Anna Nelson
The Quality Line
February 10, 2026
What new NOAA-backed research tells us about Pacific cod, warming seas, and the year classes that never arrive.
Put an end to unsustainable management of halibut
Bonny Millard
Juneau Independent
February 17, 2026
“I would like to begin by stating that Alaska’s halibut resource is currently at an all-time low — approximately a 40-year low — and is approaching an endangered state as a result of irresponsible management decisions.”
Leveling the playing field for U.S. fishermen
Linda Behnken
Alaska Beacon
February 3, 2026
As a longtime salmon, halibut and sablefish fisherman, I begin this year with some hope and gratitude. With admirable bipartisan effort, Congress and federal agencies have taken important steps to make seafood more sustainable and to ensure the hardworking men and women who harvest it can earn a fair living.
30 Day Public Comment Period - Notice of Intent for Tongass Forest Plan revision
On Wednesday, February 18, the Forest Service issued its Notice of Intent to revise the existing Tongass National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan) and prepare an environmental impact statement analyzing new plan content. The Forest Service plans to produce a Draft Forest Plan and Environmental Impact Statement this fall and finalize the plan in 2027. The Notice of Intent triggers opportunities for public comment related to the need to change the current plan, recommendations for plan content, significant issues and the development of alternative approaches to forest management.
Stay Tuned:
ALFA will prepare a comment guide several weeks before the deadline for submitting comments, which is March 20, 2026. Online comment submissions will be available at: http://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=64039
The agency will also hold public meetings, with times and locations available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r10/tongass/planning/forest-plan/plan-revision-public-engagements
'A load of pollocks': NGOs question pollock industry reports
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.