Saving Seafood

ALASKA: In waters off Alaska, fishermen struggle to keep orcas from their catch

November 17, 2025 — The orca pod that forages in the waters just north of this Aleutian island are quick to swarm any halibut boat with a skipper foolish enough to drop lines in their domain.

As the lines are pulled up, and fresh-caught fish near the surface, the whales, in a well-honed feeding ritual, pick them off the hooks.

Skipper Robert Hanson’s lines have been hit by lots of the killer whales that dwell in the Bering Sea. He has found the Unalaska pod to be the most savvy, skilled and aggressive — leaving just traces of halibut, the largest of which could have netted Hanson hundreds of dollars apiece.

“Most of the time, you get nothing. Sometimes a lip, or a half a fish, if they get full,” Hanson said. “They are particularly good at what they do.”

For the past 20 years, Hanson has sought to avoid feeding these whales and prospected for halibut elsewhere. But during a May fishing trip, Hanson dared to set his lines near these whales as part of an eight-day sea trial to test a new defense, an aluminum “shuttle” resembling a small submarine.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily 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: Drone photos suggest a 2014 marine heat wave is still stunting orca growth, reproduction in Alaska

September 16, 2025 — It’s well documented by now that the marine heatwave that hit the Pacific Ocean in 2014 had devastating effects on Alaska’s marine ecosystem and commercial fisheries.

Now, scientists are uncovering long-term impacts on Alaskan killer whales specifically – a harbinger as marine heat waves become more frequent and severe with climate change.

“We’ve learned that females that were growing during those heat wave years grew to smaller sizes,” said John Durban, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium in Boston who has been studying killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska for two decades.

“If you’re smaller as a whale, it means you don’t have as much fasting endurance, you can’t store as much blubber,” Durban added. “So if you go through lean times, you’re less likely to bring a successful pregnancy to term.”

Durban has been partnering with the Alaska-based nonprofit North Gulf Oceanic Society to monitor several hundred resident, salmon-eating killer whales in the Gulf of Alaska. He flies drones over the water, which capture images of the whales from more than 100 feet in the air.

Those images allow researchers to measure how individual whales are developing over time.

The North Gulf Oceanic Society has been monitoring killer whales in the Gulf for more than four decades. Durban said that work became particularly important in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which correlated with an “unprecedented” number of whale deaths among two pods that were exposed to the spill, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

OREGON: Oregon seeks public input on endangered orca management strategy

July 25, 2025 — The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking feedback on its draft Endangered Species Management Plan for Southern Resident Orcas.

The agency presented its findings and how it plans to support the endangered species during a virtual meeting on July 9, and is currently accepting comments through Aug. 15.

ODFW’s draft plan includes continuing to work to restore healthy salmon populations, protect orcas from development in Oregon waters, and focus on education efforts. In addition, the proposal includes new plans to increase salmon hatchery production, explore the possibility of regulations for boaters, and additional data collection efforts.

Read the full article at KOIN

Environmentalist group sues to gain information about Alaska trawler toll on marine mammals

December 20, 2024 — The federal government has failed to give adequate information on deaths of killer whales and other marine mammals that become entangled in commercial trawling gear in Alaska waters, claims a lawsuit filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

The lawsuit, filed by the environmental group Oceana, targets the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The whales and other marine mammals killed in fishing gear are subjects of what is known as bycatch, the unintended, incidental catch of species that are not the harvest target.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

WASHINGTON: Environmental settlement to close two Washington fish hatchery programs

October 11, 2024 — An environmental lawsuit accusing federally-funded fish hatchery programs of contributing to the decline of threatened salmon and steelhead and endangering the orcas that prey on wild salmon ended on Thursday in a settlement that will see the closure of two Washington state fishery programs and the reduction of a third.

Wild Fish Conservancy and The Conservation Angler filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in April, arguing that the department’s Lower Columbia River basin hatchery programs violated the Endangered Species Act.

Now, the Washougal River winter steelhead hatchery program is set to close at the beginning of next year, according to the consent decree, which both parties filed in September and U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle signed on Thursday.

The Deep River net pens coho salmon program has until April to close, and the Kalama River/Fallert Creek Chinook salmon hatchery program will limit its release to 1.9 million fish in 2025.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Orca tally ‘frustrating’ for those trying to save the J, K and L pods

October 7, 2024 — There are only 73 southern resident orcas left in our region’s waters, according to the most recent count released by the Center for Whale Research. It is one of the lowest tallies since the center counted 71 orcas when it began its survey in 1976.

The 2023 census identified 75 southern residents counted in the J, K and L pods. Since then, two adult males, K34 and L85, as well as the only baby born within the census period, the male calf J60, have died. A recently born calf, L128, was confirmed Sept. 16, which is after the census date for this year.

Orca K34 was last seen in July 2023 looking thin. He was at high risk without his mother, who had died in 2017. Mothers share their salmon catch with their male offspring, even into the calf’s adulthood. Losing mom often spells trouble for sons, according to the center.

L85 was looking thin in August, and was also surviving without a mother. He was adopted by mom L12, and after she also died, he clung to L25, the oldest of all the matriarchs, before he faded away, never to be seen again, the center reported. He was one of the three oldest males in the entire population, born in 1991.

The baby, J60, had a short and tumultuous life. First spotted the day after Christmas in 2023, researchers were never sure who his mother was, as the calf was seen with first one female, then another. Could it have been a case of calf rejection? Could the mother not properly nurse? Were other females trying to help? Could it even have been a case of kidnapping? Researchers could not figure it out — and the calf disappeared and was presumed dead by early to mid-January 2024 according to the center.

Read the full article at Seattle Times 

ALASKA: Bering Sea bottom trawlers reduce killer whale take this year as new gear shows promise

October 7, 2024 — Trawlers targeting flatfish in the Bering Sea deployed underwater web fences this summer to try to keep killer whales from getting entangled in their nets pulled along the ocean bottom. During a season that stretched from May to September, one killer whale was caught, an improvement from last year when nine whales were accidentally taken.

The web fence stretches across a wide swath of the net mouth, acting as a barrier to whales while not blocking fish passage into the net. And this year’s reduced killer whale toll has left industry officials cautiously optimistic that the fences, when fitted properly to different net designs, can keep the whales from being brought aboard the vessels as bycatch.

“We’re hopeful that we have come up with a good solution here. But these whales are really intelligent. They’re adaptive. And what works one season may not work the next,” said Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum, an industry trade association representing five companies with a fleet of 19 bottom trawlers that catch, process and freeze fish off Alaska.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

King salmon populations are dying, simultaneously affecting orcas and local Alaskan communities

March 2, 2024 — Tad Fujioka always had great problem-solving skills. After studying and working as an engineer, he left the field 14 years ago to become a troll fisherman based in Sitka, Alaska.

“If you’re good at solving problems in one environment, that translates directly to another environment,” he told ABC News, adding that there are other benefits to the job. “I love the freedom to follow my instincts, I don’t have to report to a boss, I love being out on the water in a beautiful country.”

Today he’s the chairman of the Seafood Producers Cooperative in Sitka, Alaska, and supports his family by troll fishing on his 31-foot boat, the Sakura. One of the most important types of fish he reels in is king salmon — the largest and most expensive species of salmon in the Pacific.

Read the full article at ABC News

Trawl catch of killer whales brings new scrutiny to federal science behind Alaska take levels

October 4, 2023 — Up to 19 fish-eating resident North Pacific killer whales can be accidentally killed annually by Alaska fishing fleets or other human activity without triggering a federal effort to reduce this toll.

This take number has received renewed scrutiny in the aftermath of a Sept. 21 NOAA Fisheries disclosure that 10 killer whales were incidentally caught this year by Bering Sea trawl vessels. One was released alive.

It represents a NOAA Fisheries determination of the toll that humans can take each year without impacting the optimum population of resident killer whales off Alaska. Some scientists say it is based on an outdated assessment, and is likely too high to protect smaller genetically distinct populations.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News