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: Alaska salmon catch swells to 29.5 million

July 16, 2026 — Alaska’s commercial salmon catch jumped from 21.2 million to 29.5 million for the seven days through July 14, as retail prices generally held, with 24% of the projected annual harvest now met.

Silver Bay Seafoods has adjusted its 2026 Bristol Bay sockeye price to $2 a pound for chilled, floated, bled fish, the Bristol Bay Fishermen’s Association said on Tuesday, July 14. The company will continue to evaluate the season’s financial results, with the final profit share to be calculated and reviewed by the fishermen’s board at the spring meeting, said Janis Harsila, business manager for the BBFA.

On July 15, Trident Seafoods announced a base price increase from $1.25 to $1.65 a pound, bringing its Tier 1 chilled price to $2.

Consumers found fresh fillets of red salmon on sale at Costco warehouses in Anchorage for $14.99 a pound, down $2 from a week earlier. Seafood managers at New Sagaya in Anchorage had Alaska red salmon fillets for $12.95 a pound, while 10th & M held firm at $16.95 a pound. Carrs-Safeway customers with a store card could purchase those fillets for $16.99 a pound, but the regular price was $38.99 a pound.

Read the full article at the 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

NOAA eyes potential changes to Alaska sea lion protections as Trump urges boosted seafood harvests

July 6, 2026 — Federal regulators plan to reevaluate fishing closure boundaries established to protect endangered Steller sea lions in Alaska, part of a national Trump administration push to cut regulation of U.S. commercial seafood harvests.

The Steller sea lion protections are among a series of rules that the administration is seeking to relax or change to carry out a mandate from President Donald Trump to increase catches, reduce regulation and ensure that the nation is “the world’s dominant seafood leader.”

The recommended changes were released on Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries service and are in response to Trump’s 2025 executive order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” They could affect oceans from New England and the Caribbean to the tropical Pacific and the Bering Sea.

Several months of public consultations resulted in a list of recommendations that “we believe will reduce burdens on domestic fishing, increase production, stabilize markets, improve access, and enhance economic profitability,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler said in a statement.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

ALASKA: Board of Fish to consider limiting pink and chum hatchery production and changes to trawl gear

March 17, 2026 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries is meeting Tuesday through Saturday in Anchorage at the Egan Civic and Convention Center to consider changes to statewide finfish fisheries. Board members are appointed by the governor. They consider changes to the state’s fish regulations after listening to opinions from Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game and the public.

Three proposals are seeking to limit hatchery production of chum and pink salmon in the state. There are about 30 salmon hatcheries, mostly in Southeast and Prince William Sound. Almost all of them are private nonprofits permitted by the state.

Read the full article at KFSK

Study: Southern Alaska orca diet shifts across foraging hotspots

March 11, 2026 — Killer whales in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords have a diverse, seasonally changing diet of salmon and groundfish, consumed across regional foraging hotspots, a new study shows.

This population of about 1,000 animals, with a growth rate estimated in 2014 at 3.4 percent, shifts from Chinook, chum, and coho salmon to smaller amounts of Pacific halibut, arrowtooth flounder, and sablefish, depending on where the orcas are hunting. The study was published recently in the journal Ecosphere.

An actual estimate of the number of fish these killer whales eat was not part of this study, said Hannah Myers, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and lead author of the study. Researchers found that the orcas consumed mostly Chinook salmon in one foraging hotspot, mostly chum salmon in another, and mostly coho salmon in the third, Myers said. Pacific halibut, arrowtooth flounder, and sablefish also showed up in fecal samples as important prey items.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Silver Bay Seafoods is stopping processing in Cordova, Alaska for remainder of 2026

March 4, 2026 — Sitka, Alaska, U.S.A.-based Silver Bay Seafoods recently announced the company would pause processing in Cordova for the remainder of 2026, citing low salmon forecasts.

“Silver Bay Seafoods will be buying salmon in all Prince William Sound [PWS] drift and seine fisheries in 2026, and we will continue to provide fleet services in Cordova,” Silver Bay Seafoods Chief Operating Officer Branson Spiers told the Cordova Times. “Given the low salmon forecasts in PWS, we’ve developed an operational plan that prioritizes fishermen opportunity and economics, with processing planned in Valdez and Seward.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska regulators forecast strong Prince William Sound pink salmon run for 2026

February 4, 2026 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is forecasting both a strong pink salmon harvest and a strong chum salmon harvest in the Prince William Sound this year, with both expected to be 14 percent above the recent 10-year average for even years.

The official forecast predicts a wild pink salmon harvest of 3.9 million for the Prince William Sound, which would fall below last year’s 5.9 million pink salmon harvested.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Prince William Sound commercial season valued below average at $90M

November 12, 2025 —  State fisheries officials are estimating the Prince William Sound commercial salmon harvests to be valued at $90.99 million this year, still 3% less than the 10-year average.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) season summary released on Oct. 31 said the near average value can largely be attributed to Eastern District hatchery pink salmon, Copper River District sockeye salmon, and Port Chalmers Subdistrict remote release hatchery chum salmon commercial fisheries – plus hatchery cost recovery chum and pink salmon fisheries.

A total of 410 drift gillnet, 27 set gillnet, and 216 purse seine commercial permit holders – including 177 primary and 39 secondary – fished in at least one fishing period, according to ADF&G.

The following was released by the Cordova Times

Exxon Valdez spill shaped history 36 years ago. What have we learned?

March 25, 2025 — Monday marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the largest ever spill in U.S. history at the time.

The nearly 1,000-foot namesake tanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of oil slammed into a reef off the coast of Alaska just after midnight on March 24, 1989 and unleashed a catastrophe never before seen in America.

Nearly 11 million gallons of oil spewed into the picturesque Prince William Sound and in the coming days photos of birds and other wildlife drenched in thick oil, struggling to survive, shocked the nation.

Here’s what to know about the disaster that inspired federal reforms, sparked debates over the risks of oil exploration and became a rallying cry for conservationists across the nation.

Read the full article at USA TODAY