October 1, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded USD 2 million (EUR 1.8 million) for Alaska pollock.
Under the 28 September contract, Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Channel Fish Processing will supply 4,500 cases of frozen Alaska Pollock fillets for USD 1.13 million (EUR 1 million).
September 30, 2026 — The United Fishermen of Alaska, a trade association for commercial fishermen statewide, hired a new leader. Juneau-based commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer started as executive director of the organization on Sept. 15.
Outgoing executive director Tracy Welch said she left UFA after roughly five years as the executive director to take over as commissioner of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission earlier this year. She started as one of two commissioners of the commission back in May, joining the existing commissioner Rick Green. Her predecessor at CFEC Glenn Haight stepped down from the position in February.
Brouwer has been a commercial fisherman for over 20 years, according to a press release UFA posted on Sept. 21. During those two decades, he said he fished the Kodiak setnet fishery for a season. He has also fished the Southeast pot shrimp and salmon trolling seasons and halibut and black cod longline fisheries.
September 29, 2026 — When Petersburg fisherman Bob Martin arrived at Neets Bay for the chum salmon opener, he didn’t have a great feeling.
“ I got there in the dark and it looked like a small city with all the lights of all the boats that were staged and ready for the 5 a.m. opening,” he said.
About 30 boats were crowded into the bay for the historic commercial opener. Martin said he was also worried about the quality of fish he saw along the shoreline.
“They looked pretty far gone, and I wondered if there was gonna be anything for us,” he said.
But within minutes of putting out his net, it was filled with fish. Totes and totes of fish.
Read the full article at Alaska Public Media
September 29, 2026 — Juneau commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer has been named executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA), bringing more than two decades on the water and years of fisheries policy experience to the statewide trade association.
Brouwer began the role in September, succeeding Tracy Welch, who was appointed earlier this year to the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. “It’s humbling to be working for the fishing industry,” Brouwer told the Juneau Empire. “I’ve participated as an active commercial fisherman for over 20 years and operated my own boat.”
Brouwer takes over UFA as Alaska fishermen face a busy stretch of state fisheries management decisions. The Alaska Board of Fisheries is preparing for meetings covering Lower Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and Upper Cook Inlet finfish over the coming months.
Brouwer said UFA’s board, which represents commercial fishing organizations across Alaska, will guide his role. One of his first major tasks will be preparing for the association’s fall meeting Nov. 4-5 in Anchorage, weighing in on Board of Fisheries proposals, and helping organize a candidate forum focused on commercial fishing.
September 29, 2026 — Bycatch has emerged as a defining fisheries issue in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, but the legislative records of former Rep. Mary Peltola and Sen. Dan Sullivan show different approaches to reducing incidental harvests and addressing trawling’s impacts.
Peltola, who is challenging Sullivan for his Senate seat, introduced the Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act in 0224 while serving in the U.S. House. Sullivan introduced his Bycatch Reduction Act this year, which advanced through the Senate Commerce Committee on Sept. 16.
According to the Alaska Beacon, the two proposals share some common ground, particularly federal support for technology to reduce bycatch. But there are notable differences in how that support would be distributed and how each proposal approaches fisheries management.
September 28, 2026 — The White House this month issued an executive order to support the sportfishing industry by, among other things, paving the way for increased harvests of sharks and pinnipeds, including sea lions and seals.
The order specifically aims to help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators — an industry in Alaska that, with its copious fish populations, generates thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in economic impact, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.
If all of its provisions are enacted, fishing groups say, the directive could improve fish abundance in Alaska by reducing predation by marine mammals. It could also lead to potential conflicts with federal laws that currently protect the animals.
September 25, 2026 — Many Alaskans have opposed proposed data center development in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and on the North Slope. Some residents don’t believe they belong in Cook Inlet, either.
Earlier this year, the East Coast company DeepGreen Cook Inlet released plans for a 100-megawatt subsea data center with as many as 350 underwater turbines and 66 “hives” housing artificial intelligence servers, both powered and cooled by water in Cook Inlet.
Louis Wolfson, a managing member for company DeepGreen and luxury real estate developer based in Needham, Massachusetts, said the proposal seeks to work around some of the constraints facing traditional, land-based data centers: a need for both large plots of developable land and significant amounts of energy from the local grid.
September 25, 2026 — U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) blocked an attempt by U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to quickly pass his Bycatch Reduction Act in the Senate.
During remarks given on the Senate floor 23 September, Sullivan called on his fellow senators to pass his legislation, which calls for new trawling and bottom floor contact regulations and the implementation of salmon excluder devices for commercial fishing operations off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. The legislation was first introduced at the beginning of the year, but Sullivan introduced an updated version with stronger provisions regarding bycatch and seafloor contact regulations in June. After the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced the legislation earlier in September, Sullivan pushed to quickly pass the bill by unanimous consent.
September 25, 2026 — Marine aquaculture, or mariculture, provides economic opportunities for coastal communities in Alaska through farming shellfish and seaweed. NOAA Fisheries continues to support Alaska’s growing aquaculture industry through policy and permitting—providing access to resources and research.
A recent study highlights one of our newest aquaculture research collaborations. Through this partnership between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Sea Quester Farms, we investigated whether seaweed farms provide novel habitat for Alaskan marine species. We compared the fish and invertebrate species present within Sea Quester farm sites to similar locations with no farms, and found no major difference. The research provided a better understanding of how kelp farms interact with the environment, which could help inform sustainable management.
“This study responded to a direct need from resource managers and interest from farmers to understand specifically how the presence of kelp farms in Alaska influenced culturally and economically important fish and invertebrate species,” said Jordan Hollarsmith, Ph.D., lead author and macroalgae and mariculture research biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
Read the full article at the full article at NOAA Fisheries
September 24, 2026 — Southwest Alaska communities are calling for fisheries policy discussions to remain grounded in science while giving greater consideration to the fishing families, processors, workers, and coastal communities affected by management decisions.
The Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, or SWAMC, adopted a joint resolution June 15 calling for “fact-based dialogue on the future of Alaska fisheries and coastal communities.” The resolution has since gained support from communities and boroughs across the region.
SWAMC pointed to the region’s outsized role in Alaska’s seafood economy, saying Southwest Alaska is home to four of the nation’s top fishing ports and accounts for nearly 70 percent of the state’s seafood processing output. From 2015 through 2024, economic activity in Southwest Alaska communities generated approximately 75 percent of Alaska’s shared fisheries tax revenues, according to the resolution.
The resolution comes as fisheries policy continues to feature prominently in public debate across Alaska. SWAMC said proposals under discussion could significantly affect fishing families, seafood workers, processors, local governments, Alaska Native communities and coastal economies, and argued that the economic, social and cultural consequences should be considered alongside biological sustainability.