Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska bill would exempt small-scale fishers from some health and safety standards

April 22, 2026 — Alaska State Representative Sarah Vance has introduced the Alaska Coastal Micro-Fisheries Act, legislation that would eliminate some regulatory requirements for small-scale fishers looking to process their catch.

Alaska House Bill 356 would reduce the health and sanitary requirements on permits for commercial fishing vessels and their operators by allowing exemptions for processing operations on low-risk species if safety standards are already met. The legislation only applies to catches under 5,000 pounds.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Optimism rising for Alaska fishing boat and permit sales

April 21, 2026 — With spring in the air and higher prices for halibut and black cod, optimism is blooming at Alaska’s largest firm selling fishing boats and permits.

“We are heading into this year with some real optimism,” said Doug Bowen, founder and consultant for Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer, the biggest marine brokerage in Alaska. “We are seeing better prices for halibut, sablefish and salmon.”

Early spring harvests of halibut brought fishermen $9.25 a pound in Homer and Seward, the highest price ever, Bowen said.

“We are up to a much better start than in the last couple of years,” said Maddie Lightsey, Bowen’s daughter, who serves as president and owner of the company. “The industry on the whole was on the bottom for a while. 2025 was kind of a rebuilding year, with people still trying to recover from the crash. We are seeing a lot more people trying to sell boats than to buy.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska lawmakers weigh trawl ban as salmon crisis fuels debate

April 16, 2026 — A renewed push to ban bottom trawling in Alaska state waters is gaining traction in Juneau, as lawmakers grapple with declining salmon runs and mounting pressure from fishermen, tribes, and conservation groups.

According to reporting by Alaska Beacon, legislation introduced by Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, and Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, would prohibit bottom trawling and dredging in state waters beginning in 2028. The proposal also calls for a state-led study on trawling impacts, with an estimated cost of $3.9 million.

The issue is deeply tied to the state’s identity and economy, with salmon declines– particularly on the Yukon River– intensifying scrutiny of bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. “Salmon is our identity,” Brian Ridley of the Tanana Chiefs Conference told lawmakers, emphasizing the cultural and subsistence importance of the resource.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska salmon harvest projected down sharply in 2026

April 15, 2026 — A draft report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game indicates a lower statewide harvest of 125.5 million salmon this season, compared to last year’s tally of 194.8 million fish. That adds up to 69.3 million fewer salmon, a decline of nearly 36 percent.

The preliminary data show drops in all projected catches except for Chinook salmon.

Comparisons by species show that for 2026, the projected Chinook harvest is pegged at 197,000 compared to 181,892 in 2025.

For sockeye salmon, the harvest forecast of nearly 50 million compares to more than 52.6 million last year.

Coho catches are expected to top 2.4 millon, down from nearly 2.5 million.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Aleutians East Borough sues Board of Fish over new Area M salmon regulations

April 14, 2026 — The Aleutians East Borough, the Native Village of Unga and two Aleutian fishing groups are asking a state court to void fishing regulations adopted at a February state Board of Fisheries meeting.

The lawsuit, filed in the Alaska Superior Court last week, asks to overturn five regulations for the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian commercial salmon fishery known as Area M. The borough is leading the lawsuit alongside the Native Village of Unga — a federally recognized tribe based in Sand Point — the nonprofit Concerned Area M Fishermen, which represents permit holders for the fishery, and the Area M Seiners Association — another nonprofit representing commercial harvesters in the region.

The plaintiffs say the new regulations would cause them significant financial and emotional harm, impacting the local communities that rely on fish tax revenue from the fishery.

Read the full article at KNBA

Alaska Legislature considers bills to ban bottom trawling in state waters

April 13, 2026 — The Alaska Legislature is considering proposals to ban bottom trawling in state waters as a way to protect salmon and the seafloor.

In recent years, popular social media campaigns have opposed trawling and its links to bycatch, the taking of salmon and halibut as fishermen target other species. Meanwhile, trawlers have come out vocally in support of the industry, focusing on its economic benefits for Alaska while seafood processors and other stakeholders struggle.

Access to salmon is a highly charged and emotional issue in Alaska. It is tied to jobs, food security and Alaska Native culture.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: ‘The salmon people’: How Alaska’s only Native reservation saved its fishing culture

April 10, 2026 — Across Alaska’s coastline, from the Indigenous communities of Bristol Bay to the Tlingit and Haida villages of the panhandle, rural harbors that once bustled with commercial fishing boats now sit unused and empty.

Abandoned boats covered with mold and algae line the shores of one Southeast town; others have seen their fleets sold off and relocated.

In the Indigenous village of Metlakatla, though, it’s a different story.

Fishing vessels pack the downtown harbor on Annette Island, which sits just off the coast at Alaska’s southernmost tip. Huge seiners, with onboard cranes to reel in fish-laden nets, loom over the docks, with many more slips filled in by smaller gillnetters. Fathers and grandfathers still fish with sons and grandsons.

Experts and industry players disagree about the exact reasons for the decline of commercial fishing in the rest of rural, coastal Alaska — with some blaming state policies and others pointing to global market trends.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Conservation group sues over Alaska pollock trawling claiming practice harms fur seal population

April 10, 2026 — Conservation NGO the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has filed a lawsuit challenging NOAA Fisheries’ regulations for pollock trawling in Alaska, arguing that the government has not done enough to protect northern fur seals.

The lawsuit centers on the seal population around St. Paul Island, Alaska, U.S.A., where many mothers raise their pups. According to CBD, those seals rely on the same pollock that are harvested by the commercial trawling sector, depriving them of a key source of prey and putting that population under unnecessary stress. The seal population on the island has shrunk 70 percent over the last 50 plus years, and CBD claims that the pollock trawl fishery is one of the primary culprits.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: State legislators urge federal government to extend Russian seafood ban

April 9, 2026 — Last week on March 30 the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution [HJR 29] supporting the continued federal ban on Russian seafood being imported into the U.S. Lawmakers and seafood market experts say the ban is crucial to boosting the value of Alaska’s industry.

Rep. Louise Stutes, a Kodiak Republican, is the chair of the state house fisheries committee, the body that sponsored the resolution. She said Alaska fishermen’s ex-vessel value has increased over the last year in part because the ban has been in effect.

“This year prices were higher for their seafood because there is no more Russian seafood on the market,” Stutes said.

The current ban on Russian seafood went into effect in 2022 during the Biden administration and was expanded in 2023. However it’s set to expire next week on April 15 according to the state resolution, unless President Donald Trump extends the executive order, or Congress passes similar legislation to continue the ban.

Read the full article at KMXT