Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Prince William Sound commercial salmon harvest valued at $49.6M

November 11, 2026 — Prince William Sound’s 2026 commercial salmon harvest of 7.7 million fish had an estimated value of $49.57 million – 45% less than the 10-year average, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The preliminary estimate released last week included the commercial and hatchery cost recovery. The 10-year average value for all five species of Pacific salmon for the years 2016 through 2025 was $90.63 million.

The preliminary 2026 harvest was composed of 4,760 Chinook, 763,000 sockeye, 406,000 coho, 5.4 million pink, and 1.13 million chum salmon. State biologists said the below-average value largely reflected below forecast sockeye, pink and chum salmon runs. A total of 382 drift gillnet, 24 set gillnet and 176 purse seine permit holders fished at least one fishing period in 2026.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

ALASKA: Fish & Game confirms pink and chum egg take cap for hatcheries

November 4, 2026 — Alaska hatchery operators have agreed to place a cap on the amount of eggs they can take from pink and chum salmon for the next five years. The Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Doug Vincent-Lang, announced the news at the Board of Fisheries’ work session on Oct. 28.

Every aquaculture association in Alaska signed on to the agreement, except for the Valdez Fisheries Development Association. But Vincent-Lang said at the work session that he won’t approve permit increases for any hatcheries for the duration of the moratorium, even if they didn’t sign on.

“I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware that this is signed and it’s in place, and we follow through on our commitment as a department,” Vincent-Lang said.

Read the full article at KMXT

California establishes two new marine protected areas, expands others

October 22, 2026 — The state of California has created two new marine protected areas and strengthened and expanded two more to conserve coastal waters in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase oil drilling off the coast.

“Our ocean is essential to who we are. It’s part of our DNA as Californians,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a release. “While Donald Trump attempts to roll back decades of environmental protections and open our shoreline to new oil drilling, we’re protecting more of our coast and ocean than ever before. In partnership with California tribes, we’re safeguarding coastal communities, marine life, and ways of life that depend on a healthy ocean.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

WASHINGTON: Fish & Game considers cap on pink and chum egg takes for Alaska hatcheries

October 22, 2026 — A fognak Lake sits in the middle of the forested expanse of Afognak Island, north of Kodiak. Normally it would be eerily quiet, but not one sunny day in late August. The Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association was conducting its annual egg take for the strain of sockeye that returns here.

The dozen or so technicians and volunteers gathered at the lake have been waiting for this day for weeks.

“It’s shaping up to be pretty sweet, except for the bugs,” said Peter Weinzierl, a technician with the aquaculture association. “Didn’t expect this many bugs.”

The team blasted pop music as technicians pulled skeins of eggs out of sockeye salmon and emptied them into plastic bowls. Taking eggs from wild fish is a way that aquaculture associations maintain genetic diversity in their broodstock and prevent domestication.

Read the full article at KMXT

King salmon runs are crashing. In Kodiak, a pioneering conservation project aims to save one

October 21, 2026 — The mountains had turned orange and yellow above Kodiak’s Pillar Creek hatchery as James ‘Hawk’ Turman waited at the hatchery gate on a September day.

“It smells a little bit right now, because you got a bunch of pink salmon out there dying in the river,” he said as he unlocked the gate. “I’m waiting for a bunch of rain to just wash them all down.”

Turman manages the Pillar Creek hatchery. Most of the time, it’s home to the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association’s sockeye and silver salmon operations. But something new is happening here. The aquaculture association is trying to rehabilitate a crashing king salmon run from the Karluk River, on the southwest side of the island.

Eggs collected from those wild salmon are now incubating at the hatchery. And although many support the project, some scientists worry it could do more harm than good.

Alaska’s king salmon runs are in trouble

The Karluk run is one of only two native king salmon runs on Kodiak Island, and it has deep cultural and historical significance for the Alutiiq people. But the run is in major trouble. Last year, only 93 kings returned to the Karluk River. The year before, it was just 76.

Across Alaska, king salmon populations have been returning in record low numbers. Turman said the Karluk project, which according to the aquaculture association is the first of its kind in the state, might be the start of something bigger.

“Our efforts are being used as kind of a test case for other stocks of concern around the state,” he said. “Someone had to finally kick the can off the bridge, and why not us?”

Read the full article at KMXT