Saving Seafood

Conservation groups to sue over hatchery salmon in Columbia River

September 24, 2025 — The Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and The Conservation Angler (TCA) have announced plans to sue the federal government over the damage they claim hatchery fish are doing to wild salmon, steelhead, and orca populations.

“Mitchell Act hatcheries are causing harm that we know how to prevent. We’re taking this action today as part of our long-standing commitment to hold the federal government accountable and prevent further violations that imperil these species and the ecosystems they depend on,” WFC Executive Director Emma Helverson said in a release. “It’s time for NOAA to stop prioritizing maintaining harmful hatchery practices over their responsibility to protect wild fish for current and future generations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Commissioner’s permit available for new GOA tuna fishery

September 22, 2025 — A brand-new Pacific tuna fishery is open in the eastern Gulf of Alaska and state fisheries officials are anticipating a commercial harvest coming soon.

“It is very exciting; we are hoping to see some tuna harvested in the Sitka area,” said Rhea Ehresmann, Region 1 groundfish project leader for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

Pacific tuna species are not currently covered by federal fisheries management in Alaska waters, so they are being managed by the state. Commercial fishermen eager to target, retain and sell Pacific tuna must apply for a commissioner’s permit and possess a valid Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) vessel license and miscellaneous saltwater finfish interim use permit for the gear type used for directed fishing – in this case hand troll, power troll, or mechanical jig.

Pacific tuna caught as bycatch in the salmon troll fishery may be retained using the fisher’s CFEC salmon troll permit card, but salmon trollers must also apply for a commissioner’s permit, Ehresmann said.

The permits are issued with specific stipulations – such as dates the permits are valid, legal gear types, area restrictions/closed waters, requirements for logbooks and fish tickets, and restrictions on bycatch of other species.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Southeast pink salmon harvest falls to lowest odd-year level since 1980s

September 19, 2025 — The 2025 Southeast Alaska purse seine fishery closed in early September with just under 20 million pink salmon landed — well below the forecast of 29 million and marking the lowest odd-year harvest since the 1980s.

“Fair to say that the season was a disappointment as far as pink salmon harvest goes,” said Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game regional management coordinator in Petersburg.
The disappointing harvest adds pressure to an industry already facing high fuel costs, inflation and low salmon prices.

Low pink salmon returns were a challenge for Trident Seafoods, which cut back to one shift at its Wrangell plant in August, earlier than it had expected.

The Southeast harvest represents only about 66% of pre-season expectations and falls well below recent odd-year returns: 2023 brought in 44 million fish, and 2021 was even higher at 48.5 million pinks.

Alaska asks US Supreme Court to weigh in on subsistence fishing dispute with federal officials

September 18, 2025 — After losing its case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the state of Alaska is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on its subsistence fishing system, which gives preferential treatment to rural Alaskans.

“Alaska’s fisheries are among the most bountiful in the world, sustaining tens of thousands of livelihoods through commercial, sport, and subsistence fishing. Yet, the Ninth Circuit’s decision deepens a fractured system that undermines conservation, creates confusion, and threatens equitable access for all Alaskans. Salmon don’t recognize federal and state boundaries; our management shouldn’t either. We remain committed to sustainable management and will continue fighting for a system that works for every Alaskan. The Court should decide this case and reverse the Ninth Circuit,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Brief tuna bounty in Southeast Alaska spurs excitement about new fishing opportunity

September 17, 2025 — In Alaska, a state famous for abundant salmon and huge, cold-water-loving crab, another type of fish is making a splash: tuna.

Incursion of warm waters into Southeast Alaska coastal areas off Sitka and Baranof Island created a brief tuna jackpot earlier this month for sport fishers.

One of the first of those anglers was Troy Tydingco, who happens to be the Sitka sportfish area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

He took a day off from work when conditions were just right to search for tuna, a type of fish suited to more southern latitudes: beautiful weather, with calm waters and water temperatures that reach 60 degrees.

About 30 miles offshore, the search was successful. Tydingco and his six companions caught 44 albacore tuna in all. Other fishers followed.

“I think this is probably the first time sport anglers have really successfully targeted them and harvested them out of Sitka,” he said.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Mapping Alaska’s Wild Kelp Beds with Farmers

September 17, 2025 — Alaska’s coastline holds vast, untapped potential for seaweed aquaculture—but knowing exactly where wild kelp grows is critical for sustainable expansion. A new mapping project, led by NOAA Fisheries in collaboration with Alaska Sea Grant and local farmers, is working to locate these wild kelp beds. This will help:

  • Source healthy kelp for farming
  • Assist farmers in meeting state permitting requirements
  • Support NOAA’s Aquaculture Opportunity Areas identification process

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

ALASKA: Pacific tuna fishery opens in Eastern Gulf of Alaska

September 17, 2025 — A new Pacific tuna fishery has opened for commercial harvesters in the eastern Gulf of Alaska, with the required commissioner’s permits to be available from the date issued through Dec. 31.

“The decision to create the commissioner’s permit was based on requests from the commercial fleet to target Pacific tuna, given the large presence of tuna in our waters outside of Sitka,” said Rhea Ehresmann, leader for the Region 1 groundfish project for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

Ehresmann said sport harvesters have told ADF&G there is a large body of blue warm water around 60 degrees Fahrenheit located over 10 miles off Cape Edgecumbe outside of Sitka.

“It is very exciting; we are hoping to see some tuna harvested in the Sitka area,” she said on Monday, Sept. 25. “It sounds like the tuna are a bit farther offshore, around 10-plus miles from Cape Edgecumbe around the 1,000-fathom line, though the Pacific tuna are swimming and caught much closer to the surface.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Opinion: Embarking on an America-first seafood strategy in Alaska

September 16, 2025 — In 1787, Alexander Hamilton stressed the need for a united national effort to protect America’s ocean resources from stagnation and unfair foreign trade practices. Absent vigorous federal action to free our fisheries from barriers to growth and trade, “that unequalled spirit of enterprise, which signalises the genius of the American Merchants and Navigators, and which is in itself an inexhaustible mine of national wealth, would be stifled and lost.”

Since Hamilton wrote those words, Alaska became first a territory, then the 49th state in the Union, cementing itself as a linchpin of the nation’s food supply, economy and national security.

Alaska has the largest federal fisheries in the nation—roughly 60% of America’s harvest by volume. The Alaska seafood industry produces roughly $6 billion in economic output for the state and employs 48,000 Alaskans.

In addition to feeding our own citizens, fisheries products are among the top three U.S. food, agriculture and related product export categories, and there is soaring global demand for these high-quality, high-value commodities.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Drone photos suggest a 2014 marine heat wave is still stunting orca growth, reproduction in Alaska

September 16, 2025 — It’s well documented by now that the marine heatwave that hit the Pacific Ocean in 2014 had devastating effects on Alaska’s marine ecosystem and commercial fisheries.

Now, scientists are uncovering long-term impacts on Alaskan killer whales specifically – a harbinger as marine heat waves become more frequent and severe with climate change.

“We’ve learned that females that were growing during those heat wave years grew to smaller sizes,” said John Durban, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium in Boston who has been studying killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska for two decades.

“If you’re smaller as a whale, it means you don’t have as much fasting endurance, you can’t store as much blubber,” Durban added. “So if you go through lean times, you’re less likely to bring a successful pregnancy to term.”

Durban has been partnering with the Alaska-based nonprofit North Gulf Oceanic Society to monitor several hundred resident, salmon-eating killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska. He flies drones over the water, which capture images of the whales from more than 100 feet in the air.

Those images allow researchers to measure how individual whales are developing over time.

The North Gulf Oceanic Society has been monitoring killer whales in the Gulf for more than four decades. Durban said that work became particularly important in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which correlated with an “unprecedented” number of whale deaths among two pods that were exposed to the spill, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska to get first commercial red king crab fishery in 8 years

September 11, 2025 — Red king crab fishermen in Southeast Alaska are getting a competitive commercial fishery this year — the first since 2017.

Red king crab is a low-volume, high-value fishery. The crab can bring in over $100 each. But commercial openings have been few and far between with just one in over a decade.

State regulations require at least 200,000 pounds of harvestable crab to be available for a commercial opener in the region. That minimum was set decades ago, when the crab was less valuable and the industry required higher volumes to make money.

For years, stock estimates have repeatedly fallen short of that threshold. But not this year. Instead, managers announced on Sept. 2 that over 211,000 pounds of crab will be available for harvest.

Read the full article at KFSK