A big price increase for Bristol Bay fishermen

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has released the 2026 Bristol Bay salmon season summary. Here are a few highlights:

• The commercial harvest of 30.1 million sockeye was 7 percent below forecast.

• Average ex-vessel price for sockeye was $1.72 a pound, with total sockeye fishery value for the season totaling $260.2 million.

• By comparison, the 2025 season summary showed a catch of 41.2 million sockeye, a price of $1.03 a pound and a fishery value of $214.3 million.

• Average sockeye weight this season was about 5 pounds, equaling the recent five-year average.

• Egegik was the most productive fishing district with a catch of 9.2 million sockeye, edging the Nushagak with 9.1 million.

UFA's new skipper

Thatcher Brouwer is the new executive director for United Fishermen of Alaska, the state's top commercial fishing organization.

Brouwer is a 20-year commercial fisherman who also has worked as a legislative aide every winter since 2015, said an announcement on Facebook.

He succeeds UFA's former executive director, Tracy Welch, who was appointed to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.

Ideas, anyone?

An Alaska Board of Fisheries committee will meet Sept. 25 to discuss, among other things, ways to "most efficiently utilize time during board meetings." More information here.

Washington watch

Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is in a tough reelection fight, today celebrated passage of his Bycatch Reduction Act (S. 4938) out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Sullivan, in a social media post, called it "the most comprehensive bycatch bill ever introduced in the Congress."

The legislation now heads to the Senate floor, he said.

Major trawl organizations are less than pleased with the bill and issued this joint press release.

Trawl bycatch has become a hot topic during this election season, with candidates in congressional and gubernatorial races all chiming in on the arcane topic.

Addressing trawl issues in Alaska

Here's a column by state Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang.

Kodiak fisheries debates

Here are all the details.

Wrangell declares Dungeness fishery disaster

Here's a press release.

Salmon notes

• This is a down year in terms of catch volume. With the fishing season substantially concluded, the statewide harvest stands at 87.2 million salmon. That's far below the state's preseason projection of 125.5 million. The last time Alaska's annual salmon harvest finished below 100 million fish was nearly four decades ago, in 1987.

• Much of the shortfall owes to a poor pink salmon harvest. About 56 million pinks were expected, but the industry thus far has taken only 38 million. Regionally, results vary widely. Kodiak has slightly exceeded projections with a catch of 12.8 million, while Prince William Sound is experiencing disaster with only 3.8 million pinks taken on a forecast of 18.6 million. Most Prince William Sound pinks come from hatcheries.

• The statewide sockeye harvest lags projections by 24 percent, and the chum harvest is 41 percent behind.

• On the bright side, the weak harvest appears to be boosting prices for commercial fishermen. For example, the Southeast Alaska purse seine harvest is expected to exceed the 2016-25 average value of $56.5 million, with the Department of Fish and Game reporting salmon prices are "substantially higher than they have been for many years."

• Southeast Alaska trollers were expected to reach the limit of 33,000 treaty Chinook salmon by the midnight Friday closure of the second summer opener. Based on reported average prices and weights, each Chinook is worth about $97.

Blotter

Check out The Brig for some federal fisheries enforcement news.