Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Government shutdown creates uncertainty for fisheries management in waters off Alaska

October 10, 2025 — For the organization that oversees commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska, the most significant impact of the federal government shutdown might materialize in December.

That is when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to issue harvest limits for Alaska pollock – the nation’s top-volume commercial harvested species – and other types of groundfish harvested in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, such as Pacific cod and sablefish.

The Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska pollock harvests start in January.

To set the groundfish harvest levels, the council relies on federal scientists’ analysis of fish stocks in the ocean, work that is based in large part on scientific surveys conducted over the summer.

But during the shutdown, most National Marine Fisheries Service employees, including the scientists who analyze survey data to assess the conditions of commercially targeted fish stocks, are furloughed.

On Wednesday, the last day of the council’s October meeting, the members considered how to deal with scientific uncertainty if the government shutdown prevents completion of the detailed analysis that is usually provided in time for the December meeting.

Council member Nicole Kimball referred to a warning issued eight days prior by Bob Foy, director of the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the organization that does the stock assessments. Foy said then that a shutdown lasting more than five days would compromise the ability to complete stock assessments and that a shutdown beyond 15 working days would “dramatically impact” those assessments.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Smarter nets and faster data for the Alaska pollock fishery

October 10, 2025 — In Alaska’s pollock fishery, the largest in the United States and among the most productive in the world, every tow carries not just pollock but the risk of catching salmon.

For decades, commercial fishermen and scientists have collaborated to reduce salmon bycatch, refining net designs, developing exclusion devices, and implementing vessel notification systems to steer clear of populated areas. New technology is emerging that utilizes artificial intelligence, specifically a tool called You Only Look Once, version 11 (YOLOv11), which could help fishermen and scientists evaluate salmon excluders more efficiently, accurately, and potentially at a lower cost.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Gradual improvements in Bering Sea crab stocks allow for Alaska harvest increases

October 9, 2025 — Snow crab stocks in Alaska’s Bering Sea, which crashed a few years ago, have recovered enough to allow a modest harvest starting in mid-October.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Monday announced that fishermen will be allowed to harvest 9.3 million pounds of Bering Sea snow crab from Oct. 15 to May. The harvest cap is about twice the 4.72 million pounds allowed in the past season, which followed an unprecedented two-year period of closed harvests.

The Bering Sea snow crab harvest closures came after catastrophic losses that scientists have attributed to an intense, multiyear marine heatwave that started in 2018.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Alaska crab fishery shows signs of recovery after massive crash

October 8, 2025 — Bering Sea crabbers will see a boost in catch limits this season, after years of cancellations and small harvests due to low snow and king crab stocks.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday that it’s nearly doubling the harvest for the upcoming Bering Sea snow crab commercial fishing season from last year’s totals.

Fish and Game set the cap at 9.3 million pounds. That’s a low number compared to historic levels. In 1991, crabbers harvested more than 320 million pounds of snow crab.

The catch limit was set at 45 million pounds back in 2020, the year before the snow crab stock crashed. And the next year, the fishery closed for two seasons after more than 10 billion snow crabs disappeared from the region.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Bering Sea snow crab fishery sees major TAC increase for 2025

October 8, 2025 — Bering Sea commercial snow crab fisheries will open on Oct. 15 with a total allowable catch (TAC) of 9.3 million pounds, nearly double the TAC allocated for the 2024-25 season.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game apportioned the catch to include 8.37 million pounds for individual fishing quota (IFQ) and 930,000 pounds for community development quota (CDQ), based on the 2025 estimate of total mature snow crab biomass above the required threshold.

“With the snow crab harvest levels roughly doubling for the upcoming season, crabbers are relieved to see the stock improving,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. “Boats are gearing up, and crabbers are ready to go fishing,” said Goen, who was appointed to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in August of 2024, to the Washington seat vacated with the death of Kenny Down.

Read the full article at the Cordova Times

Warming water has varied impact on salmon populations

October 8, 2025 — Wild salmon are super weird for a variety of reasons, including response to warming climate conditions, says fisheries researcher Peter Westley of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“Salmon have really evolved in places with changing conditions, including volcanoes blowing up, glaciers melting and making really good salmon habitat,” Westley said on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in a webinar from his office on the Fairbanks campus. “Salmon are experiencing the front lines of (environmental) changes. Trends across the globe since 1991, the rate of warming is much, much faster in the Arctic. Salmon are experiencing warming and rapid change of warming.”

To maintain healthy salmon populations, the fish need cool, complex, connected, clean habitat, said Westley, an associate professor and Wakefield chair of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF’s Department of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

Connectivity is important so that the salmon have the ability to move around, he said. It is also important to protect the processes important to the fish, like the way groundwater comes up to cool the water, and gravel has to come into the streams, he said.

“Salmon bury their offspring alive and leave them in the gravel for months on end, nine to 10 months under the gravel.  They are born in fresh water, and then they decide freshwater is not for them and migrate to the ocean, and then they come back,” he said. “They can fill up streams in very high density and go back to their natal streams. They fight their way back home, and their bodies decay and become nutrients for others, including bears. Salmon are weird, but also awesome.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

US judge dismisses NGO lawsuit challenging North Pacific trawling

October 8, 2025 — U.S. district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by conservation NGO Oceana challenging bottom trawling in the North Pacific, finding that NOAA Fisheries acted in accordance with the law in regulating commercial fishing in the area.

Oceana filed the lawsuit in August 2024 in an effort to block bottom trawling in the North Pacific, an activity the group claims can cause substantial damage to seafloor coral and sponge habitats.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Sea Grant strengthens America’s working waterfronts

October 3, 2025 — The U.S. maritime economy is growing faster than the economy as a whole, supporting over 2.6 million jobs and contributing $511 billion to the nation’s GDP.

From lobster docks in Maine to oyster farms in Florida, kelp farms and commercial fisheries on the West Coast to maritime training in Alaska, charter fishing in the Gulf, and inland shipping in the Great Lakes, America’s coastal and freshwater industries are fueling economic growth, feeding families, and sustaining communities.

At the heart of that growth is Sea Grant, a trusted federal program linking science, communities, and industry across every coastal and Great Lakes state. According to the most recent federal data, the marine economy grew by 5.9 percent in GDP, outpacing national GDP growth, and Sea Grant plays a critical role in sustaining and accelerating that momentum.

Modeled after the Land Grant college system that helped transform American agriculture, the Sea Grant college program has spent more than 50 years doing the same for the nation’s marine and freshwater economies, combining applied research, hands-on education, and direct investments in communities and businesses to promote sustainable growth.

That model works. It works for the charter boat captain who needs up-to-date science on fish stocks, reef health, and ocean conditions. It works for the shellfish farmer navigating complex permitting processes, building a skilled workforce, and developing business plans to stay competitive. It works for the lobsterman who relies on data about juvenile lobsters entering the fishery to make informed decisions about their gear, boat, and future, because without that data, they’d be navigating blind. It works for the seafood processor hiring the next generation of workers, and for the harbor manager planning infrastructure upgrades to withstand future storms. It works for the grocery shopper a thousand miles from the coast looking for fresh, healthy seafood, and for the inland communities whose economies depend on waterborne trade and shipping. It works for families, for small businesses, for regional economies, and ultimately, for the nation.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Shutdown threatens Alaska fisheries council decisions

October 2, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), responsible for overseeing federal fisheries off Alaska, is navigating turbulent waters marked by both budget uncertainty and the government shutdown. NPFMC is one of the eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976.

After months of delays due to the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA, the council finally secured its 2025 operational funding this summer. However, as Yereth Rosen reported for Alaska Beacon on September 30, a federal government shutdown now threatens to derail the science-based decision-making that the fisheries depend on.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Two Economic Reports Highlight Pollock Industry’s Impact in Alaska

October 2, 2025 — A pair of new studies validate the economic importance of the Alaska pollock industry. The Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance (APFA) paid for two studies prepared independently by Northern Economics and the McKinley Research Group.

Both studies found significant economic impacts from pollock fishing and processing and contributions to Community Development Quota (CDQ) groups. The studies put the value of the fishery at the billions of dollars, including thousands of jobs in the seafood sector and the transportation and other support industries.

Read the full article at Alaska Business