Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Terry Haines/Kodiak Daily Mirror: Report cards for sablefish and cod stocks

December 3, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet in-person starting today at the Egan Center in Anchorage. The council will meet through Dec. 9.

Among the documents they will peruse are “report cards” for Alaska’s sablefish stock, and Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod stock. These report cards are based on data through 2024.

Sablefish numbers continue to be buoyed by a strong class from 2019. Here are some other factors that could determine the fate of sablefish statewide:

Surface temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and southeastern Bering Sea (SEBS) remain below average, with no recent heatwave events in the GOA.  Unlike other species the historically warm water temperatures were beneficial to baby sablefish. Cooler conditions probably mean relatively slower larval sablefish growth.

Scientists actually keep track of the size of baby sablefish observed in seabird bill loads. While their size increased in 2023, it remained below the historical average, while growth was average in 2024.

The zooplankton community size was above average in the eastern GOA but below average in the western GOA in 2023, implying variable feeding conditions for larval and young-of-the-year (YOY) sablefish.

Read the full article at Alaskafish.news

ALASKA: NPFMC poised to roll over halibut, crab bycatch limits for 2026/27 in December

November 26, 2025 — Each December the North Pacific Fishery Management Council sets the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for all groundfish species in federal waters of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska for two years. Those waters – from three to 200 miles out – provide over 60% of Alaska’s total fishery landings.

This massive range covers approximately 900,000 square miles and includes over 140 fish and crab species through six different Fishery Management Plans (FMPs).

The value of the combined groundfish fisheries tops $2 billion annually at first wholesale (the value after primary processing). Of that, nearly 75% leaves the state of Alaska and goes primarily to Seattle.

The North Pacific Council also sets the rates of bycatch that go along with all those groundfish catches.

Bering Sea trawl bycatch tops the allowed takes of snow crab and Tanner crab for fishermen

Crab bycatch numbers are indicated as individual animals by fishery managers, but to make things more confusing, crab catches by fishermen are listed in poundage.

For the 2025/2026 season, crabbers are allocated 2.68 million pounds of red king crab. That equals about 382,857 crabs based on an average weight of 7 pounds each. The allowable trawl bycatch for red king crab is 97,000 animals.

For Snow crab (opilio), the fishermen’s catch of 9.3 million pounds adds up to 6.2 million individual crabs weighing 1.5 pounds on average.

The allowable trawl bycatch for Snow crab is 12,850,000 animals.

For bairdi Tanner crab, the crabber’s pots can haul up a total of 11.25 million pounds – 10.12 million pounds from the Western district and 1.13 million pounds from the Eastern district. That equals 3.75 million crabs, based on an average weight of three pounds per crab.

The allowable trawl bycatch for bairdi Tanners is 3.95 million animals.

By far, most of the crab and halibut bycatch is taken by the Seattle-based Amendment 80 fleet of nearly 20 huge factory trawlers that drag the bottom of the Bering Sea for flounders and other groundfish.

Read the full article at Alaskafish.news

Modified groundfish nets limit killer whale entanglements

November 4, 2025 — A large mesh panel, known as a “killer whale fence,” in Bering Sea deep-water flatfish trawl gear is proving successful at preventing killer whale entanglement in the lucrative commercial flounder and sole fisheries.

The modified gear, first tested fleetwide in 2024, resulted in a single entanglement for the whole summer season.  The fleet’s 2025 season ended without any mortalities, according to an Oct. 28 report by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The net modification was developed through a collaborative effort between UAF researcher Hannah Myers and the Alaska Seafood Cooperative, which coordinates a fleet targeting flounder and sole.  For 2023, the Bering Sea commercial flounder and sole fisheries were valued at over $45 million combined. Key species in this fishery complex include yellowfin sole and flathead sole, along with other flatfish managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Groundfish captains working in the summer fishery first began noticing significantly more killer whale activity around their nets starting about 2020. Then, in 2023, there was a sudden rise in the entanglement of orcas in their nets.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska fishing community updates through the shutdown

October 22, 2025 — When the federal government shut down on October 1, the impacts stretched far beyond Washington, D.C., reaching all the way to the working waterfronts and fishing communities of Alaska. According to the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC), the shutdown has disrupted scientific operations, delayed critical stock assessments, and created new uncertainties for fishermen, processors, and coastal communities that rely on timely federal action.

In anticipation of the shutdown, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council opted to hold its October meeting entirely online from September 29 through October 9. The agenda was reshuffled to prioritize access to federal scientists while they were still available, but AMCC noted that several agenda items, including updates on Essential Fish Habitat, risk being dropped as key staff were furloughed. That limited engagement could postpone progress on pressing issues such as Bering Sea crab and bycatch management tools.

Another risk that AMCC noted was that NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center warned that a prolonged shutdown lasting more than 15 business days could jeopardize timely stock assessments. These assessments feed directly into the annual catch limit decision, creating challenges for small boat fleets that rely on predictable quotas to plan for the upcoming season. With much of NOAA’s research staff furloughed, AMCC reported that most research activities have paused, although fisheries management, seafood inspections, and law enforcement operations continue at a reduced capacity.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Modifications recommended on retainable amounts of groundfish species

October 22, 2025 — Federal fishery management officials meeting in early October in Anchorage recommended modifying regulations that implement maximum retainable amounts of groundfish species.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) recently noted that there is broad support from multiple fishing sectors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea for moving forward with this action, adding that the analytical document is clear on the positive benefits their action will have for multiple fleets.

The council said its preferred alternatives would improve regulations that implement the maximum retainable amounts, as well as clarify their current regulations, make maximum retainable amount calculations easier, reduce regulatory discards, ease regulatory burden, and address medical, mechanical and weather issues that can impact those calculations.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Government shutdown creates uncertainty for fisheries management in waters off Alaska

October 10, 2025 — For the organization that oversees commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska, the most significant impact of the federal government shutdown might materialize in December.

That is when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to issue harvest limits for Alaska pollock – the nation’s top-volume commercial harvested species – and other types of groundfish harvested in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, such as Pacific cod and sablefish.

The Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska pollock harvests start in January.

To set the groundfish harvest levels, the council relies on federal scientists’ analysis of fish stocks in the ocean, work that is based in large part on scientific surveys conducted over the summer.

But during the shutdown, most National Marine Fisheries Service employees, including the scientists who analyze survey data to assess the conditions of commercially targeted fish stocks, are furloughed.

On Wednesday, the last day of the council’s October meeting, the members considered how to deal with scientific uncertainty if the government shutdown prevents completion of the detailed analysis that is usually provided in time for the December meeting.

Council member Nicole Kimball referred to a warning issued eight days prior by Bob Foy, director of the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the organization that does the stock assessments. Foy said then that a shutdown lasting more than five days would compromise the ability to complete stock assessments and that a shutdown beyond 15 working days would “dramatically impact” those assessments.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Shutdown threatens Alaska fisheries council decisions

October 2, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), responsible for overseeing federal fisheries off Alaska, is navigating turbulent waters marked by both budget uncertainty and the government shutdown. NPFMC is one of the eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976.

After months of delays due to the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA, the council finally secured its 2025 operational funding this summer. However, as Yereth Rosen reported for Alaska Beacon on September 30, a federal government shutdown now threatens to derail the science-based decision-making that the fisheries depend on.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Funding problems, shutdown force changes for North Pacific Fishery Management Council

October 1, 2025 — After months of uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the council that manages commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska now has all the federal funding that had been allocated to it for 2025 operations.

But the North Pacific Fishery Management Council now faces a new source of uncertainty: the federal government shutdown.

The funding and shutdown complications have reshaped the council’s October meeting, underway this week.

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News

NPFMC executive director David Witherell to retire in October

September 15, 2025 — David Witherell, who has served as executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council since June 2017, will retire at the end of October, the council announced.

Witherell said that his 33 years with the council have been an honor and a privilege that he is grateful to have been part of.

His retirement comes as the council is facing federal budget challenges, as well as increasing issues related to managing fisheries during complex climate changes. The council will be working over the next two months to choose a successor.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MRA regulations face final vote at NPMFC’s October meeting

August 19, 2025 — Final action is slated for maximum retainable amount (MRA) regulations related to bycatch in groundfish fisheries at the Sept. 29-Oct. 9 meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage, Alaska.

Current MRA regulations, designed to limit the catch of species closed to directed fishing while allowing for the retention of unavoidable incidental catch, have been identified as potentially complex and leading to difficulties in prosecuting fisheries, as well as contributing to regulatory discards, council staff noted.

The action under consideration was initiated by a council motion at their April 2024 meeting, following a review of a discussion paper developed and presented by National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman