Alaska trawling – As low salmon returns and restrictions have disrupted subsistence life across Alaska’s Yukon and Kuskokwim regions for more than half a decade, commercial trawling—still allowed to operate—continues to generate massive bycatch, with much discarded dead. With t
Five people were rescued after a fishing vessel ran aground and began taking on water on Umnak Island in Alaska’s Aleutian archipelago, footage showed—an abrupt reminder that fishing in Alaska is never just business. It’s survival, weather, and risk.
In the weeks leading into a national election year, another risk has been building more quietly: trawling.
For generations, Alaska Native families along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers have organized life around salmon. But for more than half a decade. low salmon returns have forced heavy restrictions and. in some cases. outright prohibitions on food gathering. Subsistence, commercial, sport, personal-use and charter fisheries have all suffered devastating losses, leaving families without a reliable food source.
The anger is concentrated on what comes next. Even with those impacts, the largest and most wasteful fishery in Alaska—trawling—keeps operating “with business as usual.” In public sentiment cited in the piece, 74% of Alaskans want to ban it entirely.
The trawlers at the center of the dispute drag massive nets through cold waters off Alaska’s shores. They’re mostly based out of Seattle and target groundfish and whitefish such as pollock, which are processed into fish sticks, fast-food sandwiches and imitation crab.
Along the way. those nets have caught tens of thousands of king and chum salmon that originated in—and could have returned to—western Alaska rivers like the Yukon and Kuskokwim. The catches don’t stop there. Trawlers also incidentally catch species including herring, halibut, sablefish and crab. In recent years, they have caught at least 10 killer whales.
Most of that incidental catch, described as bycatch, is discarded dead.
Supporters of trawling call some of the activity “sustainable,” and they argue certain operations are carried out in midwater. But critics say the damage is broader. They argue the waste is an “astounding 141 million pounds of marine life” each year. and that trawlers’ heavy gear crushes bottom-dwelling species such as crab and cold water coral while ripping up ocean floor habitat.
Even the term “midwater” is contested. While government and industry describe some trawling as “midwater,” studies now estimate that the gear is actually dragging the ocean floor a substantial amount of the time.
Compounding the dispute, critics say trawlers are still allowed to trawl in protected areas that are closed to bottom trawling and other forms of fishing.
There’s also a market-facing layer to the conflict: in the account, trawl-caught fish are still erroneously labeled “sustainable” by the Marine Stewardship Council, a move that the writers say misleads consumers.
At the same time, federal rulemaking is becoming part of the argument. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is actively changing the rules in a way that would benefit trawlers. according to the piece—letting them sell salmon they catch as low-value products like fish meal. fish oil or bone meal. which the text says was recently illegal.
While that regulatory shift is underway, the writers say NOAA is ignoring handwritten letters from villages along the Yukon River that plead for help to get their salmon back.
The sequence the writers lay out is stark: low salmon returns have already cut into subsistence and multiple other fisheries for more than half a decade. bycatch from trawling continues at scale. and new rules would allow trawl-caught salmon to be converted into lower-value products—while communities that depend on salmon say they’re being left with no reliable path to recovery.
Alaska trawling salmon bycatch Yukon River subsistence Kuskokwim salmon NOAA rule change Marine Stewardship Council Marine life waste Native Alaskan cultural crisis 2026 elections fishing regulations
So they’re just throwing dead salmon back? That’s messed up.
I swear every election year they suddenly care about salmon. Like it’s only a problem now because cameras are around. Still, bycatch is bycatch, right?
Wait, I thought trawling is just for like king salmon direct, not random stuff. If they’re dragging nets for pollock and catching salmon too, then they should just, I don’t know, fish somewhere else? Also people rescued after that boat accident (Umnak?) sounds unrelated but fishing accidents always happen when the weather turns.
74% want to ban it and they still let it run? That seems like government doesn’t listen at all. I don’t even live there but my cousin in Alaska said the salmon situation has been brutal forever. They talk about restrictions for subsistence, but commercial keeps going like normal… idk, feels like bait and switch. Also “killer whales” getting caught?? I thought those were protected, so how is that even allowed?