LETTER: Alaska fisheries in jeopardy
Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Alaska is running out of time. The scale of bycatch in 2026 — including more than 10.5 million pounds of discarded halibut and continued interception of chinook and chum during some of the weakest salmon returns in memory — shows how human activity can overwhelm the oceans we depend on.
Entire river systems in Western Alaska are collapsing. Families who have harvested salmon for thousands of years are told they cannot take even one fish.
Small boat fishermen and sport anglers face closures that once seemed unthinkable, while the large offshore trawl fleet continues operating at a scale that dwarfs everything around it.
That fleet is dominated by a few major corporate groups whose vessels can catch and discard more fish in a season than many communities could harvest in a decade. Many Alaskans argue that the imbalance is built into the system. Small boat fisheries are easy to shut down; offshore trawl fisheries have the money to minimize regulation.
The rules have not kept pace with collapsing runs or the industrial capacity of modern trawlers.
Those who catch the least – subsistence users, small boat fishermen, and sport anglers – bear the heaviest burden, while fleets with the greatest impact face the fewest restrictions. Some Alaskans ask why the state doesn’t pause large-scale trawling to see whether salmon runs rebound.
The ocean is signaling that it cannot absorb unlimited pressure. If salmon are to remain part of Alaska’s identity, I believe decisive action is needed
