Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Inside the overlooked world of Bristol Bay’s salmon tenders

August 5, 2026 — When Bristol Bay’s salmon run reaches its peak, the spotlight usually falls on the fishermen hauling sockeye over the rails. But just offshore, another fleet is working around the clock to keep the fishery moving.

Tender boats shuttle thousands of pounds of salmon from fishermen to processors, fuel skiffs, deliver groceries and gear, and often serve as floating support vessels during one of the busiest commercial fisheries in the U.S. Without them, many fishermen simply couldn’t keep fishing.

For Washington native Evan Blankenship, tendering has become an essential part of his livelihood.

“I stumbled into fishing and Alaska because of my high school history teacher,” Blankenship shared. “She told stories about working in a remote Alaskan cannery in the 1990s. It sounded like such a wildly different experience from where I grew up.”

In 2006, at age 19, Blankenship headed north to Naknek for his first summer working in a cannery. One season turned into many. He eventually moved from processing to tendering in Bristol Bay, then into salmon seining in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound before buying his first seine boat in Kodiak in 2015.

Today, his operation splits the summer between Bristol Bay tendering and Kodiak salmon seining, a combination that provides both stability and opportunity.

Blankenship began combining tendering and seining in 2018 after several unpredictable years in Kodiak’s salmon fishery.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Summer troll update, Fish scarce, catch low

July 14, 2026 — On Friday morning, the 10th day of the summer king salmon troll opening, the catch was less than half of the harvest target of 83,700, fishery officials said. The opening, which was initially projected to last seven to ten days, will continue until further notice.

Department of Fish and Game troll fishery management biologist Grant Hagerman said that since July 1 fish abundance, fleet effort and catch rate have been low.
“Fewer fish, fewer boats, and fewer fish per boat,” Hagerman summarized for the Sentinel.
Hagerman says the fishery will stay open until further notice. Last year, the summer troll opening lasted four days. As of Friday morning, Fish & Game estimates that trollers had caught fewer than 35,000 chinook in nine days in this opening, compared to 40,000 chinook harvested in four days in 2025.
There is a higher treaty allocation this year; Southeast commercial trollers can harvest up to 146,000 treaty chinook. Last year the limit was a record low of 92,730.

ALASKA: Only two vessels will fish Alaska’s weathervane scallop season

July 10, 2026 — Alaska’s commercial weathervane scallop fishery opened July 1 with harvest levels unchanged from last season, but despite nearly 400,000 pounds of statewide quota available, only two vessels are expected to participate in one of the world’s most exclusive commercial fisheries.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), the 2026/27 fishery carries a statewide guideline harvest level (GHL) of approximately 381,700 pounds of shucked scallop meat, with nearly half of the allocation, 190,000 pounds, coming from waters around Kodiak.

Kodiak remains the center of Alaska’s scallop fishery, but as KMXT reported on July 8, there was no rush of boats leaving the harbor when the season opened. “Weathervane scallops are the largest species of scallop in the world, and the only scallop species on the West Coast that has a substantial commercial fishery,” Kodiak-based ADF&G area biologist Nat Nichols told KMXT.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

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

High fuel prices could hurt Kodiak’s salmon fishermen

June 5, 2026 — The high cost of diesel, fueled by the war in Iran, coincides with a projected weak salmon harvest for this summer.

Down at the dock in Kodiak’s St Paul harbor on a windy Tuesday in May, Darren Platt organized his boat, a 42-foot seiner called the Agnes Sabine, ahead of the upcoming salmon season.

“Before a season, you just tear everything apart, and then just desperately try to put it back together,” he said. “I’m still in the tearing everything apart phase.”

This time of year, Platt would normally be excited to hit the water. This summer though, he said he’s feeling apprehensive, mostly about the price of diesel.

“It’s probably going to be close to double what it was last year,” he said.

Platt is one of many who work on the water who are concerned about the price at the pump. Gas prices are still high as a result of the war with Iran, and even a small increase could make or break an already short season.

Last summer, Dave Kubiak, owner and operator of the fishing vessel Lara Lee, said he paid around $3.75 a gallon for fuel. But when he filled his tank on May 20, diesel was $6.70 a gallon, an increase of more than 80%. He calculated that filling the vessel’s tank from empty would have cost him nearly $10,000.

Read the full article at KMXT

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

ALASKA: Kodiak commercial trawlers pause fishing while Board of Fisheries considers trawl proposals

March 19, 2026 —  The Kodiak-based trawl fleet is pausing its fishing for pollock in state waters for three days while the Alaska Board of Fisheries weighs in on proposed tighter restrictions for trawl fishermen, including monitoring of seafloor contact in and around state waters.

According to Rebecca Skinner, the executive director of the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association, the local pollock trawl fleet temporarily stopped fishing by Tuesday morning, March 17, and will wait 72 hours before resuming. Skinner said by phone that her understanding is that the fleet made this decision to give some of its fishermen time to testify at this week’s state Board of Fisheries meeting in Anchorage without missing out on fishing.

The federal Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery “A season” opened in January with a total allowable catch this year of just under 140,000 metric tons, roughly 25% less than last year’s harvest, and is expected to go into April.

Read the full article at KMXT

ALASKA: Pacific cod quota updated mid-season for Kodiak area fishermen

February 11, 2026 — Pacific cod fishermen in the Kodiak area and South Alaska Peninsula can now catch nearly 8 million pounds of fish during the current state-managed fishery. That’s after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced an updated quota last week on Feb. 5 in the middle of the 2026 season.

The guideline harvest level or quota went from 5.3 million pounds of cod ahead of the Kodiak area season opener to 7.9 million pounds on Feb. 5. That’s an almost 50% increase in the amount of fish that can be caught this season, which is split evenly between pot and jig fishermen.

Read the full article at KMXT

ALASKA: US House candidates debate Alaskan fisheries management

October 30, 2024 — Candidates for the sole U.S. House of Representatives seat up for election in Alaska were able to make their positions on the state’s struggling seafood industry heard during the 2024 Alaska Fisheries Debate, hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.

Incumbent U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) touted her record on providing support to the state’s commercial fishing sector while pointing to the bills she has sponsored as a path forward for the industry.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: At U.S. House debate in Kodiak, candidates differ on future of Alaska fisheries

October 10, 2024 — A two-hour debate on Alaska fisheries issues turned contentious in its final moments as Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich criticized incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola over an ad stating that a Begich victory would mean “our fish are gone.”

The exchange was the lone heated issue between the two frontrunners in Alaska’s U.S. House election, which will decide one of only a few tossup races in the 435-seat House of Representatives. With the House closely divided between Republicans and Democrats, the winner of Alaska’s race is likely to help decide control of the House overall.

Tuesday’s debate was largely cordial and included an at-times-technical discussion of fisheries policy.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media