Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Green crab discoveries in Ketchikan show the invasive threat is spreading in Alaska

July 7, 2025 — On a sandy beach in a state park in Ketchikan, a group of local beachcombers encountered something ominous: shells of two invasive European green crabs, shed as part of the creatures’ growth process.

That discovery, made during a June 6 beach survey that was part of a class held by the University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan campus, led to more in the community.

It makes Ketchikan the newest known Alaska beachhead in a northward invasion of non-native crabs that are known to wreak havoc on native species and habitats.

European green crabs, first confirmed to be in Alaska when their shells were discovered in 2022 on Annette Island in the far southeast corner of the state, are likely here for good, said the UAS professor who was one of the class instructors and helped lead the beach surveys.

“They have continued to spread. They will continue to spread,” said Barbara Morgan, who is based in Ketchikan. “They are expected to spread through Southeast Alaska, probably most of Southcentral — kind of the southern coast of Southcentral. And maybe, depending on water temperature and how tolerant they are to the colder water temperatures, they might go up into the really southern part of the Bristol Bay area, too.”

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

Federal judge upholds state control in Cook Inlet salmon fishery management dispute

July 7, 2025 — US District Judge Sharon Gleason has ruled in favor of the National Marine Fisheries Service, upholding Amendment 16 to the federal salmon fishery management plan and confirming the agency’s authority to regulate only federal waters in the Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone.

The decision is a legal victory for the State of Alaska, preserving state jurisdiction over nearshore salmon fisheries and reinforcing the state’s role in sustainable resource management.

The ruling stems from a legal challenge to Amendment 16, which clarified NMFS’s decision to manage salmon fishing in federal waters — waters beyond three miles from shore. But the amendment did not grant authority over Alaska’s state waters.

The plaintiffs in the case — United Cook Inlet Drift Association and Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund — argued that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act required a unified approach across both federal and state jurisdictions to effectively manage salmon stocks. They also claimed NMFS’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

Read the full article at Must Read Alaska

US district court judge dismisses lawsuit brought against NMFS by Alaska set-net fishers

July 7, 2025 –A judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the United Cook Inlet Drift Association and the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) over what the organizations claimed was violations of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

The two organizations, which represent fishers in the Cook Inlet in the U.S. state of Alaska, have spent over a decade launching lawsuits against NMFS, with the latest complaint saying the action was intended to “get Federal Defendants to stop shirking their duty” on the Cook Inlet salmon fishery. Plaintiffs claimed the NMFS ignored statutory duties intended for the federal government and, instead, deferred to the state of Alaska.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Unalaska formally accepts disaster relief, 3 years after crab crash

July 2, 2025 — Unalaska is finally seeing some financial relief nearly three years after the collapse of Alaska’s snow crab and red king crab fisheries.

The city has now officially secured more than $3 million in federal disaster money.

The City of Unalaska formally accepted the relief funds at its June 24 city council meeting. That officially adds the money to the city budget, but the move was mostly procedural.

Councilmember Shari Coleman, who’s been on the council since the city first braced itself for a shortfall in 2021, said the move was largely procedural.

Read the full article at KUCB

ALASKA: Copper River run winding down, still pacing below forecast

June 27, 2025 — Sockeye salmon harvests from the Copper River were holding their own in quality, but not quantity, and still tracking well below forecast earlier this week, with the catch from the 48-hour opener still to be calculated.

Data compiled in the aftermath of the commercial opener that ended on June 20 showed a harvest of over 60,000 wild Copper River sockeyes from that run as of June 24. Had that harvest been on track with the forecast, the catch would have been more like 115,000 reds, said Jeremy Botz, a veteran fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) at Cordova.

Botz said the chum harvest is coming in as anticipated but there has not been a directed fishery on chums because of the hatchery cost recovery program and a large part of the chum run this year is being taken for cost recovery. The Chinook run, which is about done, is low, similar to the forecast, and looks healthy, he said.

On the bright side, if the harvest remains low retail prices should hold, where those fish were still not sold out.

In Anchorage they were sold out at seafood specialty shop 10th & M Seafoods. The seafood department at New Sagaya still had Copper River red fillets for $19.99 a pound and headed and gutted reds for $19.99 a pound, and Costco warehouses had fresh Copper River red fillets still at $16.99 a pound.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Copper River reds tracking below forecast, pinks predicted to soar

June 26, 2025 — Arobust harvest of Copper River sockeye salmon has not panned out for 2025, leaving customers scrambling in Anchorage, Alaska, as fillets disappear for the season, with prices ranging from $16.95 to $56.95 a pound.

Harvesters in the Cordova area of Alaska’s Prince William Sound brought in just over 60,000 reds in the commercial opener that ended on June 20. “They would have been looking at about 115,000 reds based on the anticipated opener on June 19,” said Jeremy Botz, a veteran fisheries biologist in Cordova with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle was posting availability of Copper River reds and Chinooks, including whole sockeyes for $124.99 and whole kings for $639.99. Fishmongers there also had plenty of fillets of sockeyes for $39.99 a pound and fresh kings at $119.99 a pound.

A total of nine Copper River openers beginning on May 22 brought in an estimated 362,983 reds, according to the latest ADF&G preliminary harvest report available on June 24. An update on the newest 48-hour opener was still being compiled.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fisheries council tightens its belt as funding comes ‘in dribs and drabs’

June 25, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal board that helps oversee federal fisheries off Alaska’s coast, is scaling back operations due to uncertainty over federal funding.

The council meets five times a year to help set fishing policies, like quotas, regulations and bycatch restrictions. But federal budget cuts under President Donald Trump have whittled down the organization’s resources, forcing them to scale back their activities.

At a meeting earlier this month, the council said it had received less than half of its federal funds. They got another payment last week, but Executive Director David Witherell said they’ve still only received about two-thirds of their annual funding. Typically, the council receives full funding by March.

“This is a highly unusual situation that we’re in,” Witherell said. “We can normally be able to plan our meeting schedule for the year and not have to worry that the Council offices might have to close because we run out of funds to pay staff.”

The funding is disbursed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a four-year grant. This is the first year of that grant cycle — and Witherell said they’re starting from zero, with no rollover from the previous year.

He said the council has been told to expect another installment once Congress finalizes a federal spending plan. But for now, there’s no timeline and no guarantee.

“The funding this year has been coming in dribs and drabs, and it’s making it challenging to reserve meeting spaces and to know that we have the funds to host a meeting,” Witherell said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Federal authority over Alaska fishing rights faces renewed scrutiny

June 24, 2025 — A dispute between Alaska and the federal government over subsistence fishing on the Kuskokwim River has led a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider whether decades-old precedent authorizing the federal government to control the state’s public lands should be upheld in light of recent Supreme Court decisions.

“This court should be free to reach its own decision and find that navigable waters are not public land under [ the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act],” argued John Michael Connolly, attorney with the Arlington-based Consovoy McCarthy Park firm representing Alaska.

In May 2021, the Federal Subsistence Board closed gillnet fishing of salmon along 180 miles of the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska for all but five days and to everyone but those who qualified as federal subsistence users. Days later, the state issued an emergency order allowing subsistence gillnet fishing along the river to all Alaskans on the same dates chosen by the board.

The federal government sued the state, arguing the state lacked the authority to override the Federal Subsistence Board’s orders.

In the district court, the state argued that the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act doesn’t permit the federal government to regulate fishing on state-owned navigable waters, but U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, a Barack Obama appointee, sided with the federal government.

On appeal, the case has raised questions as to the scope of the federal government’s authority in the state and whether a longstanding series of binding precedents on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, known as the Katie John trilogy, should be overturned. The Katie John trilogy held that a reserved water right can make navigable waters public land.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

NPFMC says pelagic trawl gear impact needs further evaluation

June 17, 2025 — Federal fisheries managers have given the Bering Sea pollock industry until the December of 2025 to develop spatial closures for the 2026 groundfish A season to protect Bristol Bay red king crab.

The decision reached by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) at its June meeting in Oregon is based on new winter pot surveys, tagging data and other recent data sources, the council said in its motion of June 8. The council requested information from the industry to be presented at its December meeting in Anchorage.

The council also acknowledged the lengthy Pelagic Trawl Gear Innovation Discussion Paper available in May and requested an update on the progress of that initiative at its meeting of April 2026, by which time the field study portion of the protect for catcher processors is expected to be complete.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Alaska lawmakers introduce bill to ban metals mining in Bristol Bay watershed

June 17, 2025 — On the last day of Alaska’s legislative session, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon introduced a bill to ban metal mining in the Bristol Bay watershed – including the controversial Pebble Mine.

House Bill 233 still has a long way to go before it could become law. But if passed, it would be the region’s first state-level restriction on metallic sulfide mining.

There are more than 20 active mining claims across the watershed, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run. That includes Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble Mine — which remains under consideration after more than 20 years despite local, state and federal challenges.

“The bill itself, I think, is a vehicle to continue the fight against the Pebble Mine,” said Edgmon, I-Dillingham. “Whether or not it advances or whether it just sits there and makes a very large statement that the region by and large is opposed to the mine.”

The bill, co-sponsored by House Reps. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, and Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, builds on a 1972 state law that established the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to protect the watershed against oil and gas drilling. In the past few decades, several bills have been introduced to ban metals mining, too, but none became law.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media