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.
March 25, 2025 — Monday marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the largest ever spill in U.S. history at the time.
The nearly 1,000-foot namesake tanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of oil slammed into a reef off the coast of Alaska just after midnight on March 24, 1989 and unleashed a catastrophe never before seen in America.
Nearly 11 million gallons of oil spewed into the picturesque Prince William Sound and in the coming days photos of birds and other wildlife drenched in thick oil, struggling to survive, shocked the nation.
Here’s what to know about the disaster that inspired federal reforms, sparked debates over the risks of oil exploration and became a rallying cry for conservationists across the nation.
March 24, 2025 — Membership on the Alaska Board of Fisheries would be restructured to guarantee representation for the state’s different fishing sectors under a bill pending in the Alaska Legislature.
The measure, House Bill 125, would require that the board have designated seats to represent commercial, sport, and subsistence harvesters.
Two members would represent each of those sectors, and another member would represent the scientific community under the bill’s provisions. The subsistence representatives would be nominated by the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), according to the bill. The science representative would be nominated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to the bill.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries, with members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Alaska Legislature, makes allocation and regulatory decisions that are carried out by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The bill would help the board pay more attention to subsistence and protect the resources upon which rural residents depend, said the sponsor, Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay.
“What this bill (does) I see as bringing an equal voice to the table for subsistence users, not only in my district, but in rural Alaska and all of Alaska. I see this as a positive step forward to bringing sustainability to the fisheries for subsistence users as well,” Jimmie said at a hearing of the House Fisheries Committee on March 18.
March 21, 2025 — Combined coastwide catch for all users is down by nearly 16 percent, more than 18 percent for commercial fishermen.
The 2025 Pacific halibut fishery kicks off today, March 20, in regions spanning from the West Coast and British Columbia to the far reaches of Alaska’s Bering Sea. And once again, all users – commercial fishermen, sport charters, anglers, and subsistence – will get smaller takes of the prized fish as the Pacific stock continues to flounder.
The coastwide “total removals” of halibut allowed for 2025 is 29.72 million pounds, a drop of 15.76 percent from 2024. For commercial fishermen, a catch limit of 19.7 million pounds is an 18.02 percent decrease from the 2024 fishery. Last year, harvesters took just over 74 percent of their 28.86 million pound commercial catch limit.
The catch limits are set each January by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC), which has tracked and managed the stock for 101 years.
March 20, 2025 — Sitka-based Silver Bay Seafoods is buying out the international seafood processing giant OBI.
Silver Bay announced the acquisition on Tuesday, stating that it is partnering with the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation.
In a press release, Silver Bay says it plans to manage all OBI facilities and operations, including processing plants in Petersburg, Seward, Kodiak, Larsen Bay, Egegik, Wood River, Cordova, and Naknek, as well as a warehouse and labeling facility in Kent, Washington.
March 20, 2025 — A proposal that would have allowed commercial setnet fishers on the east side of Cook Inlet to fish with set beach seines was transformed into a motion to strip setnets entirely from the Kenai River king salmon action plan before being defeated on a 3-3 vote by the State Board of Fisheries on Saturday.
When the State Board of Fisheries in 2024 established its action plan for the recovery of Kenai River late-run king salmon, a “stock of management concern,” it called on the east side setnet fishery — which has been barred entirely from operating since 2023 — to exercise “creativity” and find a new way to fish for the abundant sockeye salmon they target without killing king salmon.
That’s why Brian and Lisa Gabriel last summer operated a test fishery for set beach seines. They told the Clarion in July that they’d seen their nets work successfully — that they hadn’t killed a king salmon, that they could adapt the nets to different sites, and that they’d caught enough sockeye to be economically viable.
They brought the idea to the board last week, via an accepted request to hear the proposal out of cycle. Local fishing issues aren’t set to return before the board until 2027. They told the board on Tuesday, March 11, that they tested the nets on multiple sites, solicited input from other setnetters and hired a professional monitor in retired biologist Robert Begich.
A total of more than 20,000 sockeye were harvested across two permits and four fish sites, according to data included in meeting notes. While harvesting that target stock, the report says that they successfully released 31 silver salmon and 16 king salmon — only one king salmon seen and released during the test was a large king greater than 34 inches of length that would be counted by the State Department of Fish and Game.
Using the set beach seines, Brian Gabriel said to the board, they successfully harvested sockeye salmon while releasing king salmon alive.
The Gabriels in recent months also brought their presentation to a variety of local fish and game advisory committees, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association and others to collect feedback.
KRSA in a written statement by Executive Director Shannon Martin said they opposed the Gabriels’ proposal because the study “was not nearly comprehensive enough to allow for scaling up to potentially over 50 participants spread across the ESSN fishery.”
The Gabriels brought forward a proposed amendment to their proposal at the meeting, based on feedback received from the groups they engaged with. The amendment would have shortened the days available for fishing — including removing days in August to avoid interactions with silver salmon — reduced the allowable length and depth of the seines, required release of all silvers in addition to kings and required gear to be tended at all times, among other considerations.