Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Mediocre Bristol Bay catch offset by soaring sockeye prices

August 31, 2026 — This summer’s Bristol Bay sockeye season concluded with a total catch of 29.3 million to 29.4 million fish as reported at press time, short of the government’s allowable harvest of 32.26 million. The total run reached 44.7 million fish, exceeding the forecast of 44.05 million; although this was 7 million fish above the seasonal average dating back to1963, it was well below the averages for the last decade and especially the record-run filled last five years.

Within these overall numbers, great variation in forecast and harvest results were evident among the reporting districts.

The two “Ns”, Nushagak and Naknek, were well down from the heady highs of recent years. Nushagak’s late opening (June 27) was set to allow a better upriver escapement of Nushagak king salmon, as the Nushagak kings were listed as a “stock of concern” in 2022 owing to declines. But as luck would have it, the sockeye run started early this year; Nushagak’s peak (mid-point) was July 1, meaning many fish came through before the fishery started. And this late opening no doubt played a role in the total catch (a bit over 9 million fish) falling well below the harvest forecast of 14 million. Naknek, meanwhile, saw its smallest run since 1998. However, other districts fared much better.

And at least some fishermen felt the lower catch this year was anticipated, and then higher prices saved the day.

“I was happy with this season’s catch, given the low return,” noted Peter Oswald, skipper of the Williwa, fishing Nushagak and then the Naknek-Kvichak. “A lot of guys were disappointed with their catches, but the lower catch allowed us to focus on catching the highest-quality fish, and the crew did well.

“Prices started out really strong and then got even stronger with the midseason price adjustment,” Oswald added.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Record-breaking pink run surges into Sitka

August 26, 2026 — Sitka purse seiners broke the area’s single-day pink salmon harvest record twice this month, as a strong late run and increased fishing effort turned around what had initially looked like a difficult season.

According to an Aug. 20 report from Raven Radio, seiners in District 13 harvested 1.23 million pink salmon on Aug. 6, surpassing the previous single-day record of roughly 950,000 fish set in 2017.

Four days later, the fleet broke the record again, harvesting 1.28 million pink salmon on Aug. 10.

“We’ve just been seeing really strong harvests of pink salmon and really strong escapements, which was kind of unusual for an even year, and fairly unusual, given what’s been going on with pink salmon in the rest of the Gulf of Alaska,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Sitka area management biologist Aaron Dupuis told KCAW. “So it’s pretty special to have a good pink run in the Sitka area this year.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: After historic crash, Yukon River’s iconic king salmon run shows early signs of rebound

August 18, 2026 — For the past few years, smokehouses in the Yukon River village of Anvik have sat empty.

After salmon populations crashed, dozens of Alaska Native communities along the river faced a stark new reality, one without the fish that fed families and sustained Yup’ik and Athabascan traditions for generations.

This summer, though, smoke once again wafted through Anvik, on the middle Yukon some 350 miles west of Anchorage.

The river’s two main species, chinook and chum, have recorded a surprising uptick in numbers. And in spite of state regulations that bar fishing for chinook, Anvik’s fishermen have caught dozens of the fish this year, plus even more salmon of other species — meaning that there are enough to share with elders, hang in smokehouses and store in freezers.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen the smokehouses smoking in five years,” said Robert Walker, former chief of the Anvik Tribal Council. “I was just amazed. People are so happy.”

The returning fish could represent a remarkable rebound for one of Alaska’s most iconic and culturally important salmon runs, though scientists caution that numbers are still relatively low and that more data are needed before they can be confident about a meaningful turnaround.

The harvest in Anvik, announced by Walker on a public teleconference with fishery managers and local leaders in July, also has inflamed a long-running political debate over fishery closures and government policies aimed at rebuilding the runs.

In 2024, Alaska state officials agreed with the Canadian government to a seven-year ban on harvesting chinook along the Yukon, which flows from northwest Canada more than 2,000 miles through Alaska to the Bering Sea.

Even though many Alaska Native leaders generally agreed about the need to limit fishing, they also criticized Alaska’s government for not formally including tribal governments in the decision-making process.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

ALASKA: Feds take back management of Kuskokwim River salmon with emergency coho closure

August 13, 2026 — Federal fisheries managers have announced an emergency closure for the harvest of silver salmon on the Kuskokwim River and its tributaries within federal refuge boundaries.

The closure goes into effect at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12 and is a continuation of a state closure already in place.

Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge Manager Spencer Rearden said that this year’s run of silver salmon, also called coho, is tracking similar to 2022, when estimated returns were the lowest in more than two decades.

“Fifty percent of the run has already passed Bethel now, and could the numbers improve with some late runs? Absolutely. We want to open the river, but until the fish say we can, we’re closed at this moment,” Rearden said.

As of Aug. 10, an estimated 96,000 silvers had passed the Kuskokwim River sonar, just downriver from Kwethluk, Rearden said. On the same day in 2022, that number was around 86,000.

Read the full article at KYUK

CALIFORNIA: As commercial salmon fishing resumes in California, the industry faces a murky outlook

August 10, 2026 — When he stares out from the docks on the Feather River, James Stone—a 46-year-old lifelong fisherman—feels a pang of concern.

Fishing for chinook salmon, also called king salmon, had been called off completely for California’s commercial fishermen since 2023 and nearly as long for recreational anglers. While the fishery is open again this year, and the federal government recently announced emergency funding for those hit hardest by the closure, the consequences of multiple canceled fishing seasons continues to have ripple effects that are hard to fully account for.

“We’re losing marinas. We’re losing tackle stores. We’re losing bait shops. We’re also losing infrastructure out on the ocean at the ports for gas pumps … everything’s going away because salmon is the driver,” Stone, who is based in Yuba City and serves as the board president of the NorCal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association, told Inside Climate News.

Without plentiful chinook salmon to support local fisheries, “people won’t always spend the money for other species or for other recreational activities,” Stone said. “Salmon is what drives the fishing industry.”

Fishing guides and anglers with the association, which has 4,000 members and represents more than 500 businesses, are among many who have been hurting for years as the fish dwindles in California.

Cameron Smith, a commercial fisherman for over 20 years, said people who make their living fishing in California have tried to turn to other species—like Dungeness crab and cod—to make ends meet. But it hasn’t been enough amid skyrocketing fuel costs and high inflation, said the 70-year-old captain based in Benicia.

“They can’t pivot. There’s nothing to pivot to,” Smith said.

Fishers with commercial licenses to catch other species are managing better than others, he said, but just barely.

California’s salmon industry spurs $1.4 billion in economic activity and provides 23,000 jobs in a normal season, according to the Golden State Salmon Association, a nonprofit. The industry also contributes about $700 million to the Oregon economy and supports more than 10,000 jobs there.

On June 17, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced $123.6 million in disaster funding for several fishing industries in need of resources. That includes $21.3 million for Sacramento River fall chinook and Klamath River fall chinook ocean and inland salmon fisheries, Michael Milstein, a spokesman for NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region, said in an email.

Salmon fisheries in California were allocated close to the same amount, roughly $20 million, in 2024 as part of previous disaster funding.

Most importantly, salmon is once again central to California’s fishing economy after federal managers voted in April to allow the commercial and recreational salmon fishery to resume this year. In 2025, they granted a limited return for recreational fishermen, but Stone said about 95 percent of the recreational inland fishery remained closed in 2025 based on the areas where it was allowed. The first-ever salmon fishing pause in California took place in 2008, with a limited fishing season opening again two years later.

Still, people who rely on California’s salmon for their living continue to face economic stress.

While this year’s revived salmon fishing season in the state has already begun, commercial and recreational fishers are subject to strict limits on the size and number of fish they can catch.

ALASKA: Bristol Bay honors 75th anniversary of the end of commercial sailboat fishery

July 29, 2026 — Diesel-powered boats fish Bristol Bay’s waters by the hundreds, but it wasn’t always that way.

Motorized fishing vessels were once banned in Bristol Bay. And in their place, sailboats dominated the commercial fishery until the early 50s. The late Harvey Samuelson was one fisherman who sailed for salmon. His quotations used in this story are from a 2005 interview that aired on KDLG in a Bristol Bay oral history program called “Our Story.”

“We didn’t have no reels or anything like that,” Samuelson told KDLG at the time. “It was all manhandling wooden corks – it’d get awful heavy. Now you’ve got plastic floats, corks.”

Samuelson said without a motorized vessel, the job was not easy.

“Sailing was a lot of fun,” he said. “But to make a living in a sailboat was sort of tough.”

Tim Troll is the creator of “Our Story,” who interviewed Samuelson. He’s also director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust and author of the book, Sailing for Salmon. The commercial sockeye fishery used to be federally managed, and Troll says the US Fish & Wildlife Service finally allowed power boats to fish in 1951.

Read the full article at Alaska Pubic Media

ALASKA: Alaska’s House, Congressional Delegation throw weight behind defense of troll lawsuit

March 13, 2023 — Alaska’s Congressional Delegation has filed an amicus brief, in a federal lawsuit that threatens to shut down salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska this summer.

The brief is meant to be friendly guidance for the court, but at least one of Alaska’s senators is not feeling especially friendly about the possible threat to an Alaskan way of life.

The amicus brief from Alaska’s Congressional Delegation comes just as some major players have stepped up in support of trollers, including the two largest hatcheries in Southeast Alaska, and the full House of Representatives.

Lawyers for Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, and Representative Mary Peltola, filed the brief on March 6 in the US District Court of Western Washington. The lawsuit was brought three years ago by the Seattle-based Wild Fish Conservancy against the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Conservancy argues that Southeast salmon trollers in Alaska intercept king salmon crucial to the survival of an endangered population of killer whales in Puget Sound, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The court is now considering whether or not to vacate the permit that allows the summer and winter troll fisheries in Alaska to operate, until the violation has been remedied.

An amicus brief doesn’t argue either side of the case, but is more like friendly advice to the court. During a recent visit to Wrangell, however, Sen. Dan Sullivan was not feeling very amicable toward the Wild Fish Conservancy.

“This lawsuit is ridiculous,” he said. “Think about what they’re trying to do: shut down this fishery. Estimates are that could impact Southeast by $100 million for orca problems in Puget Sound. They’re not asking for the fishery in Puget Sound to be shut down. They’re not asking about the pollution in Puget Sound. They’re looking at shutting down our fishery here. Idiotic — and an abuse of the Endangered Species Act.”

Read the full article at at KCAW

WASHINGTON: Multiple tribal fishery disasters declared in Washington, West Coast tribes awarded $17 million

September 13, 2022 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced nearly $17.5 million will be used to address fishery disasters that occurred in multiple tribal salmon fisheries on the West Coast from 2014 to 2019, including Washington.

“Sustainable and resilient fisheries play a vital role in helping tribal communities put food on the table and in supporting economic well-being,” said Raimondo. “It’s our hope that this disaster declaration will help the affected tribes recover from these disasters and increase their ability to combat future challenges.”

Read the full article at MyNorthwest

PFMC: Salmon Preseason Report II, including Public Hearings Schedule

March 24, 2016 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

Notice of Availability; Reminder Notice of Public Hearings

Preseason Report II:  Proposed Alternatives and Environmental Assessment Part 2 for 2016 Ocean Salmon Fishery Regulations

The document Preseason Report II: Proposed Alternatives and Environmental Assessment Part 2 for 2016 Ocean Salmon Fishery Regulations; Regulation Identifier Number 0648-BF56 has been posted to the Council’s website. Please visit the 2016 Preseason Report II webpage to view and download the document. 

Public Comment Opportunities on the Proposed Management Alternatives

The Council solicits public comments on the proposed management Alternatives in preparation for adopting final management recommendations at its April meeting. Oral and written comments on the proposed management Alternatives may be presented at the public hearings listed below (you may also see the “Salmon Public Hearings” notice on our website):

Monday, March 28, 2016, 7 pm

 

Monday, March 28, 2016, 7 pm

 

Tuesday, March 29, 2016, 7 pm

Chateau Westport

Beach Room

710 W Hancock

Westport, WA 98595

360-268-9101

Driving Directions

 

Red Lion Hotel

South Umpqua Room

1313 N Bayshore Drive

Coos Bay, OR 97420

541-267-4141

Driving Directions

 

Motel 6

Convention Room

400 S. Main St.

Fort Bragg, CA 95437

707-964-4761

Driving Directions

Additional comment will be accepted during the April Council meeting. Written comments received at the Council office by 11:59 PM, Sunday, April 3, 2016 will be copied and distributed to all Council members.

For further information regarding the salmon management documents, please contact: Mr. Mike Burner at 503-820-2414 or toll free 1-866-806-7204, ext. 414.