Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Alaska Department of Fish & GameClear

Heidi Hedberg “That started October 1st for January cohort. I still have the same number of staff. I still have a better IT system, but I am— we're not on staff yet. So there's significant concerns around supporting the IT modernization efforts.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “And so we have had to pivot in the last year to address those changes.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “There's been a lot of work in that space, and then we have a strong team that is working it. But we are just— it's a boat that's just getting stood up and moving forward.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “Budget neutrality language was also implemented, and that means that we need to ensure that the cost of care is appropriate, which means we need to make changes within our Medicaid program.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “I would say the SNAP/Medicaid changes, our congressional delegation wrote in to the bill to give us more time. But we have a lot of work to reduce our payment error rate to get it below 6% by the end of this calendar year, and we're sitting at 20%. Otherwise, the new administration administration, it's a $45 million price tag to pay for those benefits. So like the workflow, the work changes have to happen this year. This year is critical for those changes.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “Last year there was a significant change through HR1 that changed Medicaid and SNAP and budget neutrality.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

Heidi Hedberg “As I mentioned earlier, Medicaid, there is for our expansion population, which is about 47,000 Alaskans, we need to renew their eligibility every 6 months.”

xit Interviews: What Alaska's Commissioners Want the Next Governor to Know - October 15, 2026 · Oct 20, 2026

“We return halibut to sea, as quickly as possible with a minimum of injury, and we focus on trying to return larger halibut that have a higher viability to sea quickly.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“This EFP does not increase bycatch limits. This EFP does not create new changes or new modifications to regulations other than allowing trawl catcher processors under this limited test to donate halibut. It doesn't change camera requirements, doesn't change monitoring requirements, and it's done in compliance and consistency with the Observer Program.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“we would be focusing just on those halibut that we can hold and retain after they've gone through that full and complete sampling process, and we've basically undertaken all reasonable steps to try and minimize halibut bycatch and mortality.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Therese Vicente

“it's not that we're not in favor of adaptive measures, it's that they shouldn't replace and remove static closures to reduce bycatch and protect critical areas for salmon and other species.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“The primary question to be answered in this kind of analysis is whether the magnitude and location of Atka mackerel removals in these locations is significant enough to cause demographic consequences to the current level of Steller sea lion population numbers in a small portion of the Aleutian Islands.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“in the United States, you have 1 in every 8 people are food insecure, but in Alaska, it's 1 in every 6. Weeks, and it's 1 in every 5 children who are experiencing hunger. Um, disproportionately this affects, um, people in rural communities, coastal Alaska, uh, particularly Western Alaska.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Angel Drobnica “Static closure areas are the opposite of adaptive management, and they do not recognize changing ecosystems, updated climate events and changing fishery practices and dynamics. Periodic evaluation is therefore critical.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“Ocean Conservancy urges that the council take no action towards initiating a reevaluation of stellar sea lion protection boundaries. The potential risks of reducing these long-standing protections are substantial while the demonstrated benefits to the associated fisheries are limited at best.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Hannah Lindhoff

“So we, we are trying to make sure that we serve Western Alaska communities when we distribute halibut. We have a program now where we have funding to purchase seafood. And so I think last year we did over 400,000 pounds of donations throughout Alaska, most of which was not from the PSC program, and almost none of which was halibut because halibut is expensive”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“Ocean Conservancy urges the Council to take no action to reevaluate the current Steller sea lion protection areas.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“We would be looking at allowing donations of up to 5,000 net pounds from the Northern Glacier only, and only when she's participating in that Bering Sea Yellowfin Sole, TLAS, fishery.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Hannah Lindhoff

“our plan to make sure that all donated halibut comes back to Alaska communities from now on because of the health benefits of halibut, particularly its high vitamin D content, which is so important in our northern climate.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Angel Drobnica “Groundfish Forum is here today to request that the council prioritize review and modification of Stellar Sea Lion closure areas by initiating a targeted action on 8 identified closure locations in the Aleutian Islands.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“regulations established by Canada and the United States require that halibut that are caught by trawl vessels must must be returned to sea, and it's been that way for decades.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Angel Drobnica “our request is intended to be deliberately narrow in focus. And scope to accommodate staff and resource limitations. We understand and respect the concerns on limitations, but we also strongly believe this action would provide multiple fishery benefits”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

“It's only for those halibut that end up after deck sorting, after observer sampling, and that are food grade and are of a size that is allowable for us to process and provide, and that can be useful donations for SeaShare. It also comes at a cost.”

NPFMC 280 Day 1 - October 8, 2026 · Oct 8, 2026

Randy Bates “It's, it's something that we haven't played with very much in the regulatory world, but it's something that has a lot of potential to streamline permitting, make it easier to get your permit, make it easier to get you active in the field.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “Why hasn't this particular person reviewed this? What's the hangup here? We have a lot of ability to get in and participate now, so it's really exciting.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “We found a better way of doing business where a simple drafting of regulations sets out the rules by which you operate. You just simply have to toggle online that you need this coverage. You're good to go. It's an overnight permit. It's called permit by rule.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “The governor wants us to meet or beat the federal timelines. And for the first time in my life, federal timelines may be moving forward and actually be a little bit more predictable timeline.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “Now they've reempowered this FAST-41 group, and we just need to make it permanent. We need to make it stick so that it has longevity and withstands the swing of the next administration's pendulum.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “The state has an under-that-MOU ability to suggest, recommend how projects get on the dashboard. So if you're looking at a big project, a lot of timelines, a lot of federal opposition, take a close look at it. And, and I, I really mean on the back end, the state has the ability under the MOU to directly ask the specifics of the project, not when is this going to get done, 9 months, okay, we hope so.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “With President Trump, Administrator Zeldin, Regional Administrator Emma Pocan, Governor Dunleavy, this cabinet, and myself, this is the most opportune time that I've ever seen in Alaska. I've never seen the federal-state alignment the way it is.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “FAST-41 is a wonderful opportunity to align, expedite, and coordinate our permits.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “That's really to open the door to the state participating, encouraging projects to get on the dashboard, and then participating with the federal agencies for those projects that are on the dashboard to ensure that the state voice is heard and that the timelines work for the state, for the project, and to get the work done.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “At DEC, we looked at this as a real opportunity for our agency to do a deep dive, a deep scrub, a scour of our regulations and see if we can't find a way to identify ways to improve the timeliness, the predictability, whether there's duplication, whether there's holes in our regulations.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “We have some of our cycle times literally down to less than a week. We have some of them down to, you know, 32 days, and 30 of that is a public notice period.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “It's an opportunity to revisit things wholesale and look at the whole record, you know, what's on there that's just kind of been on there for a long time and how do we reimagine it.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Randy Bates “I can guarantee you, between Deputy Commissioner Kieneman and myself, we will be looking at the comments that you submitted, seeing if there's ways we can improve our processes regulatorily through the administrative order.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

John Crowther “The governor is intensely focused on permitting efficiency, on adopting new technology, being more adaptive, and keeping pace with the federal opportunity we have.”

11-3-25 RDC Breakfast Forum - A Conversation with Alaska's Regulatory Agency Commissioners

Matt Albert

“Keeping them in the water as much as we can, and rubber landing nets are real nice on them. They don't take the slime off as bad and they're gentle.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“you'll notice on both of these rods I'm using a steel leader. Pike have sharp teeth, they'll easily cut through either braided or monofilament line. They're real important for keeping your lures attached.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“Typically, the larger a pike is, the more willing, the more often they'll use more open water with less cover, because once they get to be in the 10-pound, 30-inch size range, they're pretty safe from other predators. Smaller pike tend to stick closer to the shoreline and in heavier cover.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“even though I'm using barbless hooks because we're catch and releasing fish today, um, having a pair of pliers is still really helpful with their bony mouths. Even barbless hooks don't always want to come out real easily. The lures we're using today have all had single hooks. I find it's easier to release fish with them and I do less damage to fish's mouths.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“Broadly, you can define the lures as either a surface lure or subsurface. We're going to talk about the subsurface lures first. Most people think of using a red and white spoon, or a real common pike fishing lure is a weedless spoon.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“Pike definitely orient towards structure, be it the shoreline or sunken trees or weed beds or lily pads. They like having some cover because they're primarily an ambush predator. Generally, they're sitting and waiting or moving really slowly, hunting for food.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“For anglers looking to improve their chances at catching large pike. Getting away from the road system into more remote areas is going to increase your chances to find large fish. Minto Flats is a great pike fishery. It has almost unlimited opportunity.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“In interior Alaska, there's reasonable opportunity in some fisheries to catch fish that are over 40 inches long and weigh over 20 pounds. That could be over 20 years old.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“Most commonly, folks will be using a spinning rod and reel. Generally, rods that are 6 to 8.5 feet long work just fine. Personally, I prefer to use a baitcaster.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“Northern pike are a great sport fish because of their aggressive strikes and the V-wakes that they make as they're following lures in.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026

Matt Albert

“a lot of scales grab fish by their jaws or by their snout or by their gills. And for these bigger fish especially, that can cause some internal damage as the weight of the fish is pulling on it. So a safer way that's easier on the fish is to keep them in the net bag. And this is where having a rubber net or a knotless mesh net is, uh, really beneficial.”

Alaska Fish & Game: How to Fish for Northern Pike · Jul 1, 2026