Saving Seafood

Conservation group to sue over Kodiak, Gulf salmon management

November 4, 2026 — The Wild Fish Conservancy has sent notice to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries it intends to sue over management of sport and commercial salmon fisheries in Kodiak, Chignik and Alaska Peninsula waters, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act.

“Nearly nine out of ten Chinook salmon caught in commercial fisheries along the South Alaska Peninsula in 2024 and 2025 originated outside Alaska, according to research from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“Yet these fisheries operate without federal Endangered Species Act oversight of their impacts on threatened and endangered Pacific Northwest Chinook, even as communities where these fish return face strict fishing limits and invest heavily in their recovery,” WFC wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to ADF&G Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

ALASKA: 5 crew members rescued from fishing vessel that runs aground in Southwest Alaska

November 2, 2026 — A Coast Guard helicopter crew early Thursday rescued five crew members from the 58-foot Oracle, a fishing vessel that ran aground near False Pass in Southwest Alaska.

The crew members, some of whom sustained minor injuries, were taken to a clinic in Cold Bay, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard received a distress report at 4:48 a.m. Thursday, and by 6:16 a.m., an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew — based in Kodiak and deployed to Cold Bay — was on scene. Coast Guard video shows surf breaking around the Oracle as a crew member is brought up in a rescue basket to the helicopter.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: Alaska Fisheries Science Center attributes hybrid snow-Tanner crab boom to marine heatwave, decreased competition and predation

October 29, 2026 — Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Kodiak Laboratory recently completed research on how certain hybrid crab populations have increased in Alaska’s Bering Sea following a marine heatwave and subsequent mass die-off events from 2018 to 2019.

“These results are unprecedented,” study lead Erin Fedewa said in a NOAA release. “We were shocked by the magnitude of the hybrid surge while analyzing data from the 2025 Eastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey. It immediately became clear that this ecological response would ripple through to fisheries management.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska Area of Opportunity identification process to be supported through a NOAA online tool

October 29, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries and NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science recently released a new report with stakeholder input that was gathered across multiple workshops during the spring of 2026 in Anchorage, Juneau, and Kodiak, Alaska, U.S.A.

The report, titled the “Gulf of Alaska Aquaculture Atlas Rollout and Webtool Planning Workshop Series,“ asked industry professionals, including growers, Tribal representatives, researchers, state and federal agency staff, nonprofit organizations, fishermen, and community members, about the ways science-based planning and permitting tools will aid sustainable practices as the government rolls out Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) in the state.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Rise of hybrid crabs raises questions for Bering Sea management

October 22, 2026 — A surge in hybrid crabs in the Bering Sea is raising new questions about how federal regulators count crab populations and set harvest limits, according to new Kodiak-based research.

The study, “A Bering Sea marine heatwave triggers unprecedented crab hybridization, challenging fisheries management,” was authored by Erin Fedewa, Emily Ryznar, Connor Cleary and Mike Litzow at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center Kodiak Lab, and published Monday in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Read the full article at the Kodiak Daily Mirror

ALASKA: Juneau salmon troller takes helm of United Fishermen of Alaska

September 30, 2026 — The United Fishermen of Alaska, a trade association for commercial fishermen statewide, hired a new leader. Juneau-based commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer started as executive director of the organization on Sept. 15.

Outgoing executive director Tracy Welch said she left UFA after roughly five years as the executive director to take over as commissioner of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission earlier this year. She started as one of two commissioners of the commission back in May, joining the existing commissioner Rick Green. Her predecessor at CFEC Glenn Haight stepped down from the position in February.

Brouwer has been a commercial fisherman for over 20 years, according to a press release UFA posted on Sept. 21. During those two decades, he said he fished the Kodiak setnet fishery for a season. He has also fished the Southeast pot shrimp and salmon trolling seasons and halibut and black cod longline fisheries.

Read the full article at KMXT

ALASKA: Juneau fisherman takes lead at United Fishermen of Alaska

September 29, 2026 — Juneau commercial fisherman Thatcher Brouwer has been named executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA), bringing more than two decades on the water and years of fisheries policy experience to the statewide trade association.

Brouwer began the role in September, succeeding Tracy Welch, who was appointed earlier this year to the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. “It’s humbling to be working for the fishing industry,” Brouwer told the Juneau Empire. “I’ve participated as an active commercial fisherman for over 20 years and operated my own boat.”

Brouwer takes over UFA as Alaska fishermen face a busy stretch of state fisheries management decisions. The Alaska Board of Fisheries is preparing for meetings covering Lower Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and Upper Cook Inlet finfish over the coming months.

Brouwer said UFA’s board, which represents commercial fishing organizations across Alaska, will guide his role. One of his first major tasks will be preparing for the association’s fall meeting Nov. 4-5 in Anchorage, weighing in on Board of Fisheries proposals, and helping organize a candidate forum focused on commercial fishing.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Pitched battle for Alaska’s Senate seat is enveloped in a fight over fish

September 21, 2026 — Fish are central to Alaska’s economy, Indigenous cultures and identity.

With critical salmon runs in Alaska rivers struggling, commercial operators squeezed by higher costs and stiffer market competition, fish are now at the center of the hard-fought campaign for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat.

For Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, the fishing issues are deeply personal.

She is Yup’ik, grew up in rural Western Alaska on the Kuskokwim River and, as she has explained many times, has been fishing since she was 6 years old.

“I’m the only candidate on this stage who’s an Alaskan fisherman. Fish is in my blood, earned over generations on the water,” she said at the Sept. 12 fisheries-focused debate held by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.

Sullivan is emphasizing his record after 12 years in the Senate, which he said resulted in 63 bills signed into law so far, many of which concern fisheries, and has secured generous appropriations for agencies that support the industry, like the U.S. Coast Guard.

“Our fishermen deserve relentless focus and action, not just talk,” he said at the Kodiak debate.

According to the information clearinghouse govtrack.us, Sullivan was the prime sponsor on 31 bills that have been signed into law during his tenure. Over his career in the Senate, he has been a cosponsor of more than 1,800 pieces of legislation, according to congress.gov, the  online database for the nation’s legislative branch.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Begich, Hill tackle bycatch and seafood economy

September 17, 2026 — Bycatch, struggling salmon runs, and how to keep more fisheries value in Alaska dominated the U.S. House fisheries debate between Rep. Nick Begich and independent challenger Bill Hill.

The two candidates met Sept. 12 in Kodiak during the 2026 Congressional Candidates Fisheries Forum, hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and KMXT Public Radio. The forum has focused exclusively on fisheries issues for more than three decades, according to organizers.

Begich and Hill found common ground on several issues facing Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, including fisheries science, seafood promotion, processing labor, and the need to reduce bycatch.

But their answers also showed different approaches to how Washington should address those problems.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

ALASKA: Leading candidates in Alaska U.S. House race endorse bycatch limits in fisheries debate

September 16, 2026 — Front-runner candidates for Alaska’s sole U.S. House of Representatives seat expressed strong support for the fishing industry and coastal communities at a debate in Kodiak over the weekend.

Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III and independent challenger Bill Hill took very similar positions on issues including fisheries bycatch, declining fish stocks and representation in federal fisheries management, but there were some differences.

Begich touted his legislative record in his first two-year term as beneficial to Alaska fisheries, while Hill said his personal history as a lifelong fisherman in Bristol Bay is advantageous for representing Alaska in Congress.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News