Sign in Subscribe

commercial fishing

Coastal Alaskans see commercial fishing limits as a ‘crisis.’ Lawmakers don’t.

Coastal Alaskans see commercial fishing limits as a ‘crisis.’ Lawmakers don’t.

Alaska’s Legislature adjourned last week without addressing an issue that many residents of coastal, Native villages see as urgent: expanding access to commercial fishing careers.

The last skipper in Ouzinkie: How Gulf of Alaska villages lost their Native fishing fleets

The last skipper in Ouzinkie: How Gulf of Alaska villages lost their Native fishing fleets

A permitting system designed in the 1970s was supposed to make Alaska’s commercial fishing industry more sustainable and more profitable. But over the last 50 years, it has hollowed out many Indigenous coastal villages where residents no longer can earn a living by harvesting salmon.

“Huge disaster”: Historically weak pink salmon runs strain Alaska’s seine fishermen

“Huge disaster”: Historically weak pink salmon runs strain Alaska’s seine fishermen

Skippers in Prince William Sound and Kodiak say this year's pink harvest is one of the worst they’ve ever seen. “I wake up every morning and I try to apply for a different job," one said.