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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.
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