Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Juneau fisherman takes lead at United Fishermen of Alaska

September 29, 2026 — Juneau commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer has been named executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA), bringing more than two decades on the water and years of fisheries policy experience to the statewide trade association.

Brouwer began the role in September, succeeding Tracy Welch, who was appointed earlier this year to the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. “It’s humbling to be working for the fishing industry,” Brouwer told the Juneau Empire. “I’ve participated as an active commercial fisherman for over 20 years and operated my own boat.”

Brouwer takes over UFA as Alaska fishermen face a busy stretch of state fisheries management decisions. The Alaska Board of Fisheries is preparing for meetings covering Lower Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and Upper Cook Inlet finfish over the coming months.

Brouwer said UFA’s board, which represents commercial fishing organizations across Alaska, will guide his role. One of his first major tasks will be preparing for the association’s fall meeting Nov. 4-5 in Anchorage, weighing in on Board of Fisheries proposals, and helping organize a candidate forum focused on commercial fishing.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Peltola, Sullivan take different approaches to reducing bycatch

September 29, 2026 — Bycatch has emerged as a defining fisheries issue in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race, but the legislative records of former Rep. Mary Peltola and Sen. Dan Sullivan show different approaches to reducing incidental harvests and addressing trawling’s impacts.

Peltola, who is challenging Sullivan for his Senate seat, introduced the Bycatch Reduction and Mitigation Act in 0224 while serving in the U.S. House. Sullivan introduced his Bycatch Reduction Act this year, which advanced through the Senate Commerce Committee on Sept. 16.

According to the Alaska Beacon, the two proposals share some common ground, particularly federal support for technology to reduce bycatch. But there are notable differences in how that support would be distributed and how each proposal approaches fisheries management.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Trump administration order urges ‘robust’ harvest of sharks, seals and sea lions

September 28, 2026 — The White House this month issued an executive order to support the sportfishing industry by, among other things, paving the way for increased harvests of sharks and pinnipeds, including sea lions and seals.

The order specifically aims to help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators — an industry in Alaska that, with its copious fish populations, generates thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in economic impact, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

If all of its provisions are enacted, fishing groups say, the directive could improve fish abundance in Alaska by reducing predation by marine mammals. It could also lead to potential conflicts with federal laws that currently protect the animals.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

ALASKA: Alaska fishing and wildlife groups raise alarm over proposal for underwater Cook Inlet data center

September 25, 2026 — Many Alaskans have opposed proposed data center development in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and on the North Slope. Some residents don’t believe they belong in Cook Inlet, either.

Earlier this year, the East Coast company DeepGreen Cook Inlet released plans for a 100-megawatt subsea data center with as many as 350 underwater turbines and 66 “hives” housing artificial intelligence servers, both powered and cooled by water in Cook Inlet.

Louis Wolfson, a managing member for company DeepGreen and luxury real estate developer based in Needham, Massachusetts, said the proposal seeks to work around some of the constraints facing traditional, land-based data centers: a need for both large plots of developable land and significant amounts of energy from the local grid.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

US Senator Ed Markey blocks quick passage of Bycatch Reduction Act

September 25, 2026 — U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) blocked an attempt by U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to quickly pass his Bycatch Reduction Act in the Senate.

During remarks given on the Senate floor 23 September, Sullivan called on his fellow senators to pass his legislation, which calls for new trawling and bottom floor contact regulations and the implementation of salmon excluder devices for commercial fishing operations off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. The legislation was first introduced at the beginning of the year, but Sullivan introduced an updated version with stronger provisions regarding bycatch and seafloor contact regulations in June. After the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced the legislation earlier in September, Sullivan pushed to quickly pass the bill by unanimous consent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Kelp Farms and Marine Life Co-Exist in Southeast Alaska

September 25, 2026 — Marine aquaculture, or mariculture, provides economic opportunities for coastal communities in Alaska through farming shellfish and seaweed. NOAA Fisheries continues to support Alaska’s growing aquaculture industry through policy and permitting—providing access to resources and research.

A recent study highlights one of our newest aquaculture research collaborations. Through this partnership between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Sea Quester Farms, we investigated whether seaweed farms provide novel habitat for Alaskan marine species. We compared the fish and invertebrate species present within Sea Quester farm sites to similar locations with no farms, and found no major difference. The research provided a better understanding of how kelp farms interact with the environment, which could help inform sustainable management.

“This study responded to a direct need from resource managers and interest from farmers to understand specifically how the presence of kelp farms in Alaska influenced culturally and economically important fish and invertebrate species,” said Jordan Hollarsmith, Ph.D., lead author and macroalgae and mariculture research biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Read the full article at the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Southwest Alaska communities call for fact-based fisheries debate

September 24, 2026 — Southwest Alaska communities are calling for fisheries policy discussions to remain grounded in science while giving greater consideration to the fishing families, processors, workers, and coastal communities affected by management decisions.

The Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, or SWAMC, adopted a joint resolution June 15 calling for “fact-based dialogue on the future of Alaska fisheries and coastal communities.” The resolution has since gained support from communities and boroughs across the region.

SWAMC pointed to the region’s outsized role in Alaska’s seafood economy, saying Southwest Alaska is home to four of the nation’s top fishing ports and accounts for nearly 70 percent of the state’s seafood processing output. From 2015 through 2024, economic activity in Southwest Alaska communities generated approximately 75 percent of Alaska’s shared fisheries tax revenues, according to the resolution.

The resolution comes as fisheries policy continues to feature prominently in public debate across Alaska. SWAMC said proposals under discussion could significantly affect fishing families, seafood workers, processors, local governments, Alaska Native communities and coastal economies, and argued that the economic, social and cultural consequences should be considered alongside biological sustainability.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

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