Commercial Fisheries
RSSCommercial fishing industry: Bristol Bay sockeye, BSAI pollock and crab, halibut and sablefish IFQ, Board of Fisheries rulings, NPFMC allocation
A Petersburg-area drift gillnet fishery opens for about 40 hours
The state will open a fishing section near Petersburg to about 40 hours of unrestricted drift gillnet fishing, from Tuesday evening through Thursday noon.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
ADF&G closes Northern District set gillnet fishing for 12 hours Monday
Alaska closes Northern District set gillnet fishing for 12 hours Monday to protect coho salmon escapement into Cook Inlet streams.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Alaska Peninsula salmon fishing keeps opening and closing as managers work around sockeye returns
Alaska Peninsula salmon fishing keeps opening and closing — 20 advisories in this season — as managers work around sockeye returns near Port Moller.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
The state will renew a Sitka hatchery's Deep Inlet lease for 10 years, not the 25 it wanted
The state will renew a Sitka hatchery's Deep Inlet net pen lease for 10 years, less than half the 25 it asked for, and the notice doesn't say why.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends
Lower Cook Inlet's purse seiners are shut down while set netters in the same district keep fishing, right as the salmon season closes out Aug. 15.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Kotzebue chum fishermen get a better price but have just one buyer left
Kotzebue chum fishermen are getting nearly 20 cents more a pound this season, but with only one registered buyer left, their market now hinges on a single company.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A weak coho run just shut down federal commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet
A weak coho run just closed commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet's federal waters through Aug. 15, and the low cap is already squeezing state gillnetters.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Pollock fleet holds an Anchorage job fair days before a bycatch-shaped election
Days before the final vote, the Bering Sea pollock fleet holds an Anchorage job fair — as salmon bycatch, and a new mandatory chum cap, roil the 2026 campaign.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min read
Sullivan leads a push to sanction ships supplying China's fleet
Nine senators led by Sullivan asked Treasury to sanction 29 ships supplying China's fishing fleet over its illegal catch. Treasury hasn't acted.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Alaska's one-boat state crab fishery reopens as offshore quota rises
Alaska's tiny state-waters golden king crab fishery reopens — one boat fished it last year — while the far larger offshore quota climbs 13%.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
New EU paperwork could slow Alaska seafood shipments starting in September
New EU paperwork starting Sept. 3 could slow Alaska seafood shipments to Europe, though the strictest new rules hit farmed fish, not the wild-caught catch that is most of Alaska's harvest.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A Homer seafood plant would pass to Silver Bay amid an OBI takeover
A Homer Spit seafood plant would pass to Silver Bay as it absorbs OBI statewide — a deal some fishermen and workers fear could erode local wages.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Regulators shift unused halibut allowance to Bering Sea trawlers
Regulators shifted unused halibut bycatch to Bering Sea trawlers' cod season, reviving the bycatch fight as halibut stocks sit near record lows.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min read
Cook Inlet drift fleet limited to Area 3 for a single 12-hour opener Thursday
Cook Inlet drift gillnetters get just one 12-hour opener in Area 3 Thursday, driven by coho conservation — a federal EEZ closure and state limits are squeezing the fleet's access as coho harvest runs over its cap.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Bering Sea cod trawl fee drops to 2.09% after fishery value jumps
Federal cost recovery fees on Bering Sea cod trawlers dropped from 3% to 2.09% after the fishery's value jumped 42%. But fishermen still want to know what the fees pay for.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
A halibut-bycatch report is dropped for the Bering Sea's biggest bycatch fleet
A paperwork notice drops a halibut-bycatch report on the Bering Sea fleet that kills the most halibut, just as a hard-won rule began reining that bycatch in.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
A paperwork snag with Europe threatens a major market for Alaska seafood
Europe is a major buyer of Alaska seafood, and a paperwork snag with the EU — one NOAA's own systems can't yet handle — is threatening some of those sales, with the clock running out Nov. 30.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Bristol Bay hit its sockeye forecast. Prices are a different story.
Bristol Bay caught nearly as many sockeye as last year but is running 40% behind on value. Strong run, soft prices.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Homer fisherman cited for fishing closed waters in Bristol Bay
A Homer fisherman cited for fishing closed waters in Egegik heads to court Aug. 7 — a case that lands on Bristol Bay's tight fishing clock and who it's built to protect.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Third gear cut in a week leaves setnetters absorbing a weak Susitna run
Fish and Game has cut Northern District setnet gear three times in a week over a weak Susitna sockeye run, leaving about 530 family permit holders to absorb it.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
NOAA scouts new fish-farm zones as Gulf of Alaska planning proceeds
NOAA is asking where to scout the next commercial fish-farm zones. The Gulf of Alaska is already in planning, and this round could expand it.
by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read
Bering Sea crab fee drops by half, but the itemization fight remains
The Bering Sea crab fee dropped by half — but because the fishery earned more, not because the fleet can finally see what it's being charged for.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
State opens comment on $5.8 million Cook Inlet setnet relief plan
Cook Inlet's East Side setnetters get to weigh in on splitting $5.8 million in disaster relief, arriving two-plus years after the 2023 season that earned it.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Begich bill would make Alaska trawlers carry salmon excluder gear
Alaska's delegation wants trawlers to carry salmon excluders and seafloor sensors, as bycatch keeps killing Chinook from western Alaska's collapsed runs.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
NOAA asks how to simplify import rules Alaska waited a decade for
Import rules Alaska harvesters waited ten years for took effect Jan. 1. Seven months later, NOAA wants to know how to make them easier to run.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The state ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow
Alaska ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow, deepening a years-long squeeze on a fishery it controls in state waters.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Portland fisherman cited for fishing during a closed period in Kvichak Section
Alaska Wildlife Troopers cited a Portland fisherman for illegal netting in Bristol Bay. This is one of 11 recent enforcement cases.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Alaska opens all of Togiak to fishing with the sockeye count far below goal
Alaska is opening the whole Togiak District to commercial fishing with the sockeye count at a fraction of its goal — and no stated reason why.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Cook Inlet drifters get 12 more hours as Kasilof sockeye double the goal
Kasilof sockeye are running at double the escapement goal, so Cook Inlet drifters get 12 hours Monday — still two miles off the beach for the kings.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Copper River stays closed to commercial fishing as sockeye run under forecast
Copper River stays shut to commercial fishing as sockeye lag forecast; the only opening on the books is a 12-hour subsistence period Monday morning.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A routine Yakutat fishing closure lands on a shrinking fleet
Yakutat's dusky rockfish season closed on schedule — routine, except for a shrinking small-boat fleet counting the ways left to make a living.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
Kuskokwim Bay subsistence fishing closes so commercial boats can fish
Kuskokwim Bay subsistence fishing closes Monday through Friday so the same waters can open to commercial fishing — the latest such swap this month.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Southeast shrimp fishery closes, and three areas won't reopen
Southeast's commercial shrimp fishery closes in eight areas July 31, and three won't reopen this fall or winter as shrimp numbers keep sliding.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Frederick Sound chum stays below average as pink salmon rebound
Chum Slumps. Chum Slumps. Chum Slumps.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A Kodiak king salmon collapse is squeezing everyone who fishes
Just 93 king salmon reached the Karluk to spawn last year, against a goal of 3,000-plus. That collapse is why Kodiak's fleet is fishing on the clock.
by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
Strong escapement at one weir is driving long Alaska Peninsula openings
One weir at Orzinski counts salmon for the whole South Alaska Peninsula. It's running above average, and the openings have gotten long to match.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Togiak sockeye escapement far below goal as fishing cuts loom
Low Fish counts lead to questions on season in Togiak
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Two Washington men cited for fishing Bristol Bay while it was closed in Naknek
Two Washington men — one 67, one 21 — got cited for fishing Bristol Bay's Naknek District while it was closed, plus three more counts each.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Western Alaska leaders take food security to a circumpolar assembly
Western Alaska tribal leaders are in Nunavut for the first circumpolar Inuit assembly in nearly a decade, with food security high on the agenda.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Yakutat's Pacific ocean perch season closes after filling its quota
Yakutat's Pacific ocean perch season closed Wednesday after filling its 1,923-ton quota — the second West Yakutat rockfish fishery to wrap in a week.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
