Saving Seafood

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

Arctic sea hits record low, while Bering Sea ice surges

April 8, 2026 — While Arctic sea ice reached its lowest seasonal peak on March 15, conditions in the Bering Sea told a very different story this winter– with ice expanding farther south than fishermen have seen in more than a decade.

According to reporting from KMXT, sea ice in the eastern Bering Sea continued growing for another week after the Arctic-wide peak, ultimately reaching its greatest extent since 2013. Ice pushed south past Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula, extending to Cold Bay, Unimak Island, and even the Pribilof Islands

“The Bering Sea is the only place in the Arctic where sea ice is above normal,” Rick Thoman said to KMXT. “To our west, in the Sea of Okhotsk, so west of Kamchatka, it’s the lowest sea ice extent of record [as of March 19].”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Trump administration defends Biden-era rejection of Pebble mine by EPA

February 26, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble copper and gold project, saying the Environmental Protection Agency properly exercised its authority to prevent adverse impacts to a “globally significant” fishery in Bristol Bay.

The Feb. 17 court filing by the Department of Justice continues the Trump administration’s opposition to the proposed mine, a departure from the president’s aggressive pro-development agenda that includes support of U.S. mineral production in Alaska.

The Pebble project sits on state land about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership brought the case in 2024, suing EPA over its decision to block the mine under a little-used provision in the Clean Water Act. The agency had said the mine would cause “unacceptable, adverse” harm to the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

The rare issue uniting Trump and green groups: Blocking Pebble mine

February 24, 2026 — The Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble mine in Alaska in what may be one of the Trump administration’s only points of agreement with environmental groups.

EPA’s rejection of a Clean Water Act permit for the mine in 2023 was justified and protective of Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, home to a globally significant salmon fishery “that is unrivaled in North America,” DOJ attorneys said in a Feb. 17 legal brief.

In doing so, federal attorneys rebuffed arguments from Pebble Partnership, a company wholly owned by Northern Dynasty that’s suing the U.S. government for blocking its plans to build a massive copper, gold and molybdenum mine. The southwest Alaska open-pit mining project would be developed in the pristine Bristol Bay watershed, prime salmon habitat.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Alaska officials forecast another strong Bristol Bay sockeye salmon run in 2026

November 14, 2025 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has forecast another strong run of sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay next year, but the estimated number of returning salmon is still well below average for the last decade.

“A total of 45.32 million sockeye salmon (with a range of 31.12 million to 59.52 million) are expected to return to Bristol Bay in 2026. This is 26 percent smaller than the most recent 10-year average of 61 million fish and 21 percent greater than the long-term average of 37.4 million fish (1963–2025),” ADF&G announced.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska’s Bristol Bay sockeye run and harvest increased this year, with fish sizes a bit bigger

September 30, 2025 — The commercial salmon harvest in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, site of the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, held a mixture of good news and bad news this year.

The run of sockeye salmon, also known as red salmon, exceeded preseason expectations and totaled 56.7 million fish, the seventh highest since 2005, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported in its preliminary summary of the summer harvest. The commercial sockeye harvest was also bigger than expected, totaling 41.2 million fish. That was 18% above the preseason forecast and 23% higher than the recent 20-year average.

The total amount of money paid to fishers delivering their catches totaled $215.3 million, about 7% above the 20-year average of $200.7 million, the department said in its summary.

The bad news is that while Bristol Bay sockeye salmon continued what has been a streak of huge runs — and while sockeye dominate the commercial harvest — other salmon species there continued to falter. Bristol Bay’s harvest of chinook, also known as king salmon, hit a 20-year low this year, totaling only 6,148 fish, compared to the most recent 20-year average of 33,469 chinook, the department reported.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ANALYSIS: US Sockeye Prices Hold Firm as Bristol Bay Surges, Copper River Landings Drop

August 13, 2025 — Sockeye salmon remains a focal point in the US wild salmon market during the 2025 season, as stakeholders pay close attention to shifting dynamics across major production areas. The Copper River run, which is sought after as some of the first sockeye of the season and typically garners a premium in price, fell well short of elevated pre-season expectations this year. Initial forecasts had projected a harvest of 1.92 million fish—an “excellent” run that would have outpaced the five-year average by 55%. Instead, cumulative landings reached just 837,000 fish by week 31, marking a stark 56% deficit compared to projections. This puts the 2024 Copper River run squarely in line with long-term historical averages, rather than the anticipated boom season.

The resulting tight supply in this high-tier segment has kept pricing resilient, with the season closing out at an average of $6.75 per pound, up 3.85% from both 2024 levels and the rolling three-year average. Due to the limited availability, formal quotations for Copper River sockeye have now been suspended until next season.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: An Alaska-Grown Solution to Safeguard Bristol Bay

August 5, 2025 — The 20-year saga to safeguard the world’s largest wild salmon stronghold from becoming the future home of North America’s largest open-pit mine has taken a new turn.

On May 20, 2025, the Alaska House Speaker Edgmon (I-Dillingham) and Representative Josephson (D-Anchorage) introduced a bill into the Alaska State Legislature to prevent large-scale mining proposals, like the proposed Pebble Mine, from posing serious threats to the 15,000 jobs that rely on Bristol Bay’s salmon populations.

A Special Region Worthy of Safeguards

The immense value of Bristol Bay’s fisheries has long been recognized, especially by Alaskans. At the urging of local residents and fishermen, in 1972 Alaska State Legislators enacted the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to safeguard the region’s commercial, subsistence, and sport fisheries.

The current law requires the Alaska Legislature to grant final authorization of any metallic sulfide mine plan within the reserve. House Bill 233 amends the current law to entirely prohibit metallic sulfide mining—also known as hard-rock mining—within the reserve.

In the years since the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was enacted, science resoundingly states that hard-rock mining is incompatible with the region’s highly productive fish habitat. This bill is a common-sense solution created in response to the economic and scientific realities of the region. “We are thrilled to see our lawmakers pursuing an Alaska-grown solution to the Pebble problem. Safeguarding Bristol Bay’s prolific fishery and the 15,000 jobs and $2.2 billion of economic value that it supports is a no-brainer for a prosperous future for our state,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska Director of Trout Unlimited, and longtime resident of Anchorage.

Read the full article at Fish Alaska Magazine

ALASKA: Demand remains high as Alaska’s sockeye salmon harvest hits 48 million fish

August 1, 2025 — Sockeye salmon commercial harvests in Alaska reached 90% of the annual projection near the end of July, including 40 million reds from Bristol Bay, and Anchorage retail prices were holding at from $13.99 to $39.99 a pound.

Fishmongers at the New Sagaya seafood counter in Anchorage were also doing a brisk business in fresh troll-caught coho salmon fillets at $13.99 a pound, and whole trolled silvers from Sitka were on sale at $7.99 a pound. Shoppers at 10th & M Seafoods, another popular Anchorage fish shop, were stocking up on the sockeyes, at $13.99 a pound, with average orders of 10 to 15 pounds each, said store manager Tito Marquez. Costco warehouses in Anchorage also had their seafood display cases packed with sockeye fillets at $13.99 a pound.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska lawmakers introduce bill to ban metals mining in Bristol Bay watershed

June 17, 2025 — On the last day of Alaska’s legislative session, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon introduced a bill to ban metal mining in the Bristol Bay watershed – including the controversial Pebble Mine.

House Bill 233 still has a long way to go before it could become law. But if passed, it would be the region’s first state-level restriction on metallic sulfide mining.

There are more than 20 active mining claims across the watershed, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run. That includes Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble Mine — which remains under consideration after more than 20 years despite local, state and federal challenges.

“The bill itself, I think, is a vehicle to continue the fight against the Pebble Mine,” said Edgmon, I-Dillingham. “Whether or not it advances or whether it just sits there and makes a very large statement that the region by and large is opposed to the mine.”

The bill, co-sponsored by House Reps. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, and Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, builds on a 1972 state law that established the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve to protect the watershed against oil and gas drilling. In the past few decades, several bills have been introduced to ban metals mining, too, but none became law.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media