Wednesday, July 22, 2026
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Alaska
Alaska Sockeye Harvests Meeting Forecasts, Pink and Chum Landings Far Below 5-year Averages
SeafoodNews by Peggy Parker - July 20, 2026
Bristol Bay's sockeye harvest has reached 29.2 million salmon as of July 16, 2026, very close to the pre-season forecast of 32 million. Kodiak’s harvest of 785,000 as of July 15 has so far exceeded its pre-season estimate of 730,000 in landings for sockeye. In the Alaska Peninsula, nearly 4 million sockeye have been harvested, contributing to a statewide total of 34.6 million. But for all other species, except coho salmon, which start in September, harvest totals are dismal.
Total salmon landings as of last Thursday are only at 39.7 million, out of an estimated 125.5 million. Not all totals from Week 30 (last week) are in yet, but enough are to say that YOY, the 2026 Week 30 has been less than half what 2025’s Week 30 totaled in catch.
The 2026 predicted harvest reflects a 36% decrease from the 2025 catch of 194.8 million fish. The species breakdown for this year was 49.7 million sockeye, 56 million pink salmon, 17.2 million chum, 2.4 million coho, and 197,000 Chinook salmon.
ADF&G scientists knew that the parent year (2024) for this year’s pink salmon would be down because of the disappointing return in 2024. In Southeast, where 19 million pinks were predicted for harvest, only 87,000 have been harvested as of last week.
Statewide predictions for sockeye of 49.7 million may not be met, despite good returns in Bristol Bay and Kodiak.
Prince William Sound hatchery pinks and chums have not shown up there, similar to their wild cohorts, lending credence to theories that out migrating fry are not finding enough food in the ocean or are being prey to a growing number of predators, or victims of many other forces in a warming ocean.
Landings of pink salmon haven’t quite reached half a million yet in Prince William Sound as of last week. In Bristol Bay, landings of 28.98 million are comprised of catches in the following areas:
- Nushagak District: 8.9 million sockeye
- Egegik District: 8.73 million
- Naknek-Kvichak District: 5.99 million
- Ugashik: 5.3 million
- Togiak: 98,361 sockeye
All rivers in Bristol Bay have reached their escapement requirements except the Naknek and Alaganak, as of mid-last week.
Meet Alaska Sea Greens: Farmers, Fishers, and Homesteaders on Kodiak Island
NOAA’s Tide to Table series profiles members of the aquaculture community who provide valuable jobs and access to fresh, sustainably sourced American seafood.
NOAA Fisheries by staff - July 20, 2026
If you want to visit Kodiak Island in Alaska, you have two options.
International
Canadian Seafood Not Targeted by Trump's New 50% US Tariffs
SeafoodNews by Ryan Doyle - July 22, 2026
Fish and seafood do not appear in any of the three proclamations President Trump signed on July 20 imposing 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, continuing a pattern of protection that has shielded the sector through each round of the US-Canada trade dispute.
Trump signed three separate proclamations invoking Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, each targeting a specific grievance: discriminatory treatment of US motor vehicles, a near-total ban by Canadian provinces on US alcoholic beverages, and unequal dairy tariff-rate quota access compared to EU producers. The 50% duties apply to nearly $20 billion in Canadian imports and take effect August 19, 2026.
The three lists target dairy ingredients, alcoholic beverages, electronics, wood products, clothing, furniture, paper products, and sporting goods, among others.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer framed the broader action as a response to Canada's continued retaliation against US exports.
"Canada has taken US alcohol products off Canadian shelves, given better market access to dairy products from the European Union, and has put a cap on US vehicle exports to Canada from companies reshoring to the United States," Greer said.
The stakes for seafood are substantial. The US imported $4.26 billion in Canadian seafood in 2025, making Canada the largest foreign supplier to the American market at 16% of total US seafood imports.
Canadian snow crab accounts for roughly 90% of North American supply reaching US markets, with 2025 imports exceeding 120 million pounds. Canadian lobster exports, nearly entirely US-bound, were valued at $2.9 billion in 2024.
The omission of seafood from the tariff lists is consistent with how the sector has been treated throughout the broader trade dispute. As Expana has previously reported, Canadian harvested fish and seafood has qualified as USMCA-compliant and been shielded from successive rounds of tariff action, most directly in a March 2025 executive order that carved USMCA-compliant goods out of sweeping Section 232 tariffs.
That framework, however, is now in active uncertainty. On July 1, USTR Greer confirmed the US would not renew USMCA, with Trump pursuing separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico instead.
Under the agreement's terms, that decision triggers a cycle of annual reviews, with the deal set to lapse at the decade mark if no consensus is reached. US-Canada trade talks have not yet begun. As Expana has reported, what USMCA primarily provides for seafood is not tariff protection; many key lines already carry zero or near-zero standard rates, but the predictable framework that makes market access decisions durable.
When the administration exempted Canadian seafood from Section 232 tariffs in 2025, it did so by referencing USMCA compliance. Without that framework, there is no guarantee that the same decision gets made the same way.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada stood ready to "intensify" trade talks with the US in the coming weeks. The Section 338 actions face near-certain legal challenges, with the Supreme Court's earlier 6-3 ruling striking down IEEPA-based tariffs offering a potential template for challengers.
ADF&G Accuses Marine Stewardship Council of “Blue Washing” Russian Pollock Management
SeafoodNews by Peggy Parker - July 21, 2026
The London-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has come under fire for its near-certification of the Western Bering Sea pollock fishery, following a formal objection filed by the At-Sea Processors Association in June and a sharply worded letter from Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang earlier this month.
"…the MSC's apparent determination to turn a blind eye to bycatch management, overfishing, habitat impacts, and data transparency and deploy your program's eco-label to 'blue wash' Russian seafood in global markets is unconscionable at best and flat out deceptive at worst," Vincent-Lang wrote in his July 1 letter to MSC CEO Rupert Howes.
"The MSC's profound failures in Russia have persisted for far too long," Vincent-Lang continued. "I urge you in the strongest possible terms to belatedly use your authority to act in relation to the WBS pollock certificate, and to exclude this poorly managed, unsustainable fishery from your program."
At issue is the recertification of the Russian-managed Western Bering Sea pollock fishery as MSC-certified sustainable. A leader in consumer-facing seafood sustainability certification, MSC uses third-party Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) to evaluate how well managed commercial fisheries are.
CABs do not conduct surveys or run statistical models themselves; instead, they assess applicants based on their use of state-of-the-art data-gathering techniques and reliable statistical models to identify biomass and migration patterns and set rules on harvest levels and timing.
On June 30, the Seattle-based At-Sea Processors Association (APA) — a trade group of 15 vessels operating in the Eastern Bering Sea pollock fishery — submitted an objection citing three general failures: a recklessly inadequate management plan, poorly managed bycatch of Alaska salmon, and an absence of protections for seafloor habitat.
Central to APA's case is Russia's revised assessment of Western Bering Sea pollock stock size, which the association says was irrationally inflated based on the summer migration of Eastern Bering Sea pollock through the Russian zone.
"It is egregious for the CAB to continue certifying a fishery that has made these changes. In practical terms, the target harvest rate on the stock has been doubled, and simultaneously the spawning stock biomass limit reference point — the minimum stock size threshold upon which target harvest rates are based — has been reduced by approximately half compared to levels previously viewed as necessary for good management of the stock," APA wrote in its objection.
APA also contends that two thresholds critical to sustainability are assumed by the CAB to have been met, when neither currently is. It further notes that the CAB's high scores for Russian pollock management are based on a harvest control rule and stock assessment process that were superseded in 2023.
"While it may still be true that various stock assessment models indicate the stock has been maintained at or above Bmsy levels for a significant period, they also indicate that the stock has been in persistent decline since the new harvest strategy and harvest control rule was implemented, while target reference points have been significantly altered without any biological justification," APA wrote.
Alaska Chinook and chum salmon bycatch is the next point of contention. APA's objection describes the ongoing crisis of declining returns in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, and details the steps Alaska pollock fleet operators have taken in response — including modifying trawl gear to allow more salmon to escape, developing and implementing a genetic testing program to provide real-time information on the composition of targeted schools, and adopting other operational changes to reduce salmon bycatch.
These measures were nonetheless found insufficient by the CAB during APA's own recent recertification evaluation, resulting in a condition requiring additional Chinook and chum salmon protections and the development of a Client Action Plan.Against that backdrop, APA described the CAB's high score for Russia's salmon bycatch management as "untenable and indefensible."
Seafloor habitat is the third area of dispute — one Alaska pollock harvesters are well acquainted with from ongoing discussions at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
The issue centers on updating the definition of "pelagic trawls," which currently excludes seafloor contact, despite recent analyses showing significant bottom contact in areas where bottom trawls are banned in part to protect the seafloor.
In its objection, APA noted that the CAB evaluating Russia's fishery acknowledged no monitoring framework to evaluate potential changes in benthic habitat exists and that existing surveys are not designed to assess direct effects from the fishery. APA quoted the CAB report directly:
"There are no move-on rules, VME-specific closures, or integrated mechanisms to assess cumulative habitat effects across fisheries in the Russian Far East."
"Shockingly, the report also fully acknowledges that 'no comprehensive habitat mapping or systematic quantitative survey has been conducted in deeper slope and trench zones of the [unit of assessment]. The distribution of these minor and potentially vulnerable habitats remains incompletely documented, and the spatial extent of all habitat types across the managed area is not fully known,'" APA wrote.
APA said the certification "entirely avoids these glaring information deficiencies on habitat and the complete lack of management measures to protect Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems by simply stating that the fishery never contacts the seafloor (except in an 'emergency').
"In his letter to Howes, Commissioner Vincent-Lang drew a direct contrast between the standards applied to Alaskan fisheries and those applied to Russia."
[The MSC] consistently holds high-performing and high-information fisheries — especially Alaskan fisheries — to the highest standards. This is precisely because of our world-class management system's transparency. The opacity and dishonesty of the Russian system, by contrast, is operating to give the WBS pollock fishery a free pass," Vincent-Lang wrote.
"The WBS pollock fishery has been certified without even the most rudimentary system for identifying and protecting vulnerable seafloor habitat in place. This failure should be an embarrassment for the Marine Stewardship Council," he added.
Howes is expected to respond this month.
Environment/Science
NOAA scientists set sail on landmark West Coast Ocean Acidification survey
NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory - July 20, 2026
On July 20, 2026, researchers embarked on the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program's West Coast Ocean Acidification mission (WCOA 2026).
A parasite that thrives in warm conditions adds to Yukon River salmon woes
Alaska scientists are teasing out the effects of Ichthyophonus, a parasite that has taken a particularly severe toll on already weak Yukon River Chinook runs.
Alaska Beacon by Yereth Rosen - July 22, 2026
When Stan Zuray began noticing white spots, a mushy texture and a weird “sour watermelon” smell in the Chinook salmon he was pulling from the Yukon River, he knew something was going wrong.
Labeling and Marketing
Kodiak cod, rockfish wow DC diners at NOAA nosh
Kodiak Daily Mirror by staff - July 21, 2026
Alaska cod and rockfish don’t generally stray far from state waters, but a select few recently made it all the way to Washington D.C.
*Requires Subscription
Federal Register
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Catcher/Processors Using Trawl Gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 07/21/2026
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by American Fisheries Act (AFA) trawl catcher/processors in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI).
Magnuson-Stevens Act Provisions; Fisheries off West Coast States; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery; Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan; Amendment 36; Limited Entry Fixed Gear Follow-On Actions
A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 07/22/2026
This final rule implements regulations for amendment 36 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (Groundfish FMP).
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