Saving Seafood

OREGON: Oregon coast lawmakers push back on fish hatchery cuts

July 8, 2026 — The Bonneville Power Administration said in June that it would cut funding for a program that raises millions of salmon in hatcheries.

But a bipartisan group of Oregon coastal lawmakers wants the agency to reverse that decision, saying it could rock the commercial and sportfishing industries that their communities rely on.

BPA provides more than $2 million annually to the Select Area Fisheries Enhancement, or SAFE, program, which the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife manages. It has helped cover more than a third of the SAFE program’s cost.

Read the full article at OPB

ALASKA: Alaska’s wild salmon harvest climbs to over 14.5 million fish

July 7, 2026 — On the eve of July 4 and a plethora of holiday barbecues, Alaska’s commercial salmon harvest had already brought in over 14 million wild sockeye salmon, with the big surge coming from Bristol Bay.

Silver Bay Seafoods and Trident Seafoods posted $1.60 a pound for chilled, bled sockeye, 30 cents more than last year’s pre-season price and considered a conservative starting price for the 2026 season, said Janis Harsilla, business manager for the Bristol Bay Fishermen’s Association.

Retail sales were steady, with prices ranging between $16.99 to $18.99 a pound at King Soopers supermarkets, between $23 and $29.99 a pound at some online direct-to-consumer shops, $15.99 a pound at Anchorage Fred Meyer, part of the Kroger chain, and $20.99 a pound at Anchorage Carrs-Safeway supermarkets. The best deal in town was still $14.99 a pound at Costco warehouses in Anchorage for fresh Copper River reds. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Studies document impact of warm streams on juvenile salmon

July 6, 2026 — New studies at the University of British Columbia confirm the increasing heat stress for juvenile salmon at this vulnerable stage of their lives.

The studies by UBC’s Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Lab document how young fish cope with heat differently than older fish and that current methods of measuring that stress underestimate the risks these fish face in warming waterways.

The study exploring the biological mechanisms that influence heat tolerance was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. The study examining swimming performance and survival at different temperatures was accepted by the journal Conservation Physiology.

UBC researchers focused in these two studies on juvenile Chinook salmon, but have

previously examined thermal tolerance in all life stages of sockeye and adult coho, adult Chinook, and adult pink, said studies leader Scott Hinch, a professor of fisheries conservation at UBC. Similar conditions have been observed in Alaska, Washington state, Oregon and California, he said.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Commerce Department releases $123.6 million in fishery disaster aid

June 24, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Commerce announced June 17 the allocation of $123.6 million in fishery disaster relief funding to address a series of commercial fishery collapses that struck Alaska, Oregon, California, and Washington’s Squaxin Island Tribe between 2019 and 2023. The money was appropriated by Congress through the American Relief Act, 2025.

The funding covers six previously declared fishery resource disasters: the 2023–2024 Bering Sea snow crab fishery in Alaska; the 2023 Oregon ocean commercial salmon fishery; the 2022 Chignik salmon fishery in Alaska; the 2023 Upper Cook Inlet East Side Setnet salmon fishery in Alaska; the 2024 California Sacramento River Fall Chinook and Klamath River Fall Chinook ocean and inland salmon fisheries; and the 2023 Squaxin Island Tribe Puget Sound Fall Chum salmon fishery in Washington.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA announces USD 124 million in fisheries disaster assistance

June 23, 2025 — NOAA has announced USD 124 million (EUR 109 million) in fisheries disaster aid to the states of Alaska, Oregon, and California, as well as the Squaxin Island Tribe.

“Fishery resource disasters have devastating effects on local communities and our economy,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a release. “This disaster funding provides much needed assistance to our fishing industry, and we will work with the affected communities to help them recover. This action demonstrates our continued commitment to hardworking American fishermen and to the president’s vision to uphold the United States as the world’s dominant seafood leader.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Hilborn: respect indigenous, western fisheries knowledge

June 19, 2026 — A prominent University of Washington professor of marine biologist and fisheries scientist says respect for every form of knowledge is needed to find solutions to the decline of Pacific salmon.

“The impact of the decline of Chinook salmon and chum salmon to western Alaska communities is a concern to all, and every form of knowledge needs to be brought to bear to understand what has caused it and help to find solutions,” wrote Ray Hilborn, a professor of aquatic and fishery scientist at the University of Washington, in an article published in May by the Oxford University Press.

Hilborn noted that research published previously by Antoinette Lavoie, of the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University and others made a good case that Native people have been largely excluded from decision making in management of federal fisheries, especially as those fisheries may impact subsistence users.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Alaska researchers using tagging data to reduce fishing bycatch

June 11, 2026 — A stream of data more than a decade in the making is helping a team of Alaska researchers’ efforts to boost the health of the local salmon population and the bottom line of fishing trawlers.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks research team has translated a trove of data from a chinook salmon tagging program into a predictive model that could help reduce bycatch by fishing trawlers.

Chinook salmon range from the ocean’s surface to depths where trawl nets target groundfish species. The researchers’ model uses more than 700,000 data points between Southeast Alaska and the Bering Sea to predict how chinook will be distributed across the water column. With that information, trawlers can potentially adjust their operations to reduce inadvertent salmon catches.

Read the full article at Peninsula Clarion 

Chinook salmon tagging data aims to help reduce trawler bycatch

June 11, 2026 — Fisheries scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are on a mission to find out where Chinook salmon are at all times, not to catch them, but to avoid them.

Their research draws on a trove of data from a Chinook salmon tagging program, with a focus on helping commercial trawl harvesters avoid the depths and areas where these fish risk becoming bycatch, and where they may also be adversely affected by naval exercises in the Gulf of Alaska used to train U.S. military forces for combat at sea.

Chinook and chum salmon have been hard hit in recent years by rising ocean temperatures, anthropogenic impacts, and increased microplastic pollution.

Bycatch limits already in place for declining Chinook stocks shut down the trawl fishery in Kodiak in 2024, when two trawl boats caught so many Chinooks over a single weekend that the entire fleet had to stop fishing, leaving most of their total allowable groundfish catch in the water.

Read the full article at the

ALASKA: State voids Area M restrictions after Aleutians East argues ethics violation

May 27, 2026 — The Alaska Department of Law has voided regulations aimed at restricting the Area M commercial salmon fishery.

The regulations were passed by the state Board of Fisheries in February, and quickly challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Aleutians East Borough, the Native Village of Unga, and two commercial fishing groups. They argued the regulations couldn’t be enforced because the Board of Fisheries violated state ethics laws while adopting them.

The groups dropped the lawsuit Wednesday after the state revoked the new rules, with both sides agreeing to end the case.

Area M has long been at the center of a fight over salmon conservation in Western Alaska, where low chum and Chinook returns have led to major restrictions on subsistence fishing.

Read the full article at KUCB

ALASKA: ADF&G restricts Kodiak salmon fishing again this summer

May 20, 2026 — The salmon runs on the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers on the southwest side of Kodiak Island have faced strict restrictions over the past few years, and this year is no different. Subsistence fishing for Chinook in the Karluk river is closed all year while sport fishing for kings on the Ayakulik and Karluk rivers is closed until July 25.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced these closures earlier this year citing the need to “protect returning king salmon and ensure future fishing opportunities.”

The department has also closed the entire west side of the island to Chinook sportfishing again from May 1 to June 30 to protect the returning Karluk Chinook, which numbered less than 100 fish in both 2024 and 2025. Both Karluk and Ayakulik Chinook have seen record low returns over the past years.

Read the full article at KMXT