Alaska Department of Fish & Game

Sand Point salmon fishery opens Wednesday for 109 hours, the longest window of the string

Sand Point's salmon fishery opens for about 109 more hours this week, shaped by a strategy that protects immature salmon in the Shumagin Islands.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Follows: Sand Point fishermen get 61 hours on the water — in a fishery the rest of Alaska watches closely

A Situk River king salmon closure is extended as returns fall short

A Situk River fishing closure protecting weak king runs is extended through Aug. 31 — one of several 2026 restrictions on a key Yakutat subsistence river.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Aug 13

Follows: Situk River's Nine Mile Bridge stretch stays closed to all fishing through Aug. 31

A Kenai hunter education class opens for sign-ups this fall

Alaska Fish and Game is offering a hunter education class in Kenai this fall through its women-focused "Becoming an Outdoors-Woman" program, open to men too.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Juneau's king crab fishery closes Monday after a three-crab season

Juneau's personal use king crab season closes Monday at 4 p.m. after a strong stock assessment allowed a three-crab limit instead of last winter's one-crab opening.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kodiak salmon fishing extended again, running through Wednesday evening

Kodiak boats get a second 48-hour extension, running through 6 pm Wednesday. The Chinook nonretention rule stays in place across the whole area.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Teller waits until 2027 for results of tank site testing on Grantley Harbor

Teller won't have results until 2027 from testing at a shoreline tank site where the community suspects petroleum leaked into soil near Grantley Harbor.

by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Fairbanks would keep its 11.2 million gallon Tanana discharge cap

Fairbanks' wastewater plant would keep its 11.2 million gallon daily discharge cap on the Tanana, unchanged since 2022. It currently uses less than half.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Prince William Sound's seine fishery stays closed, its next opening tied to hatchery returns

Prince William Sound's purse seine fishery stays closed with no opening set. Its next opening now depends on salmon returns to the hatcheries, not a fixed date.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A miner wants to run a cable across the Koyukuk and camp on its bank for five years

The public can comment through Sept. 2 on a plan for a supply cable across the Middle Fork Koyukuk River and a six-person mining camp on its bank for 5 years.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A Fortymile caribou hunt closed after just 48 hours as the quota filled fast

A Fortymile caribou hunt near the Steese Highway closed after just 48 hours as its quota filled fast, drawing a complaint over the short window.

by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

One goat closes the Point Windham goat hunt for the year

A single goat filled the quota for Southeast Alaska's Point Windham zone, closing it to hunters for the year — one of several goat closures this summer.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Copper River gillnetters get a 12-hour opener Monday, half the last period

Copper River and Bering River gillnetters get 12 hours Monday, half of last week's opener, as Fish and Game tries to keep building early salmon escapement.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

NOAA pays $1.57 million for samples from subsistence-harvested seals

NOAA is paying $1.57 million for samples from seals Alaska Native hunters take for food. The science depends on hunters volunteering what they harvested.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Yakutat opened a short sockeye gillnet fishery, with kings still off-limits

Yakutat opened a short sockeye gillnet fishery in mid-August, but king salmon stayed off-limits as the Situk River's king run keeps declining.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A second Southeast area hits its lingcod limit in two weeks

For the second time in two weeks, Southeast longliners must start throwing lingcod back as another area hits its seasonal limit. The state calls it routine.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

If you pulled an Upper Cook Inlet dipnet permit, you have until Aug. 31 to file, even if you never fished

Pulled an Upper Cook Inlet dipnet permit? File your harvest report by Aug. 31, even if you never fished, or you lose personal-use fishing privileges next year.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Catch a pike in an Anchorage lake and you have to kill it

Catch a northern pike in an Anchorage lake and you have to kill it. They are invasive south of the Alaska Range and they eat salmon and trout.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Silvers are slow in Resurrection Bay, but the best coho fishing is just outside it

Silvers are slow in Resurrection Bay with few coho past the weir, but the best coho fishing is just outside it toward Montague Island and Harris Bay.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Subsistence coho fishing closes on the middle and upper Kuskokwim

Subsistence coho fishing closes Friday on the middle Kuskokwim and a week later upriver. Sonar counts are running about a third below average for the date.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Alaska managers open some salmon fisheries and close others as runs diverge

Alaska fishery managers opened some salmon fisheries and closed others the same week, each call turning on how the fish are running in that particular place.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Sand Point salmon fishing extended 48 hours through Sunday night

Sand Point boats get 48 more hours of salmon fishing, through 9 pm Sunday. The state published no catch or escapement figures explaining why.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Kotzebue chum fishermen got a second buyer for the season's last week

Kotzebue chum fishermen had two buyers for the season's final six openings, after weeks with one. The regulatory season closes Aug. 31.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Follows: Kotzebue chum fishermen get a better price but have just one buyer left

King salmon fishing is over for the year in the Upper Copper River drainages

King salmon fishing in the Upper Copper River drainages is done for 2026. Permit holders must report online by Aug. 31 even if they never fished.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Salmon dying off in Prince of Wales drainages amid low, warm water

Salmon are dying off in several Prince of Wales Island streams, where low, warm water from drought has killed fish and stranded survivors in shrinking pools.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A declining Fortymile caribou herd, short hunts, and a dispute over timing

A declining Fortymile caribou herd has forced short, tightly capped hunts. Tribes say the state's timing this year cut into the federal subsistence priority.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Bristol Bay 2027 sockeye forecast to fall below 50 million, ending an 11-year run

Bristol Bay's sockeye run is forecast at 44.2 million for 2027, which would end an eleven-year streak above 50 million. The state still grades that strong.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Woman injured by brown bear sow near Bells Flats in Kodiak

A woman was hurt by a brown bear sow while walking her dog near Bells Flats on Kodiak, but her dog's barking distracted the bear long enough for her to escape.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A second person has been hurt in an Anchorage otter attack in three weeks

A second Anchorage resident in three weeks has been hurt by a river otter, and Fish and Game is telling paddleboarders and dog walkers to carry bear spray.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Fish and Game plans to cut about 50 of its own rules by year's end

Alaska Fish and Game plans to cut about 50 of its own regulations under a Dunleavy order that supporters call streamlining and critics call gutting oversight.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Yukon coho are running far below normal, and even a strong chum year likely won't reopen fishing

Yukon River coho are running far below normal as their peak season opens, and even a strong fall chum year likely won't reopen subsistence fishing.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Sockeye are running so strong in Bristol Bay that anglers can now keep twice as many

Sockeye are running so strong in Bristol Bay's Wood River and Nushagak drainages that the state has doubled the daily bag limit to 10 fish through year's end.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet king fishing reopens north of Bluff Point at one fish a day

King fishing reopened north of Bluff Point on Aug. 15, one fish a day through Sept. 15. Every Cook Inlet king run was forecast under its escapement goal.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Pink salmon swamp Kodiak road-system rivers, crowding out sockeye and coho

Pink salmon are crowding Kodiak road-system rivers in unusual numbers, making sockeye and coho harder for anglers to find this week.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Where to watch spawning salmon around Ketchikan this month

Want to watch Fish, it's like watching paint dry but consequences… Cool ones!

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A weak sockeye return has managers ready to open a Juneau-area fishery on six hours' notice

A weak Speel Lake sockeye return near Juneau has managers ready to open a terminal fishery on six hours' notice. Escapement is below its goal range.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

Follows: A Petersburg-area drift gillnet fishery opens for about 40 hours

Kodiak fights landfill bears with a second fence and a look at composting

Bears keep breaking into Kodiak's landfill, so the borough is fighting back two ways: a fence to keep them out and composting to cut the waste that draws them.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 6

Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest, with one river closed without even a count

Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest on the Susitna and Little Susitna after four weak coho years — one river closed without a count, its weir washed out.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Southeast gillnetters ride a strong pink run, with the season about to turn toward coho

Southeast gillnetters are working a strong pink salmon season, with several areas open into Thursday and the focus set to turn toward coho later this month.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Fall chum and coho fishing is closed across the Tanana drainage

Fall chum and coho fishing is closed across the Tanana drainage through year's end, a precautionary move after chum was listed as a stock of concern.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Southeast seiners get another opening, with one district carrying a below-forecast pink season

Southeast seiners get another opening Tuesday, with one district carrying more than half the catch in a pink season running below the regionwide forecast.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read