Alaska AG voids contested Area M salmon regulations after ethics challenge

Alaska's acting attorney general has disapproved five contested Area M commercial salmon regulations after fishing groups and local governments challenged the Board of Fisheries process that produced them, according to a Wednesday release from the Aleutians East Borough.

The acting attorney general issued a corrective action order May 19 under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. The attorney general disapproved all five regulations in a May 20 letter to the lieutenant governor.

The Aleutians East Borough, the Native Village of Unga, Area M Seiners Association and Concerned Area M Fishermen sued the state April 3 in Anchorage Superior Court. The lawsuit alleged that board members with undisclosed conflicts of interest cast deciding votes on the regulations during the Board of Fisheries' February 2026 Area M proceedings. The plaintiffs said they are dismissing the lawsuit because the state granted the relief they sought through its ethics enforcement process.

Plaintiffs were represented by Taylor Rose Thompson of the Law Offices of Taylor Thompson in Anchorage and Beth Baldwin and Eleanor Bohn of Ziontz Chestnut LLP in Seattle.

The source material does not identify which board members had conflicts of interest or specify the nature of those conflicts. The attorney general's decision to void regulations through the ethics act indicates the violations warranted formal corrective action. Board members must disclose conflicts and recuse themselves from votes where they have personal or financial interests.

The decision voids regulations tied to Board of Fisheries Proposals 126, 127, 141, 147 and 148 before several were set to take effect in June 2026. The rules would have restricted fishing time and area for South Alaska Peninsula purse seine and gillnet gear. They would have added closures tied to chinook catch thresholds. They would have changed maximum net depths for both gear types.

The regulations cannot be filed or take effect unless the Board of Fisheries readopts them through a new process, according to the release.

Area M covers South Alaska Peninsula salmon fisheries. It has been at the center of disputes over chum and chinook salmon bound for Western Alaska rivers. Area M fishermen and regional leaders have argued that the challenged rules would have damaged local fishing communities while weakening a voluntary adaptive management program developed with state biologists.

The release says Area M fishermen reduced average June chum harvest by 50 percent compared with the five-year average before the program. It says the seine fleet voluntarily stood down an average of 291 hours per season. The drift fleet joined the program in 2025 with 554 hours of stand-down time across 28 vessels.