Saving Seafood

National Seafood Association joins Alaskan organizations calling for EU CATCH reform

September 24, 2026 — U.S. seafood organizations are coming together to call for reform to the European Union’s CATCH digital traceability system, citing unnecessary barriers it creates across the supply chain.

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based nonprofit organization Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA); Juneau, Alaska, U.S.A.-based marketing institute Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI); and Seattle, Washington, U.S.A and Juneau, Alaska, U.S.A.-based trade association At-sea Processors Association (APA) came together to release a whitepaper titled “Advancing EU Efforts to Combat IUU Fishing: Why CATCH Needs Reforms.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Study finds El Niño events can boost nutrients in Gulf of Alaska

September 23, 2026 — The Gulf of Alaska is particularly vulnerable to the effects of events like marine heatwaves and El Niños, which can devastate its lucrative fisheries. But a new study has found El Niños can offer some benefits to the Gulf of Alaska.

Élise Beaudin is a physical oceanographer at a research facility called Ocean Networks Canada in British Columbia, and a lead author on the study, which was published in the Journal of Physical Oceanography on Sept. 10. Her research focused on what’s called the Alaska subpolar gyre, which is basically a giant counterclockwise swirl of water, thousands of miles wide, that goes around the Gulf of Alaska and into the waters around eastern Russia.

She said she was interested in studying the subpolar gyre for two reasons. The Gulf of Alaska provides critical habitat for Alaska’s fisheries. And she said it’s also interesting because of the way water circulates.

“The center of the subpolar gyre in Alaska, is extremely depleted in nutrients, especially micronutrients,” Beaudin said.

Those nutrients, like iron, silicate, and nitrate, are essential for phytoplankton, which are the base of the food chain that feeds everything else in the ocean. Beaudin said the phytoplankton living in the nutrient-depleted areas survive because of eddies, which are smaller rotating swirls inside of the gyre.

Read the full article at KMXT

ALASKA: Fall subsistence whale hunt is on in Alaska

September 22, 2026 — It’s September on the Arctic coast of Alaska, and the whaling crews of Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, have been busy.

“The weather has gotten bad, so I finally have a little time,” says Martin Edwardsen, co-captain of Harry Brower Jr.’s crew. “It’s the Little Kupaaq crew,” he says.

Edwardsen also serves as executive director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC), formed in 1977 to regulate subsistence whaling for 11 Inupiaq villages under the auspices of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). “So far we have gotten five bowhead whales this year,” says Edwardsen. “We got one in the spring season, and we have gotten four so far this fall season.”

The Little Kupaaq crew harpooned a big bowhead about 28 miles offshore on September 9. “They weigh about a ton per foot,” says Edwardsen. “The one our crew got was 55 feet. It took about four hours to get it to our butchering station.”

Unlike the harpoon cannons used on industrial whaling boats that operate in defiance of the IWC, the Inupiaq whalers throw their harpoons by hand. “We call our harpoon a darting gun,” says Edwardsen. “It has a trigger that, when it hits the whale, shoots a penthrite bomb into the whale’s vital organs; the bomb has a trigger that lights a fuse inside it, so it explodes inside the whale.” Edwardsen adds that the darting gun also includes a toggle harpoon head that embeds in the whales and separates from the shaft. “That has a line on it, and we attach an A3 or A5 float to that so we can follow the whale.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Pitched battle for Alaska’s Senate seat is enveloped in a fight over fish

September 21, 2026 — Fish are central to Alaska’s economy, Indigenous cultures and identity.

With critical salmon runs in Alaska rivers struggling, commercial operators squeezed by higher costs and stiffer market competition, fish are now at the center of the hard-fought campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat.

For Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, the fishing issues are deeply personal.

She is Yup’ik, grew up in rural Western Alaska on the Kuskokwim River and, as she has explained many times, has been fishing since she was 6 years old.

“I’m the only candidate on this stage who’s an Alaskan fisherman. Fish is in my blood, earned over generations on the water,” she said at the Sept. 12 fisheries-focused debate held by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.

Sullivan is emphasizing his record after 12 years in the Senate, which he said resulted in 63 bills signed into law so far, many of which concern fisheries, and has secured generous appropriations for agencies that support the industry, like the U.S. Coast Guard.

“Our fishermen deserve relentless focus and action, not just talk,” he said at the Kodiak debate.

According to the information clearinghouse govtrack.us, Sullivan was the prime sponsor on 31 bills that have been signed into law during his tenure. Over his career in the Senate, he has been a cosponsor of more than 1,800 pieces of legislation, according to congress.gov, the  online database for the nation’s legislative branch.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

Sullivan’s trawl bycatch bill clears a U.S. Senate committee

September 17, 2026 — A bill that aims to reduce the pollock fleet’s bycatch of salmon, halibut and other species passed the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday.

Sen. Dan Sullivan is the sponsor of the Bycatch Reduction Act. He said it would tell the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to change how it treats the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska trawlers, to limit their impact on the marine environment.

“This sets out timelines. It sets out standards,” he said in a phone interview. “It sets out direct action to reduce bycatch, to limit — and, in many ways, do away with — trawl gear contact with the seafloor, and setting clearer standards.”

The bill also reconstitutes a group from a 2022 Sullivan bill, the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act. Sullivan said it will give Alaskans a direct say in what the federal government studies.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Begich, Hill tackle bycatch and seafood economy

September 17, 2026 — Bycatch, struggling salmon runs, and how to keep more fisheries value in Alaska dominated the U.S. House fisheries debate between Rep. Nick Begich and independent challenger Bill Hill.

The two candidates met Sept. 12 in Kodiak during the 2026 Congressional Candidates Fisheries Forum, hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and KMXT Public Radio. The forum has focused exclusively on fisheries issues for more than three decades, according to organizers.

Begich and Hill found common ground on several issues facing Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, including fisheries science, seafood promotion, processing labor, and the need to reduce bycatch.

But their answers also showed different approaches to how Washington should address those problems.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

ALASKA: Expect the unexpected: An evaluation of climate impacts on Alaskan fisheries

September 17, 2026 — Like a rampant rumor, word of low catch traveled through the Sitka Sound fleet. It was, to most local fishermen, the worst king salmon opener they had ever experienced. And it should be, to all, absolutely terrifying.

Knowledge accumulated from decades of commercial and subsistence fishing proved futile as salmon simply could not be found. Empty hooks despite weeks of work deeply affect the livelihoods and well-being of individuals, communities, and local industries.

Working as a deckhand with longtime Sitka fisherman and conservationist Eric Jordan, I heard the solemn word “dystopic” muttered more than a few times. It is the profound uncertainty of what future years will bring – a new degree of variability and unpredictability in the ocean ecosystem – that paints a distressing picture for Alaska’s fisheries.

This past spring semester, I studied aquatic community dynamics in Iceland, where professors, researchers, and marine experts discussed impacts of increasing climatic and oceanic instability. A central concern is the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a system of global ocean currents regulated by salinity and temperature. In a report released this year, the Icelandic Meteorological Office predicts that a collapse of this current system may be approaching sooner than previously thought.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

US Senate committee advances Bycatch Reduction Act

September 17, 226 — The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has advanced U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) Bycatch Reduction Act, which is intended to limit contact between trawling gear and the seafloor.

“Today, my Bycatch Reduction Act passed out of committee and is headed to the full Senate for a vote. We’re one step closer to getting it across the finish line,” Sullivan said in a social media post. “I’ve been working with Alaskans to find ways to reduce bycatch, protect our fisheries, and strengthen our fishing communities. Together, we’re delivering results, and we’re one step closer to getting it done.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Leading candidates in Alaska U.S. House race endorse bycatch limits in fisheries debate

September 16, 2026 — Front-runner candidates for Alaska’s sole U.S. House of Representatives seat expressed strong support for the fishing industry and coastal communities at a debate in Kodiak over the weekend.

Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and independent challenger Bill Hill took very similar positions on issues including fisheries bycatch, declining fish stocks and representation in federal fisheries management, but there were some differences.

Begich touted his legislative record in his first two-year term as beneficial to Alaska fisheries, while Hill said his personal history as a lifelong fisherman in Bristol Bay is advantageous for representing Alaska in Congress.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Peltola and Sullivan confront trawl bycatch, and each other, at Kodiak fisheries debate

September 15, 2026 — Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola vied to outdo each other as champions of Alaska fishermen at the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce fishery debate Saturday.

The debate sponsors included major players in the pollock industry, but that didn’t stop both candidates from vowing to crack down on the trawlers’ bycatch of salmon and other species.

Sullivan leaned into his record.

“My bill for establishment of the Seafood Policy Office is in the Farm Bill right now. That helps with regard to enabling fishermen to have access to all the programs that farmers have,” he said. “And finally, getting my bycatch bill over the goal line next week in the Commerce Committee.”

(Sullivan’s Bycatch Reduction Act, filed in June, is scheduled for a vote in the Commerce Committee on Wednesday. He is the sole sponsor.)

Sullivan repeatedly pointed to foreign fleets as an adversary he’s tackled, and said he secured a ban on Russian seafood imports.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media