ADF&G Commissioner Says Fisheries Overall Remain Healthy

Challenges of climate change, market conditions and politics aside, Alaska’s fisheries resources remain overall healthy, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang told a legislative task force seeking to evaluate the state’s seafood industry.

“Yes, we have some poorly performing stocks, for example king salmon and Bering Sea crab, but overall, our fishery resources remain healthy,”  Vincent-Lang told the joint legislative task force meeting in Juneau on Sept. 19.

The commissioner recounted the status of the state’s commercial fisheries, from groundfish and halibut to salmon, including the impact of changing climate, the markets and political issues for each, as well as related litigation, particularly in the case of a lawsuit aimed at shutting down the Southeast Alaska king salmon troll fishery.

He spoke in defense of the state’s hatcheries, which he said play a key role in providing stability to harvesters and processors in years of low production. ADF&G is on schedule to begin producing and reporting final results for the pink salmon portion of the Alaska Hatchery Wild Project in 2025 and chum salmon in early 2026, he said.

“More and more lawsuits are challenging the prosecution of our fisheries,” Vincent-Lang said.  Along with litigation over the king salmon troll fishery, the state is facing challenges to state managed personal use and subsistence fisheries and having to defend a legal challenge to a federal fisheries management plan to reduce halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea, he said.

“We must defend the state’s right to manage our fisheries,” he added.

Bristol Bay red king crab abundance is slowly increasing, and the 2024-25 season will open for a second consecutive year on Oct. 15, after a two-year closure, while the Bering Sea Tanner crab fishery will open with an anticipated total allowable catch in the 6-to-7 million-pound range, more than double the 2023-24 TAC, he said.

The costs of doing business, for both for harvesters and processors, remains an issue of concern.

“Fish prices have not kept pace with inflation and increases in operational costs,” he said.

While global demand has not increased substantially, supply has from foreign players, notably Asia and Russia, flooding global markets and lowering demand for more costly but sustainable products like Alaska’s seafood, he added.

Vincent-Lang acknowledged that harvesters are also facing challenges with bycatch and intercept issues.

“The goal is to reduce bycatch and intercept, and action needs to be taken at both the federal and state level,” he said.

The commissioner also called for changes in U.S. trade policies that would allow Alaska products to be treated fairly and equitably on global markets, and greater effort to move Alaska seafood into domestic markets.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute does a great job marketing Alaskan products worldwide,” he said. “We need the same effort to cement Alaska seafood into the U.S. markets.  This will ensure a long-term market for Alaskan fish.”