Conservation group to sue over Kodiak, Gulf salmon management

The Wild Fish Conservancy has sent notice to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries it intends to sue over management of sport and commercial salmon fisheries in Kodiak, Chignik and Alaska Peninsula waters, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act.

“Nearly nine out of ten Chinook salmon caught in commercial fisheries along the South Alaska Peninsula in 2024 and 2025 originated outside Alaska, according to research from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“Yet these fisheries operate without federal Endangered Species Act oversight of their impacts on threatened and endangered Pacific Northwest Chinook, even as communities where these fish return face strict fishing limits and invest heavily in their recovery,” WFC wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to ADF&G Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang.

The conservation group said the fish caught in Alaska should be classified as endangered throughout their migratory range, not just in their area of origin.

“The legal action highlights a long-standing gap in federal salmon protections. While fisheries in Washington and Oregon face strict limits on their impacts to Endangered Species Act-listed Chinook, these commercial salmon fisheries in Alaska are not subject to comparable federal ESA oversight — even when they catch salmon from the same protected populations.”

Vincent-Lang outlined his response in a press release Friday. He said the notice mirrors language in an unsuccessful bid to limit Southeast Alaska trollers in 2020.

Then, the group claimed that federal regulators failed to adequately account for the effects of the fishery on endangered Southeast resident killer whales.

“The appeals court found that shutting down the fishery was not justified and the National Marine Fisheries Service determined that ESA listings were not warranted. Sweeping and broadly framed allegations appear again in their latest complaint,” Lang wrote.

WFC’s letter also states the intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service over alleged Endangered Species Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and National Environmental Policy Act violations, and petition the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to rewrite salmon management plans for fisheries in federal waters of the Alaska Peninsula Management Area (Area M) and Kodiak.

“The WFC intent letter is wide ranging — involving salmon stocks from the Yukon to Oregon, three management entities, three fishing areas, three federal laws, two lawsuits, and one petition. It’s a lot to unpack,” said ADF&G Policy Advisor Dani Evenson.

The Wild Fish Conservancy cited ADF&G’s own genetic studies in its pending legal claims.

A February 2026 ADF&G genetic study found that 86.4% of Chinook harvested in South Alaska Peninsula commercial fisheries in 2024, and 88.4% in 2025, came from rivers outside Alaska.

“No Chinook spawning populations are documented anywhere in the South Alaska Peninsula area. In neighboring Chignik, the area’s only Chinook run has failed to meet its spawning goal in five of the last six years, prompting the Alaska Board of Fisheries to designate it a stock of management concern in 2023.

The pattern extends to Kodiak. A study from 2016 found that British Columbia and US West Coast fish made up more than 80% of both the commercial and marine sport Chinook harvests, and a July 2026 study corroborated. Kodiak native Chinook runs accounted for less than 5%.

“Taxpayers have spent more than $9 billion over the past four decades trying to restore salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin, where populations like Upper Willamette spring Chinook are still threatened with extinction,” said Helverson.

“That investment can’t pay off if the fish it was meant to recover are harvested off the Alaska Peninsula before they ever make it home,” said WFC Executive Director Emma Helverson.

Vincent-Lang said the state will respond forcefully to the pending suit. “Sustainable management of our fisheries is the bedrock concept of our salmon management program. We do not take such unfounded allegations lightly. As we did with the previous unjustified actions by this group, we will defend Alaska’s fisheries.”

This story was originally published by Kodiak Daily Mirror and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.