NOAA seeks comment on renewing logbook paperwork for Cook Inlet's federal salmon fishery

Federal regulators are moving to renew the paperwork that requires Cook Inlet drift gillnetters in federal waters to log when and where they set their nets and what they catch, and they're asking the public to weigh in.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed a notice Wednesday seeking comment on renewing approval of the paperwork. It's scheduled to publish in the Federal Register on Thursday, and comments are due Jan. 4, 2027.

The paperwork covers the drift fishery in Cook Inlet's federal waters, more than 3 miles from shore. The state manages fishing closer in. NOAA Fisheries took over the federal side in 2024 under Amendment 16 to comply with rulings from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for Alaska. In August, the Ninth Circuit upheld Amendment 16 against a challenge from the drift fleet.

Of 247 registered Federal Fishing Permits, 218 were used in federal waters in 2025, according to NOAA's 2026 environmental assessment. By preliminary figures, the fleet landed 434,711 salmon there, about 12% of the Upper Cook Inlet drift gillnet harvest, and grossed about $3.9 million. Ninety-four percent of that came from sockeye.

Here's what the paperwork asks.

Boat operators keep daily fishing logs with set times, GPS positions and counts of catch and bycatch. Processors report landings and production through NOAA's eLandings system. Fishermen and processors apply for federal permits, and drift boats mark their gillnet buoys with their permit numbers.

NOAA estimates a logsheet takes 15 minutes, a landing report 10 and marking a buoy 30. Altogether, it figures about 400 people and businesses spend 2,846 hours a year on the paperwork, at a cost to the public of $20,100. Only the number of respondents and the labor costs have changed since the last approval, the notice says.

Vessel monitoring systems, which track boats' locations, fall under a separate approval that this notice doesn't renew.