Saving Seafood

California establishes two new marine protected areas, expands others

October 22, 2026 — The state of California has created two new marine protected areas and strengthened and expanded two more to conserve coastal waters in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase oil drilling off the coast.

“Our ocean is essential to who we are. It’s part of our DNA as Californians,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a release. “While Donald Trump attempts to roll back decades of environmental protections and open our shoreline to new oil drilling, we’re protecting more of our coast and ocean than ever before. In partnership with California tribes, we’re safeguarding coastal communities, marine life, and ways of life that depend on a healthy ocean.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

WASHINGTON: Fish & Game considers cap on pink and chum egg takes for Alaska hatcheries

October 22, 2026 — A fognak Lake sits in the middle of the forested expanse of Afognak Island, north of Kodiak. Normally it would be eerily quiet, but not one sunny day in late August. The Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association was conducting its annual egg take for the strain of sockeye that returns here.

The dozen or so technicians and volunteers gathered at the lake have been waiting for this day for weeks.

“It’s shaping up to be pretty sweet, except for the bugs,” said Peter Weinzierl, a technician with the aquaculture association. “Didn’t expect this many bugs.”

The team blasted pop music as technicians pulled skeins of eggs out of sockeye salmon and emptied them into plastic bowls. Taking eggs from wild fish is a way that aquaculture associations maintain genetic diversity in their broodstock and prevent domestication.

Read the full article at KMXT

King salmon runs are crashing. In Kodiak, a pioneering conservation project aims to save one

October 21, 2026 — The mountains had turned orange and yellow above Kodiak’s Pillar Creek hatchery as James ‘Hawk’ Turman waited at the hatchery gate on a September day.

“It smells a little bit right now, because you got a bunch of pink salmon out there dying in the river,” he said as he unlocked the gate. “I’m waiting for a bunch of rain to just wash them all down.”

Turman manages the Pillar Creek hatchery. Most of the time, it’s home to the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association’s sockeye and silver salmon operations. But something new is happening here. The aquaculture association is trying to rehabilitate a crashing king salmon run from the Karluk River, on the southwest side of the island.

Eggs collected from those wild salmon are now incubating at the hatchery. And although many support the project, some scientists worry it could do more harm than good.

Alaska’s king salmon runs are in trouble

The Karluk run is one of only two native king salmon runs on Kodiak Island, and it has deep cultural and historical significance for the Alutiiq people. But the run is in major trouble. Last year, only 93 kings returned to the Karluk River. The year before, it was just 76.

Across Alaska, king salmon populations have been returning in record low numbers. Turman said the Karluk project, which according to the aquaculture association is the first of its kind in the state, might be the start of something bigger.

“Our efforts are being used as kind of a test case for other stocks of concern around the state,” he said. “Someone had to finally kick the can off the bridge, and why not us?”

Read the full article at KMXT

ALASKA: Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association sees returns double hatchery expectations in some areas

September 12, 2023 — Some areas in Alaska have entirely wild salmon runs. But there’s also 28 hatcheries around the state. Two of those facilities are based in Kodiak, including one near the mouth of Pillar Creek, just outside of town.

It all starts with egg takes. Hatchery staff and volunteers take four wheelers or fly out to remote lakes to catch fish that are close to spawning. Some salmon like coho hold just over 1000 eggs a fish, but sockeye can have as many as 2700 eggs each. Eggs are then brought to the hatchery’s indoor facilities.

The eggs are sensitive to light so bins are usually stored in the dark. Staff use flashlights when in the room with them, August 28, 2023. (Brian Venua/KMXT)

Tina Fairbanks is the executive director of the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, which operates the archipelago’s hatcheries. This summer marks 40 years for the organization. The other hatchery is in Kitoi Bay and was built by the federal government in the 1950s.

Fairbanks said hatchery eggs have a much higher survival rate than wild spawners.

“At the hatchery level, if we see 20 percent mortality, we’re upset,” she said. “At Pillar Creek Hatchery, a lot of times they’ll have 90% survival from the time that they’re taking the eggs until the time that they are ponded as fry and start rearing here at the hatchery.”

Read the full article at KYUK

Alaska salmon hatchery critics call for decreased caps

October 5, 2018 — Salmon that begin their lives in Alaska hatcheries often save the day for thousands of fishermen when returns of wild stocks are a bust. This year was a prime example, when pinks and chums that originated in hatcheries made up for record shortfalls for fishing towns in the Gulf of Alaska.

“This year Kodiak hatchery fish added more than $6 million for fishermen, and also for sport fish, subsistence and personal use fisheries,” said Tina Fairbanks, director of the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, in testimony to the Kodiak Island Borough after one of the Island’s poorest salmon seasons.

But Alaska’s hatchery program, which has operated since the early 1970s, is under assault by critics who claim the fish are jeopardizing survival of wild stocks.

A Kenai sportfishing group said in statements to the state Board of Fisheries that “massive releases of pinks from Prince William Sound hatcheries threaten wild sockeye and Chinook salmon” bound for their region. An individual from Fairbanks is calling for a decreased cap on how many pink salmon some hatcheries are allowed to release to the ocean each year.

Read the full story at National Fisherman