April 3, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced a preseason all-gear catch limit of 133,500 treaty Chinook salmon for Southeast Alaska in 2025, per the Pacific Salmon Treaty provisions.
ADF&G has set a target of 130,850 Chinook salmon, incorporating a 2 percent reduction from the treaty catch limit to serve as a buffer against exceeding the all-gear limit and triggering payback provisions.
April 2, 2025 — Alaska’s commercial dipnet fishery is getting more time on the water this season, following an expansion approved by the State Board of Fisheries in March.
The board’s decision, reported by Peninsula Clarion’s Jake Dye, extends fishing hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, increasing opportunities for participants while maintaining limits aimed at protecting struggling king salmon stocks.
The expansion came from a proposal by Joseph Person, who initially sought to allow 12-hour openings every day of the week. The board unanimously approved the increase on March 15 but adjusted the plan to restrict operations to weekdays. The season will continue to run from June 20 through July 31, rejecting Person’s request to extend it through mid-August. Additional provisions now allow dipnet fishermen to operate on City of Kenai shore leases and require them to record any released king or coho salmon on a fish ticket.
April 1, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is imposing what it calls “unprecedented” conservation measures to address declines of Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon — also known as king salmon — which is currently under review for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The department said in a March 18 announcement that it will be restricting western Alaska king salmon fisheries, including in Kodiak, Chignik and Sand Point.
Matt Keyse, an area management biologist at fish and game’s Sand Point office, said this is the first time the department has used data from one region to trigger management action in another.
“That is unprecedented from managing a fishery based on fish that are not found locally to the systems in the area in which we’re harvesting fish,” Keyse said.
Sand Point — off the Alaska Peninsula — is in the middle of the management region known as Area M. Although it doesn’t have its own king runs, fishermen intercept salmon that migrate through the region. In recent years, Area M’s harvest levels have drawn criticism from stakeholders in Western Alaska, who argue the fishery reduces local salmon returns.
April 1, 2025 — The Alaska Bering Sea snow crab fishery is open for the first time in 2 years after a sharp decline in the crab population caused fishery closures. Participants have banded together with NOAA Fisheries to use regulatory flexibilities to help the fishery operate smoothly. While the species shows signs of recovery, it is still in low abundance. There are continued challenges for harvesters, processors, and small coastal communities who depend on the fishery for their income and way of life.
We estimate that more than 10 billion snow crabs disappeared from the Bering Sea from 2018 to 2021 due to a marine heatwave and ecological shifts in the region.
The snow crab fishery is an important economic driver in Alaska, generating an average of $150 million annually from 2012 to 2021. Disaster relief funding from the Department of Commerce in 2022–2023 provided some assistance to fishing communities. With lower available stock and decreased processing capabilities after years of closures, the industry and hard-hit communities looked to existing federal regulations for new solutions to economic recovery.
The State of Alaska and NOAA Fisheries jointly manage the commercial Bering Sea snow crab fishery with recommendations from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council under the Federal Fishery Management Plan for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab Fisheries.
In 2004, the Council recommended the Crab Rationalization Program to allocate resources among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities for nine Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries implemented the program in 2005 and developed regulations to support the process consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and associated laws. We issue quota shares to harvesters and processors for Crab Rationalization fisheries, including the Bering Sea snow crab fishery.
The Crab Rationalization Program also sets regional delivery requirements for Bering Sea snow crab. Portions of the harvester quota must be delivered for processing in two regions—North and South—to support communities who have historically processed crab. But those delivery requirements can pose a challenge during periods of low abundance.
Through the Council, NOAA Fisheries establishes an annual catch limit for each Crab Rationalization stock and develops rebuilding plans for overfished crab stocks. We conduct an annual trawl survey to estimate the total number of mature snow crab in the Bering Sea. We use data collected from the survey to establish annual harvest specifications including an annual overfishing limit and an acceptable biological catch limit.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determines whether fisheries can open based on the annual harvest specifications and state harvest strategies. It also sets the total allowable catch. This is the maximum amount of crab that can be harvested for the season so that all crab removals remain below the amount needed to sustain the species. Using the TAC for each crab fishery, we annually issue individual fishing quotas and individual processing quotas to fishery participants.
The State of Alaska, through the Alaska Board of Fisheries process, also implements other regulations such as observer coverage and gear requirements.
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.”
March 31, 2025 — U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids on Alaska pollock for domestic food distribution programs as part of up to USD 50 million (EUR 46 million) the agency said it would spend on the fish.
Suppliers that want to bid on the contracts for 1 million pounds of pollock fillets, nuggets, and sticks must submit bids by 7 April 2025. Deliveries will be made between 16 May and 31 July 2025.
March 27, 2025 — The National Marine Fisheries Service did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act when setting seasons and conditions for pollock trawl fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, even though the fishery harms Native American tribes in western Alaska, a federal judge ruled March 11.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska by two consortiums representing 98 Alaskan tribes, claimed that the climate crisis is causing rapid and unprecedented change in the ocean (Clearing Up No. 2136). Plaintiffs claimed that NMFS failed to take those changes into account when setting conditions for the last two groundfish seasons.
Joined by several environmental groups, the tribes asked the court to require NMFS to prepare a new environmental impact statement (EIS) for the trawl fishery, taking climate change into account.
Although District Judge Sharon Gleason agreed with plaintiffs on several of their points, she ultimately ruled against them.
March 27, 2025 — Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, on Friday sent a letter to the State Board of Fisheries “demanding” it “clarify its stance on the future of our drifter and setnet fisheries in Cook Inlet.”
The move comes after what she describes as “alarming” recent actions at meeting of the board in Anchorage this month where they declined to support a proposal by local setnetters to fish with beach seines — the group has in recent years been wholly restricted for fishing amid low king salmon abundance — and one member said he wanted to see no setnets or drifters operating in the inlet at all.
Brian and Lisa Gabriel, setnetters from Kenai, last summer operated a test fishery for set beach seines that they said were able to operate without killing any king salmon and while catching enough sockeye salmon to be economically viable. They successfully petitioned the board to hear their proposal out of cycle — Upper Cook Inlet fishing issues aren’t set to be heard by the board until 2027 — but the motion was failed by the board on March 15.
March 26, 2025 — These are tough times for Alaska’s fishermen — and Russia is a primary cause. During his recent confirmation hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joked with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan about the need to counter “communist fish.” In reality, the future of our entire industry could hinge on whether Secretary Lutnick succeeds.
For more than a decade, the Kremlin has been implementing policies that take direct aim at Alaska’s fishing sector. In 2014, Russia banned U.S. seafood imports, choking off a $60 million market for Alaska fishermen, with pink salmon roe hit especially hard. In direct response, ex-vessel prices for pink salmon declined from $0.42 per pound to $0.23 per pound in 2015.
Then in 2017, Russia launched a massive state subsidy program to modernize its vessels and processing plants, undercutting us in global markets and having a similar downward impact to Alaska fishermen’s prices. More recently, Russia has chosen to pursue predatory pricing strategies, with the specific aim of displacing us from our traditional European and Asian markets and harming the long-term health of our state’s seafood economy.
In response to these provocations, Sen. Sullivan led a years-long campaign to secure broad U.S. sanctions on Russian-harvested seafood. These sanctions were finally fully implemented last year, and they are now providing Alaska fishermen a vital lifeline.
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.