LISTEN LIVE!
NOW: AM Morning Edition KUCB - Holden
NEXT: Department of Family & Community Development - Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
Fisheries News Archive - 830 AM KSDP – Sand Point, AK
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal board that helps oversee federal fisheries off Alaska’s coast, is scaling back operations due to uncertainty over federal funding.
The council meets five times a year to help set fishing policies, like quotas, regulations and bycatch restrictions. But federal budget cuts under President Donald Trump have whittled down the organization’s resources, forcing them to scale back their activities.
At a meeting earlier this month, the council said it had received less than half of its federal funds. They got another payment last week, but Executive Director David Witherell said they’ve still only received about two-thirds of their annual funding. Typically, the council receives full funding by March.
“This is a highly unusual situation that we’re in,” Witherell said. “We can normally be able to plan our meeting schedule for the year and not have to worry that the Council offices might have to close because we run out of funds to pay staff.”
The funding is disbursed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a four-year grant. This is the first year of that grant cycle — and Witherell said they’re starting from zero, with no rollover from the previous year.
He said the council has been told to expect another installment once Congress finalizes a federal spending plan. But for now, there’s no timeline and no guarantee.
“The funding this year has been coming in dribs and drabs, and it’s making it challenging to reserve meeting spaces and to know that we have the funds to host a meeting,” Witherell said.
The council is dropping to only four meetings next year and will hold its next meeting, in October, online. In a statement, the council said they’re also cutting back on travel and other expenses.
They hope to hold an in-person meeting in December, but even that will depend on whether more funding comes through.
Commercial fisheries rely on council recommendations in order to open. The council warned that its December schedule is overloaded with time-sensitive matters, like chum salmon bycatch.
Because of concerns for Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon (king salmon) across the Gulf of Alaska, the department is taking unprecedented steps to conserve king salmon by restricting numerous fisheries in 2025.
In the South Alaska Peninsula Area, additional management actions are being implemented to protect these stocks beginning in July:
Beginning July 1, Chinook (king) salmon 28 inches or greater in length may not be retained by purse seine gear in the Unimak, Southwestern, South Central, and Southeastern Districts of Area M during a commercial salmon fishery and must be returned to the water unharmed.
Additionally, the Department will monitor the harvest of Chinook salmon in the Shumagin Islands Section of the Southeastern District. If more than 1,000 Chinook salmon are harvested within the Shumagin Islands Section of the Southeastern District during a regulatory fishing period in July, then the next scheduled fishing period in stat area 282-11 (Unga Cape-East Popof (Delarof Harbor), Popof Head, Red Bluff, Elephant Head (Dark Cliffs), Fox Hole, Pirate Cove, Dangerous Point, East Head, Andronica Island, and Salmon Ranch) Will Not Open to commercial salmon fishing for purse seine gear only.
Normally bustling with workers, Peter Pan’s boardwalks and bunkhouses are now empty.
By Hal Bernton for ProPublica and Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal
This article was produced in a partnership with ProPublica, Northern Journal and the Anchorage Daily News.
Last summer, an unsettling quiet cloaked the isolated Southwest Alaska community of King Cove as the town’s economic engine — a sprawling seafood processing plant — sat shuttered.
Bunkhouses, once filled with hundreds of workers during the peak salmon harvest, were vacant. Four diesel generators that had rumbled day and night were stilled. The plant docks, once lined with boats and circled by fish-scavenging gulls, were empty.
The closure resulted from the financial implosion of the plant’s owner, Peter Pan Seafood. Some local fishing boat captains directed their ire at company leaders who accepted their seafood, then failed to pay them.(more…)
Sand Point is without access to fuel after a fire broke out at the local Trident Seafoods plant.
The fire started early Thursday morning, pausing the processor’s operations, including its fuel sales, which the small eastern Aleutian community relies on.
Sand Point Police Chief Benjamin Allen said the lack of fuel is the biggest concern at the moment.
“Nobody can get gas right now,” Allen said. “[Trident] has to get clearance from the Coast Guard before they can start the gas pumps back up again.”
Allen said he doesn’t know how long that will take, but Trident has been working to get things going again.
“During the incident, their generator threw a connecting rod out the side of the engine block and it ruptured the fuel line to the generator,” Allen said. “And there was a good bit of diesel on the surface of the water that Trident’s been cleaning up.”
The small fire started in the generator room of the facility around 1 a.m. Thursday, according to Trident’s Vice President of Global Communications Alexis Telfer.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) will hold a preseason meeting teleconference at 1:30 p.m. Friday, January 10, 2025, hosted by the Aleutians East Borough (AEB). The purpose of the meeting is to provide information regarding the 2025 South Peninsula District Tanner crab season.
Topics of discussion will include:
• Preseason vessel registration and buoy tag requirements
• General ADF&G inseason management and harvest reporting
• Eastern Section subsection management for the 2025 season
• Summary of recent Tanner crab trawl survey results
Interested parties may join the teleconference in person at the AEB offices in Sand Point, King Cove or Anchorage, or the False Pass city office; interested parties may also join virtually (meeting information below). This meeting is open to the public.
Join using Microsoft Teams:
Meeting ID: 285 323 550 922
Passcode: Pq7pU6uv
THE ALASKA BOARD OF FISHERIES CALLS FOR PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE SUBSISTENCE, PERSONAL USE, SPORT, GUIDED SPORT, AND COMMERCIAL FISHING REGULATIONS FOR BRISTOL BAY FINFISH, ARCTIC / YUKON / KUSKOKWIM FINFISH, ALASKA PENINSULA / ALEUTIAN ISLANDS / CHIGNIK FINFISH AREAS, and STATEWIDE FINFISH AREAS.
PROPOSAL DEADLINE – THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2025
The Alaska Board of Fisheries (board) is accepting proposed changes to the subsistence, personal use, sport, guided sport, and commercial fishing regulations for the Bristol Bay; Arctic, Yukon, Kuskokwim; Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, Chignik; and Statewide finfish management areas. Finfish includes salmon, herring, trout, other freshwater finfishes, and groundfish, including Pacific cod, for consideration by the board in its 2025–2026 meeting cycle. The board may also consider subsistence proposals for other topics (including other areas) under the subsistence proposal policy, 5 AAC 96.615, if proposals are submitted within this deadline and the board determines they meet the criteria in either 5 AAC 96.615(a)(1) or (2).
To ensure the proposal book is finished in advance of the board meetings, the board sets Thursday, April 10, 2025, as the proposal deadline.
Proposals may be submitted online, mail or fax at:
Mail: ADF&G, Boards Support Section
P.O. Box 115526
Juneau, AK 99811-5526
Fax: (907) 465-6094
Proposals must be received by Thursday, April 10, 2025 at the Boards Support Section office in Juneau. A postmark is NOT sufficient for timely receipt.
Interested parties are encouraged to submit proposals at the earliest possible date. The Board of Fisheries proposal form, including the on-line proposal form, is available at the Boards Support website, https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.forms. Proposal forms are also available at any Boards Support office. Proposals must be submitted on the current approved form. Any additional information provided with the form, such as pictures, tables, Internet web links, or charts/maps will not be included in the proposal book.
The completed proposal form must contain a contact telephone number and address. Email addresses are appreciated. Please print or type the individual’s or organization’s name as appropriate.
All proposals are reviewed prior to publication. Language that is emotionally charged detracts from the substance of the proposal and may draw opposition not germane to the element(s) of the proposal. Such language may be edited or deleted prior to publication. Proposals that do not meet this call will not be accepted. Proposals must pertain to the region, species, and uses in this call. Proposals that do not request a regulatory change or are outside the authority of the board will not be accepted. If duplicative proposals are received by the same individual or group only one will be included in the proposal book.
Proposals published in the proposal book will be referenced with the appropriate Alaska Administrative Code citation and include a brief description of the action requested.
Proposal books are sent to advisory committees and the public for review and comment. Proposals are online at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.proposalbook. Those submitting proposals are encouraged to review the proposal book at their earliest convenience to ensure proposals are included and accurate. Noted errors and omissions should be reported to Boards Support immediately. The public is encouraged to visit the Board of Fisheries website frequently for news and information regarding the upcoming cycle.
Responsive proposals received by the proposal deadline will be considered during the board’s 2025/2026 meeting schedule.
For more information, please contact the Art Nelson, Executive Director for the Board of Fisheries at art.nelson@alaska.gov or (907) 267-2292.
Agenda
• United States Coast Guard, Cpt Dave Schaeffer – USCG
report, tentative schedule for USCG Dockside Exams in
2025.
• ADF&G Groundfish/Shellfish, Nat Nichols, Cassie
Whiteside – ADF&G update
• Sustainable Fisheries, Alaska Region -2025 updates
• Observer Program, Glenn Campbell – Observer selection
rates for 2025, ODDS updates
A.I.S., Megan Smith & Haley Anderson – PC Observers
• Saltwater Inc., Stacy Hansen – EM updates
• Int’l Pacific Halibut Commission, Monica Thom and Tyler
Jack -IPHC fisheries monitoring operations, IPHC Annual
Meeting in Vancouver, BC on 27-27 Jan 2025.
• NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, Alex Perry –
Regulations updates & reminders
AEB Fishermen’s Meeting
FRIDAY November 22, 2024 10AM
via Teams/virtual meeting
Teams meeting will be held at Aleutians East Borough meeting places –
• Sand Point Borough Office
• King Cove Borough Office
• False Pass City Office
• Nelson Lagoon Tribal office
• Anchorage AEB office conference room
Fishermen wishing to logon individually should contact the Natural Resources Department for
login info.
Meeting also scheduled to be broadcast live on local radio KSDP and at www.apradio.org
Draft Agenda
• Board of Fisheries update
• North Pacific Fishery Management Council items
• Groundfish Plan Teams update
• Alaska Legislative Seafood Industry Task Force, other meetings
• AEB projects
• Fishermen’s open forum
For more information, please contact Aleutians East Borough:
Natural Resources Director Ernie Weiss 907-274-7557 eweiss@aeboro.org or
AEB Fishery Analyst Charlotte Levy 907-274-7566 clevy@aeboro.org
The At-Sea Processors Association, which represents Alaska’s pollock industry, has announced that its longtime leader is preparing to retire.
In a statement Monday, the group said former Unalaska resident Stephanie Madsen will step down at the end of the year. Madsen has been with the association since 2007, following nearly five decades in fisheries. She was also the first woman to chair the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Matt Tinning, who has worked with the association for about five years and led sustainability initiatives, will succeed Madsen as executive director.
The trade group represents five companies operating 15 large catcher-processor vessels in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. Madsen’s retirement comes as the industry faces ongoing scrutiny over pelagic trawling.
Earlier this year, Rep. Mary Peltola introduced legislation that would heavily restrict the trawl fishery, which Madsen warned would create “unworkable and burdensome new federal mandates.”
The association said Madsen will retire at year’s end after 18 years as its executive director.
It’s unclear how the sale will affect King Cove, which relied on the processing facility as its main economic driver until it closed in January.
A Washington state judge approved a deal on Thursday giving the assets of Peter Pan Seafoods to the company’s former co-owner Rodger May, a decision that follows months of controversy over the seafood processing company, which ceased operations this year.
May placed the winning bid for the company’s assets at auction last month, but the sale wasn’t approved until Thursday’s hearing, when King County Judge Steven Olsen signed the motion to approve the $37.3 million sale, which includes processing plants in Port Moller, Dillingham and King Cove.
“I really haven’t heard anybody say that the receiver failed to comply with that order approving the sale,” Olsen said.
Peter Pan Seafood Company was placed into a court-ordered receivership back in April at the request of Wells Fargo, which pointed to more than $60 million in debt owed by the Alaskan processing company. A receivership is a process similar to bankruptcy, but intended to protect a company’s lender. Both Wells Fargo and the court-appointed receiver, the Los Angeles-based Stapleton Group, supported the deal proposed by May.
However, more than 90 Alaska fishermen in August signed a letter that opposed selling Peter Pan’s assets back to May, saying that May had broken the fishing community’s trust by not paying fishermen.
“Mr. Rodger May and co-owners have done irreparable harm to the many people and their families that make their living from the commercial fisheries on the Alaska Peninsula,” they wrote. “There are still many fishermen that have not been paid for fish they delivered as well as vendors and tenders not being paid for goods and services provided.”
It’s unclear how the sale will affect King Cove, which relied on the processing facility as its main economic driver until it closed in January.
May acquired Peter Pan back in 2020 with the backing of California-based RRG Capital Management and McKinley Capital Management, which used funds from the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation’s in-state investment program.
May attended the meeting on Zoom but did not speak during the hearing. May also did not respond to a request for comment from KUCB.
Rodger May, an entrepreneur and fish trader, narrowly beat out another industry player, Silver Bay Seafoods, with his $37.3 million bid. The sale must still be approved by a Seattle court.
One of the original investors in a troubled Alaska seafood company has narrowly outbid competitor Silver Bay Seafoods in an auction for the firm’s assets — including a major processing plant in the Alaska Peninsula village of King Cove.
Rodger May, an entrepreneur and fish trader, bid $37.3 million for the assets of Peter Pan Seafood, including two other processing plants — one in the Bristol Bay hub town of Dillingham and another in a remote part of the Alaska Peninsula called Port Moller.
May’s bid was $257,000 higher than the bid offered by Silver Bay Seafoods, a major Alaska seafood company that’s expanded rapidly in recent years.
The sale of Peter Pan, which operates primarily in Alaska with a business headquarters in Washington, isn’t final. A confirmation hearing in Peter Pan’s receivership case — a bankruptcy-like proceeding overseen by a Seattle court — is scheduled for Oct. 3.
May’s seafood trading company is one of three original investors who bought Peter Pan from a Japanese conglomerate in 2020. The other two investors are private funds, one run by Anchorage-based McKinley Capital Management and another led by Los Angeles-based RRG Capital Management.
May’s winning bid was summarized in a 115-page document filed in the case by the Los Angeles-based financial managers, the Stapleton Group, charged with managing Peter Pan’s assets through the receivership. It says May will pay $25.3 million of the purchase price in cash, with the rest to come from a credit to account for $12 million that May previously lent the company.
The document — a brief formal notice to the court with along with a detailed purchase and sale agreement — leaves an array of unanswered questions. Those include whether and when fishermen owed money by Peter Pan could be paid off with proceeds from the sale.
The document also does not say whether any of the proceeds will go toward paying McKinley Capital Management, whose investment in Peter Pan was partially financed by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. — the agency that manages the state’s $79 billion oil wealth endowment.
The sale documents also do not commit May to reopening the aging King Cove plant, which has been shuttered for months and is valued at just $200,000 by the sale agreement.
May also may face challenges in recruiting fishermen to sell their catch to Peter Pan’s plants.
He’s been criticized in recent weeks by former Peter Pan fishermen, some of whom have said they went unpaid by the company and filed liens against it.
Dozens of fishermen wrote an open letter last month saying that trust with May and his business “has been permanently broken” and that they “will not deliver fish or be in a business relationship” with him again.
May did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did an official from the Stapleton Group.
Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@gmail.com or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.
The Peter Pan processing plant in Dillingham, Alaska. (Meg Duff/KDLG)
This spring, Peter Pan Seafoods was put into a receivership by a Washington state court after the company became unable to pay its bills. Silver Bay Seafoods stepped in to operate Peter Pan’s plants in Dillingham and in Port Moller. It also put in a bid for some of Peter Pan’s assets. But then, one of Peter Pan’s owners came back with a counter offer—and an accusation: that the bidding process wasn’t fair. He recently scored a victory in that battle.
Reporter Kirsten Dobroth has been covering Peter Pan for Undercurrent News. She spoke with KDLG’s Meg Duff about this summer’s developments.
Meg Duff: Peter Pan Seafoods was a fixture in Bristol Bay for decades, but last year, the company ran out of money and could no longer pay its debts. It didn’t go bankrupt, exactly; instead, it was put into receivership. Can you explain what happened?
Kirsten Dobroth: Right. So, bankruptcy is typically a voluntary legal process where a company in financial trouble would seek out protection from collections. In this case, Wells Fargo, which is Peter Pan’s major lender, petitioned a court in King County, Washington back in April to place the company in a receivership, which is a way for creditors to recover debt. Another difference is that a receivership is involuntary and allows a court to appoint a neutral party to sell off assets and pay back that debt.
Duff: Okay got it, and that request from Wells Fargo was granted by the court back in April.
Dobroth: Yeah, exactly. Wells Fargo said in its request that Peter Pan had missed payroll and owed tens of millions of dollars, and the court appointed a fiduciary group based in California to be the receiver.
Duff: Peter Pan’s King Cove processing facility is now closed, and Silver Bay is running its Dillingham facility and its Port Moller facility. But Silver Bay doesn’t actually own those facilities. Not yet anyway. What’s going on there?
Dobroth: Well, exactly that so far. Before this all happened, Silver Bay said that its plans for this summer in Dillingham and Port Moller were part of its long term restructuring plan. Since then, Silver Bay has reiterated that it intends to work with Peter Pan’s court appointed receiver on any long term plans for the facilities. But there hasn’t been a lot of news, at least as far as acquisitions from Peter Pan, outside of that.
Duff: This summer, while folks in Bristol Bay have been busy fishing, Silver Bay put in a bid. Then Peter Pan owner Rodger May swooped in to counter bid. Tell us the story of that bidding war.
Dobroth: I think it’s important to get out in front and say anything we know about these bids are coming from claims made by Peter Pan’s co-owner Rodger May in court documents. So there’s not really a paper trail to look at and say this person offered this much for this processing plant. That being said, Rodger May has argued – again, in court filings – that the process hasn’t fairly estimated the worth of some of Peter Pan’s assets. He says in one instance he learned of a bid from Silver Bay for some of those assets and put in his own offer, which wasn’t accepted. I guess one of the more concrete things I can say is that in the last week, Rodger May asked the court to approve his request to purchase eight Peter Pan assets, including the Port Moller processing facility and the fuel business in King Cove.
Duff: Oh interesting! So May is still trying to get some of Peter Pan’s assets back, but it’s not really clear if he is trying to get everything back.
Dobroth: Right.
Duff: In addition to claiming that Silver Bay had an unfair advantage, May also claimed that Peter Pan owed him money. What did the court say about those claims?
Dobroth: Yeah, again in court filings, Rodger May has argued that he and his wife are also Peter Pan creditors and owed about $40 million. He has also claimed that Silver Bay hired away Peter Pan executives as a way to buy up some of the company’s assets, which Silver Bay very quickly said was not true. The court won’t necessarily rule on all these individual things. But it did amend the receivership order recently upon his request to allow for more time and transparency for the sale of the company’s assets, which he had argued would benefit junior creditors – so people who are owed money other than Wells Fargo.
Duff: So now May can bid on any of Peter Pan’s assets. And so can anyone else. Do we know yet who will wind up running these facilities after the season ends, or is it still anyone’s guess?
Dobroth: Yeah, there’s been some rumors as far as the facilities that are up for sale, but nothing’s been announced. There’s also assets that aren’t real tangible property, like fisheries quota, so it’s hard to say who will end up with what when all is said and done.
Peter Pan’s grounds are normally bustling with workers, but the boardwalks and bunkhouses are now empty.
Alaska’s fishing industry has faced major challenges this past year. Low fish prices and high overhead costs have led some of the industry’s biggest players to sell or shutter their processing plants, sending shock waves through the coastal communities who rely on those canneries.
Perhaps no other community has been harder hit than the small city of King Cove, near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, 600 miles from Anchorage, the closest major city.
Its only seafood processor closed almost overnight this spring, and the city is reeling, not only from the loss of 75% of its revenue, but from the larger questions of the city’s survival.
King Cove didn’t even exist until 1911 when a seafood company, Pacific American Fisheries, opened a salmon cannery, and Unangax̂ folks moved in from surrounding villages to work there.
That fish processing plant grew to become one of Alaska’s largest. Peter Pan Seafood Co. employs about 700 seasonal workers at its King Cove facility during a typical summer. That means housing 700 people in company bunkhouses, and feeding those people daily.
The freezers and pantries were packed when the cannery, burdened by debt, closed, just before salmon season, so the company gave the food away to the community.
Ernie Newman, 65, just retired from a lifelong fishing career. Like most folks in town, he’s a company man.
“I fished for Peter Pan all my life, tendered for ‘em,” Newman said.
He was one of about 100 residents who attended the pop-up pantry at King Cove’s old school, filling his shopping cart with canned pineapple and pancake mix.
Community members attended a pop-up pantry on June 14, picking up food left behind by the seafood company’s last-minute closure.
“Peter Pan finally doin’ us a favor,” Newman said. “Oh, dandy.”
City Clerk Cora Rocili helped organize the food drive. Another lifelong resident, her parents met at the cannery, and she grew up living in company housing and hanging around the fish plant with the other workers’ kids.
“They called us the Peter Pan Brats,” Rocili said.
Just about every business in town revolves around fishing. Rocili moonlights as a bartender at MC’s Bar, near the harbor. But she says the bar is empty these days.
Everybody’s affected by what’s going on with Peter Pan. It’s sad to see. It’s definitely something I never expected to see,” she said.
Local business-owner Lillian Sager runs a food truck, and she said her business has been cut in half, forcing her and her husband to make a tough decision.
“We’re moving,” Sager said. “This is our home. This is where you know, our ancestors lived and we want to stay here, but we’re moving to Washington [State].”
Many of the folks in town are direct descendants of the Unangax̂ and European families who founded the town. That includes Mayor Warren Wilson, a third-generation King Cove fisherman who also runs a boat welding service. He said one of his welders has also moved away to find work, a trend he finds troubling.
Mayor Warren Wilson is a third-generation King Cove fisherman. He hopes the city can attract another seafood company to buy the Peter Pan facility.
“Once you start losing your population, you lose your school, and once you start losing your school, you lose children. Once you start losing children, you lose smiley faces, and then you don’t hear the laughter anymore. That’s when your community is going to die,” he said.
Wilson hopes the city can convince another seafood company to buy the Peter Pan facility. An Alaska-based company took over some of Peter Pan’s other facilities earlier this year, but didn’t purchase the King Cove plant. The town is hoping that someone comes along soon. Nobody made an offer in time for the summer salmon season, so folks are hoping it happens in time for fall.
The factory trawler Alaska Ocean seen in Dutch Harbor during A Season 2023.
Communities in the Aleutians are pushing back against proposed legislation that would bring stricter regulations to the Bering Sea trawl fishery.
The City of Unalaska and the Aleutians East Borough are among 53 organizations that signed onto a letter sent to U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola last week, urging her to withdraw H.R. 8507, a bill she sponsored in May.
The proposed legislation aims to add new regulations to where trawling can take place across the United States, not only in Alaska.
Trade organizations and some coastal communities whose economies rely on trawl fisheries have pushed back against the bill, asking the congresswoman to repeal it.
“If enacted, H.R. 8507 would directly harm fishermen and coastal communities in Alaska and throughout our nation, along with countless other people who rely on a healthy domestic seafood sector for food, jobs, and their way of life,” the letter said.
Alaska’s fishing industry has experienced major turmoil in recent years. The collapse of some fish stocks, like Bristol Bay red king crab, the decrease of salmon prices in world markets, and a flood of foreign fish have led to something of a crisis in Alaska’s commercial fisheries.
The Aleutians East Borough, which consists of six communities on the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Chain, has been hard hit by fluctuations in the industry. Low salmon prices last year and the closure of Peter Pan Seafood Co., which operated in the borough, have led community leaders to sound the alarm.
“Our major source of revenue is from raw fish taxes on seafood products, the majority of which comes from Alaska trawl fisheries,” said Aleutians East Borough Mayor Alvin D. Osterback. “These revenues fund our schools, community services, and our infrastructure.”
“If our trawl fisheries were to be substantially harmed by the requirements of this legislation … then it all comes to an end for us out here,” he added.
Bycatch has been a hot-button issue in Alaska’s fisheries, and Peltola promised to limit the accidental catch of non-targeted fish during her campaign. Dismal salmon returns in Western Alaska have created an existential threat to the region’s subsistence culture, and brought increased political pressure to limit bycatch in the Bering Sea, which some say is exacerbating the problem.
“Predatory industrial and foreign trawlers, ineffective management systems, a changing climate, and more have all played their own role,” Peltola said in a statement on her website.
But the letter’s authors point to research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Science Centers, which suggests climate change, not bycatch, is the reason salmon numbers have fallen so drastically.
“This science shows climate-related shifts in our nation’s marine ecosystems, including significant changes in the distribution of fish populations and other marine life,” the letter says.
The authors continue to say that Peltola’s proposed legislation would hinder regulators’ ability to effectively manage fisheries, calling the bill’s methods “archaic and counterproductive.”
Alaska’s seafood industry is the economy’s second largest sector, falling behind only oil and gas.
Stephanie Madsen, executive director of the seafood trade organization At-Sea Processors Association, said the legislation would hurt seafood workers, one of the largest working groups in the state.
“This bill threatens seafood sector jobs in Alaska and across the United States. More than 1.5 million Americans have jobs that depend on commercial seafood, and they deserve better than the politicization of fisheries science and management,” she said.
The summer season for Alaska’s largest trawl fishery, Alaska Pollock, opened June 10 and can last as long as Nov. 1.
Representatives from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan’s offices arrived in Sand Point Monday, their first stop on a multi-city tour around the region. The trip, which will include stops in King Cove and False Pass, comes ahead of a strategic plan the senators are expected to present to the Secretary of Commerce this summer.
Matthew Robinson, a legislative assistant with Murkowski’s office, and Sullivan policy advisor Carina Nichols, are meeting with community leaders, fishermen, and community members to hear about the impacts of Alaska’s fishing industry on locals.
Coastal communities along the peninsula have been hard hit in recent years; fish numbers and prices have been low, putting the squeeze on local budgets and households.
The congressional representatives are also traveling with Abby Fredrick from Silver Bay Seafoods, and they plan to fly to King Cove Monday evening, where the community is dealing with the closure of Peter Pan, the town’s only seafood processor.
King Cove has recently implemented several state-of-the-art infrastructure projects, including a hydroelectric power plant capable of supporting the large processing facility.
The group plans to fly to False Pass Tuesday, where Silver Bay recently took over the Trident plant, before ending their tour in Bristol Bay.
Sens. Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski are expected to present a strategic plan to the Secretary of Commerce sometime later this summer.
