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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The rules have not kept pace with collapsing runs or the industrial capacity of modern trawlers.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3361,"featured_media":132525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n