these activities will permanently alter stream flows, and will contaminate surface and ground water sources. Mining of these sulfide-rich deposits will also require perpetual retention and maintenance of waste materials that will generate contaminants directly toxic to fish for centuries. These activities are both economically expensive and are simply not compatible with strategies to sustain commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries in the future.”

As a result of the bill being introduced in the waning hours of the Alaskan legislature’s first of two legislative sessions, the bill will automatically be up for consideration when the legislature next convenes in January of 2026.

Read the full article at The Hatch

ALASKA: Stronger federal support for AK fisheries

June 5, 2025 — Deputy executive director Jamie O’Connor of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) and fifth-generation Bristol Bay salmon fisherman testifies before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries.

The Subcommittee heard testimony from five people during an oversight hearing titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.”

Representing AMCC and the Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC)—a national alliance of more than 1,000 small-boat fishermen coast-to-coast—O’Connor emphasized the urgent need for robust funding and staffing of NOAA, calling them the “scientific and regulatory guardrails” that enable the seafood sector to function effectively, fairly, and sustainably.

“Without a strong and functioning NOAA, we’re not just losing data—we’re losing stability, credibility, and the ability for coastal communities to thrive,” O’Connor said during her testimony. “This is not red tape—it’s our food supply, our economic health, and the future of wild seafood in America.”

FCC members across the country echoed O’Connor’s call for action, demonstrating alignment throughout America’s coastlines around core challenges and values.

“The testimony from our colleague at AMCC detailed many of the same challenges we face on the other side of the country, here on Cape Cod,” said Aubrey Church, fisheries policy director for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. “Commercial fishermen are the economic backbone of our coastal communities, part of a centuries-old tradition of going to sea to not only feed their families, but the nation.”

In addition to highlighting the risks of an underfunded NOAA, O’Connor’s testimony pointed to the outsized returns to be found through meaningful investment in waterfront infrastructure.

“We urgently need investments in our working waterfronts to safeguard access to the water,” Church said, “access that is not only vital to sustaining our jobs, but also fundamental to preserving coastal ways of life.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska seafood industry ‘uniquely vulnerable’ to tariff impacts, trade groups say

June 5, 2025 — Alaska’s seafood industry could see an outsized impact from international tariffs, according to experts.

In April, President Donald Trump announced a major tariff hike on China, escalating up to 145%, and China retaliated with similar rates. Though both governments struck a deal in May delaying any increases by at least 90 days, they haven’t been canceled, and tariffs have stayed elevated since his last presidency. That makes Alaska seafood less competitive in China, one of the largest markets for it internationally.

Two trade groups representing some of Alaska’s largest seafood processors — the Pacific Seafood Processors Association and the At-Sea Processors Association — sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative March 11 urging caution on new tariffs worldwide.

“(Alaska is) heavily dependent on fair access to export markets, and also uniquely vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs that our trading partners may seek to impose in the event of heightened trade tensions,” they wrote. “Accordingly, care must be taken to remedy these issues in a manner that does not increase the harm to U.S. seafood producers.”

The letter points to an “existential and global threat” to Alaska’s seafood industry in recent years due to unfair trade practices by Russia, which has been overproducing and flooding world markets for years, especially for pollock. The U.S. currently has broad trade sanctions on Russia.

Read the full article at Alaska Journal of Commerce

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement Foils Crab Trafficking Plot in Alaska

May 30, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement led an investigation that resulted in a Kodiak fisherman being sentenced to prison for illegally trafficking diseased crab from Alaska to Washington. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska handled the successful prosecution. On May 13, Corey Potter was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years of supervised release. The sentence also included a worldwide ban on any commercial fishing for the duration of the term of his supervised release. Potter pleaded guilty to two felony counts of violating the Lacey Act in February.

In early March 2024, based on information from the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, NOAA Office of Law Enforcement initiated an investigation into two Alaska crab catcher vessels. They were allegedly transporting catch out of Alaska without first properly landing the crab in the state as required by law. Corey Potter was the owner and operator of the crab catcher vessels F/V Gambler and F/V Arctic Dawn. The investigation revealed that he directed the vessels’ captains and operators, Kyle Potter and Justin Welch, to transport live crab harvested in Alaska through Canadian waters to Seattle, where they planned to fetch higher prices for the sales. The F/V Arctic Dawn had more than 4,200 pounds of live Tanner crab on board, and the F/V Gambler held more than 2,900 pounds of live golden king crab.

Several crab fishermen expressed concern to Corey and Kyle Potter regarding their plan to transport the crab out of Alaska due to Bitter Crab Syndrome. The syndrome is a fatal parasitic disease impacting crustaceans. The fishermen cautioned that infected crab could harm the fishery’s reputation and, consequently, the market for Alaskan crab. Regardless, the captains unlawfully departed Alaska without landing the crab or submitting completed reports, in violation of Alaska law. They were fully aware that some of the Tanner crab were almost certainly infected. We tracked the vessels from Alaska to Washington, interdicted them at the dock in Seattle, and seized the catch. We collaborated with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Police, who offloaded the Tanner crab and disposed of them securely. Approximately 42 percent of the king crab were dead prior to landing and therefore unmarketable.

Co-defendant Welch pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Lacey Act and was sentenced on June 25, 2024, to 3 years’ probation, and a $10,000 fine. Co-defendant Kyle Potter pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Lacey Act. He was sentenced on July 10, 2024, to 5 years’ probation, including a 5-year worldwide ban on any commercial fishing and a $20,000 fine.

“The sustainability of Alaska’s fisheries depends on honest fishermen, strong statutory oversight, and industry members who engage in fair business practices,” said Benjamin Cheeseman, Assistant Director, NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, Alaska Division. “These sentences serve to protect lawful stakeholders into the future, by sending a clear message to would-be offenders. We remain committed to holding violators accountable and safeguarding Alaska’s fisheries for future generations.”

NOAA Fisheries enforces statutes pertaining to seafood and federal fisheries. We work diligently to ensure compliance with these laws and take swift action when violations occur. We are committed to pursuing violators across state boundaries and international borders.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Coastal Alaskans see commercial fishing limits as a ‘crisis.’ Lawmakers don’t.

May 29, 2025 — For decades, an economic catastrophe has been unfolding in the Indigenous villages along the Gulf of Alaska, with lost jobs and the destruction of a traditional way of life: hauling fish from the sea.

That destruction is still playing out. More than 80% of people who responded to a recent survey sponsored by an economic development nonprofit said that Southeast Alaska and Kodiak Island villages are in a “crisis of sustainability” because of lost access to fisheries.

Indigenous leaders across the Gulf say it’s imperative that Alaska legislators pass reforms to the state law that they blame for the mess: a landmark 1973 statute that effectively prevents many residents of those coastal villages from earning a living by fishing for salmon.

New fishermen can only participate in the commercial harvest if they buy or inherit a state permit that, in some cases, can cost upward of $100,000 — putting it out of reach for young rural residents with no credit histories.

“We all have kids and grandkids that want to continue doing what their grandparents were doing a long time ago,” Joe Nelson, a top official with Southeast Alaska regional Native corporation Sealaska, said at a reception for lawmakers in Juneau last month.

Read the full article at KTOO