Wednesday, March 4, 2026
- Mar 4
- 7 min read
Alaska
May 13 New Deadline On Chinook Finding
Daily Sitka Sentinel by Anna Laffrey - March 2, 2026
Federal fisheries managers have until May 13 to decide whether to urge new protections for Gulf of Alaska chinook salmon stocks by listing them as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Southeast shrimping temporarily closed
KRBD by Hunter Morrison - March 2, 2026
The state has expanded a fishing closure for shrimp in Southeast Alaska to protect the species. Shrimping in Southeast is now closed to all harvesters through April 30.
Greenwave opens kelp nursery in Kodiak to reduce cost for farmers and increase production
KMXT by Davis Hovey - March 3, 2026
Alaska’s newest kelp hatchery recently finished its first growing season in a mobile shipping container in Kodiak. The hatchery aims to help kelp farmers on Kodiak Island boost how much they can grow.
Alaska Board of Fish Charged with Conflict of Interest in Area M Chum Salmon Issue
SeafoodNews by Peggy Parker - March 3, 2026
The Aleutians East Borough and regional tribal governments filed a formal ethics complaint against members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries last week. The complaint was centered on a 4-3 vote that dismantled the Area M adaptive management program aimed at avoiding migrating chum salmon that spawn in the Yukon and Kuskokwim River systems. The complaint calls the program “the most successful in-season salmon conservation program in Alaska history.”
The vote was taken at the February 18-25, 2026, Board of Fisheries meeting in Anchorage. It was decided by a single vote cast by Board Member Curtis Chamberlain, an attorney at Calista Corporation, which has publicly advocated for further restrictions and even complete closure of Area M fisheries for years.
Two formal conflict of interest complaints document Chamberlain’s prior public advocacy, his employer’s institutional positions, and a materially false statement made on the record (entered into the meeting record as RC004 and RC139.) After the Board Chair, Marit Carlson VanDort, failed to acknowledge the conflict of interest, which is substantiated by Alaska statute, a formal complaint was filed with the Alaska Attorney General’s office.
The Board Chair dismissed the conflict twice, said Mayor Alvin D. Osterback of the Aleutians East Borough. “The conflict was never resolved. The Board voted anyway.
“What happened to Area M at the Board of Fisheries is what happens when politicians appoint board members who arrive at the meeting with their minds already made up,” Osterback said. “We asked them to use science to determine what tools should best be used to help the AYK chum returns. Instead, they have done nothing to help the stocks — just a repeat of boardmeetings over the past 40 years that will result in the continued decline of salmon returning to their systems,” said Mayor Alvin D. Osterback of the Aleutians East Borough.
“The State of Alaska needs to address the conflict of interest rules for this Board before they ruin other fisheries in the state while accomplishing nothing to stop the decline in the AYK systems. Area M loses and the AYK loses because the Board of Fisheries is failing Alaska’s fishermen and its fish. It’s a sad day for all fishermen and their communities.”
Co-Signatories on the complaint include John Foster, President, Native Village of Unga; Jason Bjornstad, President, Qagan Tayagungin Tribe; Lynn Farr, President, Native Village of Belkofski; Travis Hoblet, President, Native Village of False Pass; Etta Kuzakin, President, Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove; George Gundersen, President, Pauloff Harbor Tribe.
In 2022, fishermen at Area M, south of the Alaska Peninsula, have operated an adaptive management program that reduced average annual June chum harvest by 50% compared to the five-year average before the program. The program earned the support of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as well as the Commissioner, according to the press statement. It included periods of the seine fleet “standing down” while Western Alaska chum migrated through the area.
Under the program, the seine fleet voluntarily stood down an average of 291 hours of fishing time per season. In 2025, the drift fleet joined, standing down 554 hours across 28 vessels and 64 separate stand-down events. Both fleets have voluntarily given up the first fishing day of the June season every year since 2022.
Regulation 245, passed by the Board last week, eliminated the adaptive triggers that made the program work, replaced a data-responsive management system with a fixed calendar schedule, and compressed the available fishing window so tightly that the voluntary standdowns that produced four years of documented conservation progress are no longer structurally possible, according to the borough and tribes’ statement.
“It also eliminates the chum harvest triggers that served as conservation backstops, leaving no automatic response mechanism tied to real-time abundance data,” they said.
“The adaptive management program worked because it was created and led by fishermen who were determined to make it succeed. They voluntarily sacrificed fishing time and real income because conservation mattered to them and they believed in the program,” said Carlin Hoblet, commercial fisherman and False Pass tribal member.
“This program was unlike anything else in the state, a voluntary, real-time, data-driven conservation tool developed collaboratively by fishermen, processors, biologists, and the Department itself. It took years of effort, significant financial sacrifice, and countless hours of coordination, research, and analysis to build a system that measurably reduced chum harvest in a mixed-stock fishery while preserving opportunity on abundant runs.
“It was working. It was praised as innovative and responsible management. The Board did not improve on it. They destroyed it. And the regulation they passed in its place will, in all likelihood, produce higher chum harvests which is the exact opposite of the stated goal,” Hoblet said.
“It’s as if Members Chamberlain, Irwin, Carlson-VanDort, and Svendsen knowingly voted to end chum conservation. Their passion for the conservation of chums is lip service only. They’re playing a game of politics now with not only the resource, but with the lives of our people.”
The tribal governments of the Aleutians East region, whose communities depend on the Area M fishery for economic survival, public services, and basic infrastructure of rural Alaska life, are all calling for accountability.
“Our communities exist because of this fishery,” said John Foster, President of the Native Village of Unga. “What the Board did was not conservation. It was politics. And it was decided by someone who should never have been allowed to cast that vote.”
“The Area M fleet proved it could deliver conservation results,” said Jason Bjornstad, President of the Qagan Tayagungin Tribe. “They did it voluntarily, at real cost, for four years. The Board rewarded that commitment by taking away the tools that made it possible. That is not how you build a conservation partnership.”
“King Cove depends on this fishery,” said Etta Kuzakin, President of the Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove. “When you hurt Area M, you hurt our school, our clinic, our road, our ability to stay here. This decision had consequences for real people in real communities, and it was made by a Board that was not operating with integrity.”
“This is about more than one vote,” said Travis Hoblet, President of the Native Village of False Pass. “It is about whether Alaska’s regulatory process can be trusted to operate free from conflicts of interest. Right now, the answer to that question is no.”
The group’s complaint includes three recommendations:
- The Alaska Attorney General’s office to act on the formal ethics complaint filed on February 23, 2026, and to review the legal validity of votes cast by a Board member with a documented, unresolved conflict of interest, including the 4-3 passage of RC245.
- The Alaska Legislature to examine the Board of Fisheries appointment and ethics process, including the absence of any cooling-off period requirement for board appointees with prior advocacy positions on matters before the board.
- The Alaska Board of Fisheries to take no further votes on Area M fisheries until the conflict of interest question raised in the ethics complaint is fully resolved.
National
Young Fishermen’s Development Act renewed
National Fisherman by NF Staff - March 4, 2026
U.S. fishing organizations are applauding the passage of legislation renewing a key workforce training program for the commercial fishing industry.
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US lawmakers introduce marine carbon dioxide removal bill
SeafoodSource by Nathan Strout - March 3, 2026
U.S. lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to improve research into removing carbon dioxide from the ocean, potentially through aquaculture practices like seaweed farming.
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Finalists selected for 2026 Seafood Excellence Awards
SeafoodSource by staff - March 3, 2026
Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America announced 12 finalists have been selected for the 2026 Seafood Excellence Awards.
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International
Global frozen seafood prices could climb as sea shipping costs continue to surge amid Iran war
'Although there is speculation that costs could rise, mainly due to higher fuel prices pushing fishing companies to charge more, no actual changes have taken place yet,' one industry source in Europe said
Undercurrent News by Matilde Mereghetti and Tom Seaman - March 4, 2026
Frozen seafood prices could rise as much as 10% in the short-term, unless the war between US-Israel and Iran ends, some industry sources warned. But others were more cautious in their forecast, noting that sea freight rates were already relatively high.
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China revises fisheries law to crack down on IUU fishing, clean up aquaculture sector
SeafoodSource by Mark Godfrey - March 3, 2026
Chinese lawmakers have voted to revise the nation’s fisheries law. The revised law, which will take effect 1 May, overhauls many sections of China’s current legislation.
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Federal Register
Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pacific Cod by Vessels Using Pot Gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska
A Rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 03/04/2026
NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by vessels using pot gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the A season allowance of the 2026 total allowable catch (TAC) of Pacific cod allocated to vessels using pot gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the GOA.
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