Conservation group plans to sue over Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak salmon fisheries

Wild Fish Conservancy, a Washington-based conservation group, has told the state it plans to sue over salmon fishing in the Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Kodiak areas. It says those fisheries catch king salmon from Puget Sound and Columbia River runs protected under the Endangered Species Act, without federal oversight.

The group's notice letter, required 60 days before a suit under the act, covers commercial salmon fishing in all three areas and sport fishing around Kodiak. No lawsuit has been filed.

The group plans to sue NOAA Fisheries and the Commerce Department too, and it is petitioning federal fishery managers for new or amended management plans covering commercial salmon fishing in federal waters off the Alaska Peninsula and sport fishing in federal waters off Kodiak.

The letter cites a Fish and Game genetic study from February that estimated about 86% of the kings caught in South Alaska Peninsula commercial fisheries in 2024, and 88% in 2025, came from outside Alaska. The study doesn't break out how many came from the protected runs.

"We're taking this action because conservation responsibility cannot stop at political borders," Executive Director Emma Helverson said in the group's announcement.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said Thursday that it is reviewing the letter. "We do not take such unfounded allegations lightly. As we did with the previous unjustified actions by this group, we will defend Alaska's fisheries," Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said.

The conservancy previously sued over the Southeast Alaska troll fishery. A federal judge found the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the Endangered Species Act and federal environmental law in approving it. In 2024, an appeals court overturned the judge's order that would have shut the fishery down.

The group also petitioned to list Gulf of Alaska kings as threatened or endangered, which the fisheries service found wasn't warranted, according to the department.