Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Pacific tuna fishery opens in Eastern Gulf of Alaska

September 17, 2025 — A new Pacific tuna fishery has opened for commercial harvesters in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, with the required commissioner’s permits to be available from the date issued through Dec. 31.

“The decision to create the commissioner’s permit was based on requests from the commercial fleet to target Pacific tuna, given the large presence of tuna in our waters outside of Sitka,” said Rhea Ehresmann, leader for the Region 1 groundfish project for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

Ehresmann said sport harvesters have told ADF&G there is a large body of blue warm water around 60 degrees Fahrenheit located over 10 miles off Cape Edgecumbe outside of Sitka.

“It is very exciting; we are hoping to see some tuna harvested in the Sitka area,” she said on Monday, Sept. 25. “It sounds like the tuna are a bit farther offshore, around 10-plus miles from Cape Edgecumbe around the 1,000-fathom line, though the Pacific tuna are swimming and caught much closer to the surface.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Opinion: Embarking on an America-first seafood strategy in Alaska

September 16, 2025 — In 1787, Alexander Hamilton stressed the need for a united national effort to protect America’s ocean resources from stagnation and unfair foreign trade practices. Absent vigorous federal action to free our fisheries from barriers to growth and trade, “that unequalled spirit of enterprise, which signalises the genius of the American Merchants and Navigators, and which is in itself an inexhaustible mine of national wealth, would be stifled and lost.”

Since Hamilton wrote those words, Alaska became first a territory, then the 49th state in the Union, cementing itself as a linchpin of the nation’s food supply, economy and national security.

Alaska has the largest federal fisheries in the nation—roughly 60% of America’s harvest by volume. The Alaska seafood industry produces roughly $6 billion in economic output for the state and employs 48,000 Alaskans.

In addition to feeding our own citizens, fisheries products are among the top three U.S. food, agriculture and related product export categories, and there is soaring global demand for these high-quality, high-value commodities.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Drone photos suggest a 2014 marine heat wave is still stunting orca growth, reproduction in Alaska

September 16, 2025 — It’s well documented by now that the marine heatwave that hit the Pacific Ocean in 2014 had devastating effects on Alaska’s marine ecosystem and commercial fisheries.

Now, scientists are uncovering long-term impacts on Alaskan killer whales specifically – a harbinger as marine heat waves become more frequent and severe with climate change.

“We’ve learned that females that were growing during those heat wave years grew to smaller sizes,” said John Durban, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium in Boston who has been studying killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska for two decades.

“If you’re smaller as a whale, it means you don’t have as much fasting endurance, you can’t store as much blubber,” Durban added. “So if you go through lean times, you’re less likely to bring a successful pregnancy to term.”

Durban has been partnering with the Alaska-based nonprofit North Gulf Oceanic Society to monitor several hundred resident, salmon-eating killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska. He flies drones over the water, which capture images of the whales from more than 100 feet in the air.

Those images allow researchers to measure how individual whales are developing over time.

The North Gulf Oceanic Society has been monitoring killer whales in the Gulf for more than four decades. Durban said that work became particularly important in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which correlated with an “unprecedented” number of whale deaths among two pods that were exposed to the spill, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska to get first commercial red king crab fishery in 8 years

September 11, 2025 — Red king crab fishermen in Southeast Alaska are getting a competitive commercial fishery this year — the first since 2017.

Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crab can bring in over $100 each. But commercial openings have been few and far between with just one in over a decade.

State regulations require at least 200,000 pounds of harvestable crab to be available for a commercial opener in the region. That minimum was set decades ago, when the crab was less valuable and the industry required higher volumes to make money.

For years, stock estimates have repeatedly fallen short of that threshold. But not this year. Instead, managers announced on Sept. 2 that over 211,000 pounds of crab will be available for harvest.

Read the full article at KFSK

ALASKA: Alaska salmon harvests near 185 million fish

September 11, 2025 — Commercial harvesters delivered nearly 185 million salmon to processors through Sept. 9, with all five species exceeding 80% of the annual projects as the season nears its end.

Coho harvests stood at over 2 million fish, up from 1.7 million a week earlier and were expected to continue for a few more weeks, although weekly harvest of all other species has declined in line with past harvest timing, said Simon Marks, who compiles weekly in-season harvest reports for McKinley Research Group on behalf of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.  Marks’ in-season reports for the year concluded on Sept. 9.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Diesel spill near Kodiak-area hatchery disrupts salmon fishery

September 4, 2025 — State officials say a grounded fishing vessel leaking diesel from a beach near Kodiak has prompted a commercial fishing closure as well as precautions at a salmon hatchery.

The Sea Ern ran hard aground in Izhut Bay off Afognak Island with a 12-foot gash in its bow, damaging two fuel tanks, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

The U.S. Coast Guard said watchstanders received a distress call on VHF radio at approximately 6:30 a.m. Monday reporting the vessel hit a rock and was taking on water. There were three people aboard.

The good Samaritan vessel MS Kennedy responded to the distress call and recovered all three people from the vessel, the Coast Guard said. No injuries were reported.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Exploring the Upsides and Obstacles of Growing Pacific Oysters in Alaska’s Cold Waters

September 3, 2025 — Alaska may be known for its wild salmon, but another coastal delicacy is making waves: Pacific oysters. These shellfish make up the bulk of Alaska’s mariculture production. New research is shining a light on what makes them unique—and how they could play a growing role in the region’s seafood industry.

A team of NOAA Fisheries scientists and partners conducted a 3-year study at an oyster farm near Juneau, Alaska. They explored how the cold, nutrient-rich waters of Southeast Alaska influence oyster growth and quality. The findings suggest that Alaska’s subarctic environment offers both surprising benefits and potential challenges for oyster farmers.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

ALASKA: Pebble mine project sticks to proposal in battle to lift veto

August 27, 2025 — Despite encouragement from Trump administration officials, the company behind the controversial Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska hasn’t yet submitted a revised proposal that could unblock the stalled copper-gold project.

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. hasn’t advanced an “updated submission” for its proposed Pebble mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a status update posted online Monday, adding that “there is nothing currently before the agency to that effect.”

The EPA update follows last month’s decision by the U.S. Justice Department to effectively uphold a veto on the project, dashing hopes that the Trump administration would roll back regulatory hurdles. The absence of a revamped proposal comes despite government officials advising Northern Dynasty that project changes could prompt the government to reconsider. An EPA spokesperson said there were discussions with agency leadership about a potential further submission that would inform any reconsideration.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Raising the idea of salmon farms in Alaska, Gov. Dunleavy swims against a tide of skeptics

August 25, 2025 — Amid the hubbub of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Alaska summit last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, posting on social media, posed a provocative question.

“Alaska is a leader in fresh caught wild salmon. We could also be a leader in the farmed salmon industry. Why not do both instead of importing farmed salmon from Scotland?,” he wrote, sharing an article about the value of fish farming in Scotland, where Atlantic salmon are raised in net pens in the ocean. “This would be a great opportunity for Alaska.”

The answer from scientists, wild salmon advocates, restaurant people and regular salmon-eating Alaskans has come swiftly, full of alarm and often along the lines of one of the early commenters on his post, who wrote, “Are you insane?”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Improved eDNA Primer Enhances Rockfish Species Identification in Alaska

August 22, 2025 — A groundbreaking new environmental DNA (eDNA) tool is set to transform how scientists monitor rockfish populations. Rockfish are important to both commercial and recreational fisheries in Alaska. By analyzing DNA collected from water samples, this tool provides unprecedented accuracy in identifying a wide range of rockfish species. This- includes those that are closely related and hard to tell apart using previously available genetic methods.

Finding and identifying different species of rockfish in the ocean can be surprisingly tricky. Many of them have patchy distributions and live in rocky habitats making them difficult to survey using nets. While eDNA has become a popular method to sample fish biodiversity, previous methods were unable to tell apart many of the most abundant rockfish species in Alaska waters. But a new genetic tool, the Sebastes D-loop primer set, is changing that.

DNA primers match a target sequence in the eDNA and allow researchers to amplify species of interest. Primers are designed to identify multiple species of fishes, marine mammals, invertebrates, sharks, or any other organisms that might be in a water sample. In a recent study, NOAA Fisheries scientists demonstrate that the primer set can successfully identify nearly all rockfish species in Alaska waters. It offers a more accurate and efficient way to monitor these commercially important fish. A few closely related species still require extra effort to distinguish. But, this new approach marks a big step forward in monitoring rockfish populations and protecting their habitats.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries