To: Alaska Policymakers
RE: Urgent Need to Address Interceptions and Bycatch of Alaska’s King Salmon
Dear Alaska Policymakers,
We write as a broad coalition of Alaska citizens, conservation organizations, Alaska Native communities, recreational and commercial fishers, and businesses calling for reform of ocean fisheries management under the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC), and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G). As the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC) renegotiates the 2028 PST and controversy mounts regarding bycatch and interceptions of salmon under NPFMC and ADF&G oversight, we urge policymakers to advocate for reduced mortality of our king salmon in mixed-stock ocean fisheries and to maximize the return of these fish to Alaska’s watersheds, river-based and adjacent fisheries, and the communities that depend on them.
While our coalition often differs on salmon management issues, we unanimously agree that the status quo of ocean fishery management under the PST, NPFMC, and ADF&G is not acceptable. Unsustainable bycatch in trawl fisheries, excessive salmon interceptions in Alaska’s mixed-stock ocean fisheries, chronic failure to meet spawning goals, moratoriums and severely limited subsistence and river-based fishing opportunities, struggling local economies, and the continued decline of Alaska’s king salmon demand immediate intervention.
The NPFMC was established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to manage marine fisheries off the coast of Alaska in an effort to prevent overfishing, minimize bycatch, increase long-term economic and social benefits, and ensure equitable fisheries. In conjunction with the NPFMC, the PST (negotiated and implemented by the PSC) strives to reduce and manage interceptions of salmon bound for the Yukon and other transboundary rivers of Southeast Alaska—including the Taku, Stikine, and Alsek rivers—to prevent overfishing, promote equitable fisheries, and achieve conservation goals. ADF&G, which implements and manages marine fisheries overseen by the PSC and NPFMC, similarly has a mission to protect, maintain, and improve the fish resources of the state, and to manage their use and development in the best interest of the well-being of the people, consistent with the sustained yield principle and constitutional public trust responsibilities.
Despite the guiding principles and missions of the PSC, NPFMC, and ADF&G, fisheries data and the experiences of our local Alaskan communities show that these management bodies have failed to meaningfully reduce bycatch and interceptions, provide for equitable fisheries, ensure the well-being of the people, halt overfishing, and maintain healthy spawning levels for king salmon populations across watersheds of our state:
- Western Alaska: Yukon kings have fallen to <10% of their historical average of 150,000 adults in the upper basin. Commercial and sport fisheries directed at king salmon in the Yukon were suspended for seven years, through 2030; subsistence fishing remains severely constrained, with closures occurring annually since 2021.
- Alaska Peninsula: Spawning goals for Chignik River kings have been missed seven of the last nine years, with returns hitting a record low of 267 fish in 2023. Subsistence users have faced severe fishing constraints, and in 2026, local communities could not keep king salmon anywhere from Chignik Lake through Chignik Lagoon.
- Cook Inlet: The Kenai River produced the all-tackle world-record king salmon in 1985, and it has been closed to king salmon sport fishing for the last four summers. Late-run Kenai kings fell to a record low of 6,906 spawners in 2024. East-side commercial setnetters did not fish at all in 2023–2024.
- Southeast Alaska: The Stikine River has fallen short of its spawning goal nine years in a row (2016–2024), and other rivers—such as the Situk, Chilkat, Unuk, Alsek, and Taku—have also routinely missed spawning goals. River-based and adjacent communities have faced significant fishing constraints, and federal managers have closed the Stikine subsistence king salmon fishery every year since 2017.
While communities in and near these watersheds, among others across the state, have made numerous sacrifices to recover their local salmon populations—giving up subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries—tens of thousands of king salmon bound for Alaska's depleted rivers are intercepted and killed annually miles from home in industrial-scale mixed-stock ocean fisheries at the authorization of our management agencies.
Mortality of our salmon in these Alaskan ocean fisheries reduces spawning returns, undermines conservation efforts, and limits fishing opportunities for river-based and adjacent communities. This demonstrates an unacceptable imbalance in the sharing of fishing privileges and the conservation burden for salmon populations across Alaska’s watersheds: while communities in or near their salmon watersheds bear the cost of conservation through years of closed subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries, unsustainable ocean fisheries that kill mixed stocks of king salmon and other species bound for Alaska's various rivers are authorized to continue, receiving the bulk of the fishing privileges for our salmon.
Whether you desire the return of subsistence harvests on the Yukon and the Chignik; the reopening of Kenai sport and commercial fisheries; a future for river-based commercial fishing families and salmon-dependent communities; or the recovery of Alaska's wild king salmon runs—the 2028 renegotiation of the PST and the NPFMC's bycatch decisions are immensely consequential to the people of Alaska.
Given what is at stake for our state's salmon, communities, and economies, our diverse coalition respectfully requests that Alaska's congressional delegation, the governor's office, state legislature, and the Board of Fisheries formally engage on these issues and stand up for Alaska's salmon watersheds and associated communities. We urge you to provide letters to the PSC, the NPFMC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and ADF&G by January 1, 2027, supporting substantial reforms to the PST and to ocean salmon management by the NPFMC and ADF&G that reduce bycatch and interception of king salmon in unsustainable mixed-stock ocean fisheries and increase the return of these fish to Alaska’s watersheds, river-based and adjacent fisheries, and the communities that depend on them.
We can no longer accept a system in which industrial-scale ocean fisheries harvest the majority of our king salmon while local watersheds and associated communities bear the costs of recovery efforts, fishing restrictions, and declining salmon populations. Strong leadership and advocacy are needed to ensure the PST, NPFMC, and ADF&G better serve Alaska’s people, fisheries, salmon, and all future generations.
Thank you for your service and commitment to our state’s natural resources and communities and for upholding public trust obligations.
Sincerely,