Saving Seafood

ASMI partners with Alzheimer’s Resource Alaska to encourage seafood consumption

September 15, 2026 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) has announced a partnership with Alzheimer’s Resource Alaska, linking the nutrients found in Alaskan seafood products to positive, long-term brain health.

In a recent article for Senior Voice – a publication for Alaskans aged 50 and older – Alzheimer’s Resource Alaska CEO Lisa Sauder authored an article titled “Caring for Your Brain in Alaska’s Busy Season.” In that piece, Sauder pointed to Alaskan seafood such as salmon, sablefish, herring, rockfish, and cod as being “powerful brain foods” with high levels of omega-3s. Those nutrients have been found to reduce brain inflammation, support nerve cell function, and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and general cognitive decline, she claimed.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Sullivan, Peltola spar over fishing in Senate debate

September 15, 2026 — U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Mary Peltola sharply disagreed on policies related to Alaska fisheries over the weekend, in the first debate between the two candidates running for Alaska’s hotly contested Senate seat.

Alaska shipped more than $2.5 billion in domestic seafood exports abroad in 2025, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. However, Sullivan and Peltola both said the industry has struggled in recent years for different reasons.

Sullivan said competition from Russia and China has stifled Alaska’s fishing industry and weakened competition. He touted his work to ban Russian seafood imports in the U.S. and efforts to block Chinese imports.

Read the full article The Center Square

More than $100 million in habitat funding targets key US fisheries

September 14, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is directing $103 million toward habitat restoration projects across the country, with several of the largest awards aimed at improving habitat for commercially important salmon, shrimp, oysters, and other species.

The agency announced Sept. 10 that it selected 16 projects for funding, ranging from salmon habitat work in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to salt marsh restoration along the Gulf and Southeast coasts.

The funding is intended to restore wetlands, rivers, coral reefs, and other habitats fish rely on for feeding, spawning, and growth. NOAA said healthy habitat is essential to sustaining both commercial and recreational fisheries and the communities and industries that depend on them.

Demand for funding far exceeded what was available. NOAA received nearly 350 proposals requesting a combined $1.5 billion, more than 17 times the amount ultimately awarded.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Dutch Harbor genetics lab monitors hotly contested chum salmon bycatch numbers

September 14, 2026 — In a one-room genetics lab in Dutch Harbor, Abby Duffy was getting ready to load extracted fish DNA into what’s called a chip. It’s a clear, rectangular plate with rows of small wells separated by a silicone center.

“I like to make sure I’ve eaten recently so my hands are the least shaky they’re going to be,” she said. “Make sure my brain’s doing what it should be doing.”

Duffy is the lab manager at the Bristol Bay Science and Research Institute’s Dutch Harbor location. The space is brightly lit, with tables and shelves lining the walls. Small incubators, a robotic pipetting machine, and a centrifuge sit on top of the tables.

Every week from June to October — the Bering Sea pollock B season — Duffy and her team collect genetic information from chum salmon that get scooped up in pollock nets as bycatch. They want to know how many of those fish are from Western Alaska.

“There are communities and people who really rely on those stocks for economics, for subsistence food, for cultural health,” Duffy said.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Alaska governor candidates split on fisheries

September 11, 2026 — Alaska’s four candidates for governor faced off over fisheries policy in Kodiak Wednesday night, offering commercial fishermen their clearest look yet at how the next administration could reshape fisheries management in the state.

For fishermen, the differences went beyond campaign politics. Depending on who wins, Alaska could see changes to who represents the commercial fleet on the Board of Fisheries, how conservation restrictions are shared among user groups, who is nominated to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC), and even how fisheries leadership is structured within state government.

Republicans Dave Bronson, Treg Taylor and Bernadette Wilson joined Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins for the Sept. 9 gubernatorial fisheries debate at Kodiak’s Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium. Hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and KMXT Public Radio, the event is Alaska’s only gubernatorial debate devoted exclusively to fisheries. Questions were submitted by members of the public and the seafood industry and vetted by a committee representing different sectors of the fishing industry.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Nine Species of Deep-Sea Sponges Discovered in Alaska

September 11, 2026 — Scientists have discovered nine new species of sponges in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. The specimens were collected during the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s long-standing annual bottom trawl surveys, which monitor the condition of groundfish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. For these sponge studies, researchers analyzed samples gathered during surveys dating back to 2012.

The new species were described across two recent scientific publications: four in one paper and five in the other. These discoveries raise the total number of known sponge species in Alaska to 232. The findings add to a growing body of knowledge about the richness of marine life in Alaskan waters. They also highlight the Aleutian Islands as a global hotspot for sponge biodiversity.

The studies also mapped sponge genetic codes, which contributes to a marine genetic library. This continues to build a robust catalog that enhances NOAA’s ability to detect species and estimate population abundances using non-invasive environmental DNA sampling.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Alaska gubernatorial candidates vow support for the seafood industry while revealing some splits

September 11, 2026 — At a fisheries forum held Wednesday night in Kodiak, all four candidates remaining in Alaska’s gubernatorial race found plenty of common ground.

Former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat, and the three Republicans, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor and business owner and talk-show host Bernadette Wilson, described the seafood industry as a pillar of the state’s economy and fish as part of the state’s identity.

All four gubernatorial candidates, who are set to face off in the general election in Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, said they consider bycatch — the accidental interception of nontargeted species — to be an urgent problem for salmon runs.

All said they want to appoint a special adviser on fisheries, something that past governors have done but that current Gov. Mike Dunleavy has not.

All said they wanted to appoint members of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the panel that oversees practices in federal waters, and the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which has jurisdiction over state waters, who would represent state interests broadly, including non-commercial interests.

All vowed a commitment to science, support for the state agency that markets Alaska’s seafood and investment in the infrastructure in coastal communities.

But there were differences that emerged at the event, sponsored by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce. Those started with the candidates’ personal connections to and knowledge of seafood issues.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Southeast gets rare back-to-back red king crab season

September 11, 2025 — Commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska will get another shot at red king crab this fall, marking the region’s first back-to-back fisheries in more than two decades.

 The 2026/27 Southeast Alaska commercial red and blue king crab fishery will open as a competitive fishery at 10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, with a regionwide guideline harvest level of 213,076 pounds, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

It will be the second consecutive year the Southeast fishery has opened following several years without one. The last time the region saw consecutive commercial red king crab fisheries was from 2001 through 2003.

“So, you know, 20-plus years since we’ve had fisheries back to back,” Adam Messmer, ADF&G regional shellfish biologist, told KFSK.

This year’s 213,076-pound guideline harvest level is slightly higher than last year’s harvest level. ADF&G developed its estimates by surveying seven bays and assessing the available crab stock. Messmer said this year’s consecutive opener is being supported by a population increase in several bays.

Readv the full article at National Fisherman

American Seafoods thriving, despite challenging Alaska pollock season

September 10, 2026 — Despite the challenges Alaska pollock suppliers are facing this B season, American Seafoods’ sales are strong and executives’ outlook for the future is positive.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based processor of pollock, surimi, fish oil, Pacific hake and more is having a rough pollock fishing season, Chief Commercial Officer Rasmus Soerensen told SeafoodSource. The fish are smaller and the yields are “not as good” as previous years, he said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Gulf shrimp advocate urges federal caution in aquaculture expansion

September 9, 2026 — An organization representing shrimp harvesters and other related small businesses in eight Southern states last week cautioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to choose its next round of potential large-scale offshore commercial aquaculture sites carefully.

Published July 30, NOAA’s latest request for information seeks guidance from the public and industry stakeholders on selecting the most suitable locations for what the federal agency calls Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs). NOAA has already undertaken this process in Alaska, California and the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration prefers to call the Gulf of America. The deadline for public comment is Sept. 14.

The Florida-based Southern Shrimp Alliance said in a news release Sept. 3 that NOAA’s process must be mindful of what already exists in the Gulf.

The SSA noted identifying AOAs is the “first critical step in a multi-year process” of downstream planning and environmental review, in this case for NOAA’s South Atlantic fisheries. It added feedback it previously gave had helped prevent two important shrimping areas in the Gulf from being designated as AOAs.

Read the full article at CHRON