Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska waterfronts see funding gains in 2026

January 23, 2026 — U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says key fisheries, science, and coastal priorities for the state were protected in the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriation “minibus” bill as Congress works to avoid a Jan. 30 federal funding lapse.

The package combines the Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, and Interior and Environment bills, completing roughly half of the FY26 appropriations process. Murkowski said the legislation safeguarding funding is critical to the state’s economy, fisheries, and coastal communities.

“While tough choices were made, we protected the priorities that matter most to Alaskans: our fisheries, public safety, energy security, Arctic research, and coastal infrastructure,” Senator Murkowski said. “This is exactly why the regular order appropriations process matters—it allows us to come together and build a product through compromise that meets the needs of our people and communities.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Newly proposed federal legislation aims to curb Alaska bycatch

January 15, 2026 — Alaska’s congressional delegation introduced legislation Wednesday that aims to reduce bycatch in parts of southwest Alaska using better marine data, technology and gear.

The Bycatch Reduction and Research Act, introduced by U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan, Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Nick Begich, would address research gaps in environmental data and improve monitoring of fisheries in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska.

It would also establish a fund for fishermen to purchase updated technology and trawl gear to limit seafloor contact and bycatch. That’s when harvesters accidentally catch species they’re not targeting.

The proposed legislation builds on recommendations from the federal Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, which concluded in 2024 and aimed to better understand how humans cause declines in fish and crab species, including through factors like bycatch.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear case that could have upended Alaska subsistence fishing

January 15, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the state of Alaska’s latest attempt to alter Alaska’s decades-old system of subsistence fishing management.

In a one-sentence order Monday, the court said it will not review a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in August that Alaska cannot manage fishing on a stretch of the Kuskokwim River that flows through the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

If the Supreme Court had taken up the case, it could have redefined Alaska’s unique system of hunting and fishing management, which allows the federal government to restrict subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land to rural Alaskans. The state is forbidden by the Alaska Constitution from offering the same preference.

Alaska Native organizations, including the Alaska Federation of Natives, praised the court’s decision, but the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said by email that it would continue to work with the federal government on the issue.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Recertification of flatfish fisheries as sustainable challenged

January 13, 2026 — Adecision by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to recertify the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) flatfish fisheries as sustainable is being challenged by commercial, sport, and environmental entities.

“Calling a fishery sustainable when its bycatch and habitat impacts are bankrupting the future of our ocean and fishing communities undermines the credibility of the MSC label,” said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, in a statement issued by the group on Dec. 29. “Alaskans are calling for an end to bottom trawling.  MSC needs to listen to the public and rethink its process.”

Karen Gillis, executive director of the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association, contends that MSC’s certification of the Amendment 80 fleet raises serious questions about how sustainability is defined. “At worst, it enables greenwashing by giving industrial trawling a pass while ecosystems and coastal communities pay the price.

“When industrial trawl fleets receive sustainability labels while small-scale fishermen and subsistence users bear the consequences, the system is failing the very people and ecosystems it claims to protect,” she said.

The BSAI and GOA flatfish fisheries are a significant part of the state’s multi-billion-dollar seafood industry, with the estimated value fluctuating annually.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MSC, Groundfish Forum push back against claims of “greenwashing” Alaska’s flatfish fishery

January 13, 2026 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Groundfish Forum – a trade group representing trawl catcher-processors in Alaska – are pushing back against claims by a coalition of NGOs that the recent recertification of an Alaska flatfish fishery amounts to “greenwashing.”

A coalition of several NGOs, including SalmonState, the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association, and Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, claimed the recent recertification of the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska flatfish fishery lacked transparency and was undertaken with little input from stakeholders. Both MSC and Groundfish Forum said those claims are inaccurate, and misrepresent the process MSC and MRAG Americas, the third-party auditor that certifies fisheries to the MSC standard, went through.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska pollock processors drop foreign worker program, citing uncertainty

January 13, 2026 — Some of Alaska’s largest pollock processors are abandoning a foreign worker visa program that once supplied up to half their workforce, citing rising costs and uncertainty under stricter immigration policies.

Tom Enlow is the president and CEO of UniSea Seafoods, Unalaska’s largest seafood processor. He said the company is moving away from the H-2B visas to save money on an inconsistent system.

“The H-2B program, I think was good for Alaska at a time when we really needed them, you know, during the pandemic, and little bit pre-pandemic, but really it’s cost prohibitive to bring workers all the way from Eastern Europe to Alaska,” Enlow said.

The H-2B visa program allows employers to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs during shortages. The visas can be difficult to obtain. Companies have to first show they can’t fill the jobs, then they have to apply, and then the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor issue the visas through a lottery system.

Enlow said the processing plant moved back to a 100% domestic workforce this summer and will do the same for the upcoming “A” season — a major pollock season that starts later this month and brings thousands of workers to Dutch Harbor.

The main reason for that is cost. He said the Trump administration’s approach to hiring foreign workers has also made a difficult and expensive process even more complicated.

“It doesn’t make for good planning for processors, when you are bringing 200 or 300 people in from Eastern Europe and you don’t know for sure if you’re going to get supplemental visas, if [they’re] going to get approved in time, if they’re going to be in Alaska when you need them, when the season’s started,” he said.

UniSea started participating in the H-2B program in 2019, and prior to that, the company employed 100% U.S. domestic workers, according to Enlow. Some of those were green card holders or permanent residents, living in the U.S. — most from the Philippines.

When the company was actively using the special visas, as many as half of UniSea’s workers were foreign.

The company still employs a handful of Ukrainian employees who were hired through a special program designed to help those who were displaced from the Russian invasion, and will continue to work for the processor, Enlow said.

“They’re not bound by some of the rules and restrictions of the H-2B program,” he said. “They can stay extended periods of time. They can work full time, year round, they don’t have to be necessarily processors. They can work in other jobs, in other areas.”

UniSea isn’t the only regional processor filling jobs with American workers. Trident Seafoods — one of the largest seafood processors in the nation — said it employs almost an exclusively domestic workforce.

A spokesperson for the company said the processor — which has facilities across Alaska, from the Aleutians to Southeast and Bristol Bay — has been moving away from the H-2B program since 2023, in an attempt to strengthen long-term, local employment.

Westward Seafoods, another shore-based processor in Unalaska, would not provide information on employment data.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: New bycatch reduction, research act introduced in Congress

January 12, 2026 — Alaska’s congressional delegation has introduced new legislation aimed at improving data on bycatch reduction in the Gulf of Alaska Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The delegation announced the Bycatch Reduction and Research Act on Jan. 7, saying the aim is to improve marine environmental data collection, prioritize technology that supports research, bycatch reduction, protect marine seafloor habitat, and enhance electronic monitoring and electronic reporting in United States fisheries.

The legislation is drawing support from commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries entities.

“As both a commercial fisherman and a salmon scientist, I see the consequences of changing ocean conditions and management uncertainty on the water and in our communities,” said Michelle Stratton, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council and a former member of the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force. “This legislation comes at a pivotal time. Our coastal communities and food systems need thriving fisheries, and for that we need thriving ecosystems.”

Read the full article at the The Cordova Times

US Supreme Court rejects Alaska’s petition to overturn federal authority over subsistence fishing

January 12, 2026 — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition from the state of Alaska seeking to limit federal authority over regulating subsistence fishing on federal lands in the state.

The Supreme Court’s decision to not take up the case leaves a prior ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which rejected Alaska’s arguments and kept the federal government’s regulatory authority intact – in place.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Bycatch Reduction and Research Act introduced in AK

January 12, 2026 — Alaska’s Congressional delegation has proposed new legislation designed to reduce salmon bycatch in commercial fisheries and protect seafloor habitats from trawling operations.

“In recent years, Alaskans have witnessed unprecedented declines among some fish and crab species in parts of the state while, in other parts, runs have been strong and historic,” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in a release. “We need to get to the bottom of all potential causes of this increased variability, including concerns about bycatch and trawl gear habitat impacts, to strengthen the sustainability of our fisheries.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Eastern GOA salmon trollers may keep groundfish bycatch

January 12, 2026 — Salmon trollers operating hand or power troll gear in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska may legally retain and sell bycatch of several species of groundfish taken incidentally during their fishery.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) officials on Jan. 2 identified those species as lingcod, demersal shelf rockfish and other rockfish, spiny dog, sablefish and other groundfish.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times