Nathaniel Herz

Alaska's congressional delegation, in documents filed in federal court late Tuesday, called the proposed Donlin mine one of the state's “most important and necessary economic development projects.”

The program, if approved, would target smaller companies than those that won a share of more than $100 million in salmon and pollock purchases by the federal government earlier this year.

The years-long debate is taking on increasing urgency, as subsistence harvesting bans continue and the policy responses under consideration threaten to impose steep costs on industry.

Peter Pan Seafoods said Thursday that another processing company would lease and operate two of its Alaska plants for the summer salmon season. But another facility, in King Cove, is still in limbo.

“We are all sort of on pins and needles,” said a local official in King Cove, where fishermen and elected leaders are waiting to learn the fate of Peter Pan Seafoods' shuttered plant.

A federal judge has settled a dispute that began in 2021, when the Dunleavy administration tried to expand salmon fishing opportunities beyond those offered by the federal government.