New bill from Murkowski would let NOAA identify fish from the DNA they leave in the water

Fish shed genetic traces everywhere they go — skin cells, scales, waste — and scientists can now scoop up a water sample and read that "environmental DNA" to tell what's swimming nearby. A bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Sheldon Whitehouse would put that tool to work filling the gaps in federal fish surveys, which can't cover every stock or reach every corner of the ocean.

The Fisheries Science Modernization Act would direct NOAA to start collecting eDNA samples during the surveys it already runs, launch a pilot program using the technique for stock assessments, and build the method into federal fisheries research nationwide. The idea is to add to traditional surveys, not replace them — a way to gather data where cost or a shortage of survey vessels leaves holes.

Those holes are real, and one Alaska stock shows exactly the kind the bill targets. At a North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, stock assessment scientist Katie Palof described Aleutian Islands golden king crab as "the only stock that we have that we do not have survey information" for. Managers still assess it, but apply a 25% buffer below the overfishing limit to account for the uncertainty — the biggest piece of which is that missing survey data.

Alaska senators tied the measure to a warming ocean. Sullivan, a co-sponsor, said "changing ocean conditions are impacting our subsistence, recreational, and commercially important species and the communities that depend on them." Murkowski framed it as a matter of getting the science right: "Without accurate stock assessments, we cannot make the informed, science-based management decisions needed to ensure our fisheries remain sustainable."

Alaska fishing groups backed the bill, with a catch. Linda Behnken of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association called eDNA "a promising new tool." But Andrea Keikkala of United Catcher Boats urged Congress to pay for the new work "without reducing investment in existing stock assessments, fishery-independent surveys, cooperative research, observer programs" — the traditional surveys the new tool is meant to supplement, not starve.