Salmon

Dunleavy responded to fears over the bill in a video, doubling down on his assertion that it would not open opportunities for salmon farming.

The issue pits a multibillion-dollar industry against Western Alaska subsistence communities struggling with record-low salmon returns — with climate change in the background.

Nikolski on Umnak Island, located in the middle of the Aleutian chain, recently hosted its annual salmon derby, a competition held since the 1980s. Locals gather on the beach every September to try to catch the heaviest fish. And this year, kids were included in the derby for the first time in many years.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has restricted fishing within 500 yards of the McLees Lake river mouth July 1-9.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was unable to get funding to count fish and collect data this summer at Unalaska’s McLees Lake, where the community harvests a large majority of its subsistence sockeye salmon.

The pollock fishery currently has a cap on Chinook bycatch, but those asking for stricter limits say the restrictions don’t go far enough.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages federal fisheries in Alaska, will continue to explore options for how to manage chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. The council, facing rising pressure from western Alaska communities who depend on chum as a cornerstone of subsistence, released a statement Wednesday summarizing their decision from their April meeting.

The move is part of a larger restructuring for Silver Bay to take over Peter Pan’s processing and support facilities later this year, which could include the Peter Pan plant in King Cove.

Nearly 100 tribes and communities in western Alaska, including the Association of Village Council Presidents, signed their support for an emergency petition that would set a zero bycatch limit on chinook salmon in the pollock trawl fishery for 180 days, a move Unalaska Mayor Vince Tutiakoff Sr. said would “effectively shut down the entire pollock fishery of the Bering Sea,” and create a “dire situation” for Unalaska.

The Alaska Salmon Research Task Force is seeking public input on its report about Alaska salmon and their life cycles. Members of the federal group — which formed in June — are tasked with building a report on data gaps in Pacific salmon research and supporting sustainable management of declining salmon stocks, especially in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.