Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Southeast king salmon harvest limit cut by 60,000 this year

April 10, 2025 — The 2025 Southeast Alaska harvest limit for king salmon will be almost 40% less than last year, a drop of 60,000 fish.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on April 1 announced an overall allocation of 130,800 treaty king salmon — fish that don’t originate in Alaska hatcheries — for all gear groups targeting kings in waters off Southeast Alaska and Yakutat.

In recent years, Southeast Alaska’s all-gear allocation has ranged between a high of 355,600 treaty kings in 2016 down to 130,000 in 2018, Fish and Game records show. The regionwide king quota for all commercial and sport fishermen averaged about 200,900 kings a year from 2020 through 2024.

This year’s all-gear catch limit was set based on measures of king abundance calculated by the Pacific Salmon Commission’s “chinook model,” and did not incorporate annual data from the winter troll fishery in Sitka Sound, which the commission had used in recent years through 2023 to estimate the abundance of kings in Southeast and to set the all-gear allocation for the region.

The commission is tasked with implementing the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty. It regulates the catch for migratory king populations along the west coast of both countries.

The commission allocates the king salmon catch between the U.S. and Canada, and the Alaska Board of Fisheries approves management plans to split Alaska’s catch between different gear types and user groups, such as sport and commercial.

Read the full article at Wrangell Sentinel

ALASKA: Alaska accuses prominent Kodiak family of widespread fishing permit fraud

April 10, 2025 — State prosecutors have accused Kodiak fisher Duncan Fields and other members of his family of defrauding the state and fish buyers through a coordinated scheme that involved committing perjury and manipulating permits.

Court documents filed Monday state that Fields and his family, who operate Fields and Sons Inc., illegally earned more than $1 million by temporarily transferring various salmon setnet permits to crew members, allowing the family to bypass state limits on individual ownership.

Fields, whose family has been setnetting in Kodiak since 1961, denied the state’s claims, saying by text that the “charges stem from the gifting of limited entry permits to family and crew, something my family and I have done for more than 30 years. This is a common practice in the industry, and we believe that our family has been singled out to try to set an example with a unique application of existing statutes. The charges are not supported by the facts.”

The criminal accusations against the Fields family — which include multiple felonies — surprised fishers and have implications beyond Kodiak.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Pacific halibut fishery gets off to a slow start with high prices

April 10, 2025 — Bad weather and some last-minute paperwork scrambling at NOAA Fisheries combined to produce low catches during the first weeks of the Pacific halibut fishery.

By April 1, just 3 percent of the 23.79 million pound fishery limit for 2025 had been harvested since the March 20 opener. That poundage applies to the catches for commercial fishermen, sport charter operators, anglers, and subsistence users along the west coast and British Columbia/Canada to the far reaches of Alaska’s Bering Sea.

Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the annual commercial halibut catch and for 2025 it totals 19.7 million pounds, a 2.7 percent decrease from 2024. Reports by NOAA Fisheries show that 873,366 pounds were taken by Alaskan fishermen through April 7, compared to 1,223,849 pounds taken during the same time in 2024, a drop of nearly 29 percent.

As always, the first fresh halibut of the year fetched high prices, although early information was sketchy due to the low landings. Many ports have had so few deliveries that the data remain confidential.

At Seward, prices to fishermen started out at $7 per pound across the board, according to Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska sport fishery sees single-fish limits for king salmon

April 7, 2025 — The amount of Chinook (king) salmon allocated under the Pacific Salmon Treaty is much lower this year in Southeast Alaska —almost 40 percent lower than last year— and that’s affecting all user groups.

The treaty is an agreement between the U.S. and Canada, ensuring both countries get some fish. Southeast’s sport fishing allocation (the amount of fish the group is allowed to take) is 27,700 wild king salmon — a slice out of the region’s almost 131,000-fish pie.

Patrick Fowler, regional fisheries management coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said that overall, under the significantly lower treaty allocation, everyone’s going to fish less.

“The Board of Fish has given us the allocation plan for how big of a slice of the pie for each fishery,” he explained. “But because the base of the whole pie wasn’t as big, everyone’s slice is smaller.”

Fish and Game expects resident anglers to harvest about 10,000 fish, which leaves about 17,000 fish for nonresidents this year.

Read the full article at KFSK

ALASKA: Internal memo outlines stark impacts of federal downsizing on Alaska regional fishery agency

April 4, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has long struggled to compete with corporate America to recruit tech workers to maintain the complicated computer systems that track the federal seafood harvests off Alaska.

These chronic staffing shortages at NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region have been greatly exacerbated by the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the federal workforce.

As of mid-March, the Alaska Region had 29% of its staffing positions vacant, and the Information Services Division, staffed largely by tech workers, had a vacancy rate of 45%, according to an internal agency memorandum obtained by the Alaska Beacon.

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: ADF&G sets 2025 Chinook limits, tightens regulations

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.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska expands commercial dipnet fishery

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.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: State imposes ‘unprecedented’ conservation measures for Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon

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.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Alaskan Communities Use Flexibility in Snow Crab Fishery Regulations for Economic Relief

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.

Managing the Bering Sea Snow Crab Fishery

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.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Salmon and lobster in harmony

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.” 

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America