Wild Fish Conservancy plans suit over Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Kodiak salmon fisheries

Wild Fish Conservancy has told the Alaska Department of Fish and Game it intends to sue over sport and commercial salmon management in the Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Kodiak areas, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act, the department said Thursday. No lawsuit has been filed. The notice letter gives 60 days' notice, and the department said it is still reviewing it.

The letter covers commercial salmon fisheries in the Alaska Peninsula and Chignik management areas and commercial and sport salmon fisheries in the Kodiak Management Area. The Washington-based conservancy says those fisheries harvest threatened and endangered Chinook from the Puget Sound and Columbia River basins without federal oversight.

The letter also states an intent to sue NOAA Fisheries and the Department of Commerce under the Endangered Species Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. It petitions the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries and the Department of Commerce for new or amended management plans covering commercial salmon fisheries in federal waters of the Alaska Peninsula area and sport salmon fisheries in federal waters of the Kodiak Management Area.

The conservancy cites a February 2026 ADF&G genetic study estimating that 86.4% of Chinook caught in South Alaska Peninsula commercial fisheries in 2024 (6,293 of 7,283 fish) and 88.4% in 2025 (15,314 of 17,327) came from outside Alaska. The study does not separate out protected runs.

"We're taking this action because conservation responsibility cannot stop at political borders," Executive Director Emma Helverson said in the group's Oct. 28 announcement.

The group previously sued over the Southeast Alaska troll fishery and petitioned to list all Gulf of Alaska Chinook as threatened or endangered. An appeals court found that shutting down the troll fishery was not justified, and the National Marine Fisheries Service determined the listings were not warranted, according to ADF&G. That earlier suit challenged the federal biological opinion, the document that lets Southeast fisheries continue when protected fish are present. Without that coverage, department staff said, few Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries could be conducted by the state.

"The WFC intent letter is wide ranging--involving salmon stocks from the Yukon to Oregon, 3 management entities, 3 fishing areas, 3 federal laws, 2 lawsuits, and 1 petition. It's a lot to unpack," said Dani Evenson, an ADF&G policy advisor.

"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 in the department's release.