Oceanographic
Eva Cahill
January 26, 2026
Ocean and local community NGOs say the Alaskan Pollock Industry report is built on ‘faulty assumptions’ and ends with ‘incomplete conclusions’, citing new analysis that challenges its findings.
Trawlers Get Away with Playing by Their Own Rules
Anchorage Daily News
Mike Williams Sr. and Walt Pasternak
January 29, 2026
Picture this: A person subsistence fishing on the Kuskokwim chooses to fish for salmon to sustain their family when the river is closed. They risk having their net, buoy and harvest confiscated by federal or state wildlife officials. If that happens, they then have to travel away from home to Bethel, which could be hours away by boat or hundreds of dollars away by plane, to retrieve their gear. They probably will have to pay a fine or maybe serve some jail time. Their catch will be gone.
Patti Phillips Sitka Conservation Society Subsistence Article
Patti Phillips knows subsistence.
She grew up in Sitka, learning how to harvest deer from her father. When she moved to Pelican, she raised her family on that same subsistence way of life.
“My husband and I got married in 1982 and had a family. We spent the winters trapping and getting deer. It was important that we got the deer meat. It wasn’t just about building traditions with our kids, it was a means of survival.”
For more than 30 years, Patti has served on the Southeast Regional Advisory Council, bringing both a deep understanding of subsistence policy under ANILCA and a lifetime of lived experience on the land and water.
Call to Ban Bottom Trawling in New Zealand
January 12, 2026
Seafood News
New Zealand spearfishing champion Darren Shields is urging Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones to ban bottom-trawl fishing, believing it is setting the country up for more collapsed fisheries like two already ruined in Northland.
Sea Trial Near for Sitka Electric Fishing Boat
Daily Sitka Sentinel
January 12, 2026
Anna Laffrey
Tradesmen are working around the clock at Sitka’s community boatyard to install a hybrid electric propulsion system on the F/V Mirage, and breathe life into research toward clean energy solutions and cost savings for Alaska's small boat fisheries.
Target on Tongass The wildest national forest may soon lose its protections
The Seattle Times
January 3, 2026
Lynda V. Mapes
The otherworldly beauty of the Tongass National Forest is at the heart of the livelihood of many local Southeast Alaska businesses that host a booming tourism industry. “They don’t come here to see clearcuts,” says Dan Blanchard, whose small-boat cruise operation draws 7,000 to 10,000 visitors every summer to see the big trees, bears and wild salmon that have thrived under the protection of the federal Roadless Rule.
AK trawl is “a model of sustainable fishing” says global watchdog. No Alaskans weighed in.
Alaskafish.news
January 2, 2026
Laine Welch
Bering Sea and Gulf of AK trawl fisheries were re-certified as well-managed and sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Alaskans were left out of the process.
Alaska’s First Commercial Fishing Boat Hybrid Prepares to Hit the Water
Must Read Alaska
December 17, 2025
Natalie Spaulding
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) has been working to hybridize Alaska’s fishing fleets since receiving a grant from the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office (VTO) in 2021. From 2021-2023, ALFA partnered with the National Research Energy Laboratory to “identify that the viable next step is a hybrid diesel/electric boat.”
‘We’re really breaking new ground’: hybrid fishing boat prepares for maiden voyage in Sitka
KCAW Raven Radio
December 15, 2025
Hope McKenney
It’s a cold, snowy day down by Sitka’s marine haulout. Inside the giant unheated commercial workspace, I can still see my breath as men weld and work on boat parts around me.
Off to one side is a giant engine — or should I say two, one white and one dark grey — stuck together in an intricate pattern of metal and tubing. This engine is hybrid electric and is about to be put in the 50-foot fishing vessel Mirage.
The Mirage could be Alaska’s first official hybrid electric fishing boat, and it’s one step closer to hitting the water. The boat is part of a pilot program based in Sitka to address high fuel costs for the fishing fleet and maybe make fishing just a little bit greener.
The state government should do everything it can to defend our fisheries
Juneau Independent
December 14, 2025
Linda Behnken
On Dec. 5, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation director Randy Bates wrote an opinion piece arguing against Salmon Beyond Borders and the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association's (ALFA's) assertion that, 10 years after the Walker administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with British Columbia, the Dunleavy administration is "leaving Alaskans in the dark." Reading Mr. Bates' opinion piece you would not realize that commercial fishermen have also expressed strong concerns about the state's lack of action to protect the Taku, Stikine, Unuk, and Salmon Rivers from the B.C. polluting mining boom upstream.