Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Inside an Alaska national park, a fight looms over a possible gold mine

November 24, 2025 — High in a mountain valley on the far west side of this tidal inlet sits an unusual plot of land.

It’s a private parcel, with a gravel airstrip and four or five buildings that make up a small worker camp. But there are no towns in sight. Known as the Johnson Tract, the property is fully surrounded by the vast Lake Clark National Park — millions of wild acres marked by the broad white peaks of a volcano, sprawling glaciers and a muddy ocean coastline patrolled by brown bears.

Beneath the Johnson Tract lies a potential fortune. For decades, geologists have eyed gold, copper and zinc deposits thought to be worth billions of dollars. But they’ve never been tapped.

Now, amid surging gold prices and rising demand for metals like copper, the prospect is generating new excitement — and concern.

A prominent Alaska mining company is leasing the Johnson Tract from its Indigenous owners, and the property, some 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, has emerged as one of the most promising mining prospects in Southcentral Alaska.

But conservationists, commercial salmon fishermen and local lodge owners fear a mine, encircled by the federal protected area, could disrupt harvests and harm wildlife, including an endangered population of beluga whales.

Getting the Johnson Tract’s minerals to buyers will require trucking ore through a now-roadless corner of the national park to a future port.

Critics point out that the bay where the mining company, Contango Ore, Inc., wants to build a shipping terminal is an important winter habitat for the endangered belugas. Concern for the whales, among other objections, led mine opponents to sue federal regulators earlier this year over a permit that Contango received to build a short access road and expand an airstrip at the site.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Trump administration proposes offshore leasing in almost all Alaska waters

November 24, 2025 — The Trump administration has released a plan for offshore oil and gas leasing that would open up almost all Alaska marine waters to development, along with the entire Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Alaska portion of the plan proposes 21 lease sales through 2031, five of them in Cook Inlet, two in the Beaufort Sea, two in the Chukchi Sea and the others in other marine areas. Those include a lease sale in a newly designated “High Arctic” area that lies beyond the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and where U.S. territorial rights are not yet clear.

The only federal Alaska offshore area without a proposed lease sale is the North Aleutian Basin, where oil leasing is under an indefinite ban to protect salmon-rich Bristol Bay.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Trump administration releases its expanded oil and gas drilling plan

November 21, 2025 — Californians were already gearing up for battle even before the Trump administration released a draft plan on Nov. 20 that proposes a broad expansion of oil and gas drilling and lease sales along America’s coasts, including California, Alaska and west of Florida.

The Department of the Interior announced as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales across 21 of 27 existing Outer Continental Shelf planning areas, covering roughly 1.27 billion acres. That includes 21 areas off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Gulf of America and six along the Pacific coast.

The plan quickly drew opposition from state leaders and environmental groups – and support from some business organizations. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office fully opposes the plan.

Read the full article at USA Today

ALASKA: Regulators expect near average Southeast Alaska pink salmon season in 2026

November 21, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and NOAA Fisheries are forecasting a near average pink salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska next year, with similar numbers to the last two seasons.

The official forecast predicts a harvest of 19 million fish, which would be at the low end of what the department considers an average harvest, and slightly below what commercial fishers harvested in the 2025 season.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska crabbers steer toward a stronger future

November 20, 2025 — Just a few years ago, Alaska’s crabbers were staring down one of the darkest chapters in their fishery’s history. The Bristol Bay red king crab, snow crab, and bairdi seasons had been closed or severely restricted, vessels sat idle at the docks, and the fleet that once helped define Alaska’s working waterfront was struggling to hold on.

But this year, as the Bering Sea fleet looks out over a brighter horizon, there’s cautious optimism that the tide is finally turning. “We’ve been through an epic storm these last few years,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers (ABSC). “But Alaska’s Bering Sea crabbers are coming out the other side and are optimistic for the future.”

A remarkable comeback

Between 2019 and 2021, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s bottom trawl survey estimated that roughly 10 billion snow crab disappeared. Now, in 2025, about 7 billion have returned, a rebound that Goen calls “one heck of a comeback.”

The turnaround wasn’t just by luck. It came through hard decisions and scientific collaboration. “When crab stocks tanked, managers tightened things up, cutting exploitation rates on red king and snow crab,” Goen explained. “At the time, it hurt. But looking back, it was the right call. Stocks are rebuilding, and we’ve learned to appreciate that extra precaution.”

Bristol Bay red king crab have stabilized, and snow and bairdi harvest levels have doubled, with western bairdi now at their strongest in more than 20 years. Meanwhile, a new mariculture project and coordinated habitat surveys are exploring how to boost red king crab recruitment and identify prime areas for releasing hatchery-reared juveniles.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: After years of waiting, Alaska’s crab fleet is finally seeing disaster relief

November 20, 2025 — Financial relief is finally reaching Alaska fishermen, roughly four years after the crab crash hit the Bering Sea fleet.

The payments cover Bristol Bay red king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons, when stocks collapsed and the fisheries remained closed.

The trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers coordinated with harvesters, processors and communities to ask Gov. Mike Dunleavy to request a federal disaster declaration, which the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved in May 2023.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Helping Alaska’s Coastal Communities Adapt with Next-Generation Ocean Forecasting

November 18, 2025 — Changing ocean conditions threaten lives, livelihoods, and invaluable marine resources across the United States. From marine heatwaves and the collapse of snow crab populations in Alaska, to last year’s historic hurricane season, the day-to-day realities of people throughout the nation are being impacted by reduced food security, increased operational costs for fisheries, and higher seafood costs for consumers.

To help fishing communities and fisheries managers anticipate and respond to these challenges, NOAA is leading a nationwide effort called the Changing Ecosystems and Fisheries Initiative. This initiative is building a powerful new ocean forecasting system that delivers short and long-term predictions of future ocean and ecosystem conditions. Through a combination of high-resolution modeling and community engagement, it aims to provide the information needed to support food security, protect American fisheries, and strengthen coastal economies in the face of rapid changes.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Alaska Tribes deliver 30,000 letters opposing Canadian mining near salmon-bearing rivers

November 18, 2025 — Conservation groups delivered nearly 30,000 letters to Canadian lawmakers opposing mining developments in British Columbia, which U.S.-based Tribes say could harm Alaskan salmon fisheries.

“The provincial government is blatantly ignoring the rights of Indigenous peoples to protect their traditional territory from toxic mining pollution,” Earthjustice Supervising Senior Attorney Ramin Pejan said in a release. “Thousands of people have raised their voice in opposition, and the government should take notice.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Inside one of Alaska’s national parks, a fight looms over a possible gold mine

November 18, 2025 — High in a mountain valley on the far west side of this tidal inlet sits an unusual plot of land.

It’s a private parcel, with a gravel airstrip and four or five buildings that make up a small worker camp. But there are no towns in sight. Known as the Johnson Tract, the property is fully surrounded by the vast Lake Clark National Park—millions of wild acres marked by the broad white peaks of a volcano, sprawling glaciers and a muddy ocean coastline patrolled by brown bears.

Beneath the Johnson Tract lies a potential fortune. For decades, geologists have eyed gold, copper and zinc deposits thought to be worth billions of dollars. But they’ve never been tapped.

Now, amid surging gold prices and rising demand for metals like copper, the prospect is generating new excitement—and concern.

A prominent Alaska mining company is leasing the Johnson Tract from its Indigenous owners, and the property, some 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, has emerged as one of the most promising mining prospects in Southcentral Alaska.

But conservationists, commercial salmon fishermen and local lodge owners fear a mine, encircled by the federal protected area, could disrupt harvests and harm wildlife, including an endangered population of beluga whales.

Read the full article at News From The States

ALASKA: In waters off Alaska, fishermen struggle to keep orcas from their catch

November 17, 2025 — The orca pod that forages in the waters just north of this Aleutian island are quick to swarm any halibut boat with a skipper foolish enough to drop lines in their domain.

As the lines are pulled up, and fresh-caught fish near the surface, the whales, in a well-honed feeding ritual, pick them off the hooks.

Skipper Robert Hanson’s lines have been hit by lots of the killer whales that dwell in the Bering Sea. He has found the Unalaska pod to be the most savvy, skilled and aggressive — leaving just traces of halibut, the largest of which could have netted Hanson hundreds of dollars apiece.

“Most of the time, you get nothing. Sometimes a lip, or a half a fish, if they get full,” Hanson said. “They are particularly good at what they do.”

For the past 20 years, Hanson has sought to avoid feeding these whales and prospected for halibut elsewhere. But during a May fishing trip, Hanson dared to set his lines near these whales as part of an eight-day sea trial to test a new defense, an aluminum “shuttle” resembling a small submarine.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News