Alaska
Legislative task force offers possible actions to rescue troubled Alaska seafood industry • Alaska Beacon
Alaska lawmakers from fishing-dependent communities say they have ideas for ways to rescue the state’s beleaguered seafood industry, with a series of bills likely to follow.
Members of a legislative task force created last spring now have draft recommendations that range from the international level, where they say marketing of Alaska fish can be much more robust, to the hyper-local level, where projects like shared community cold-storage facilities can cut costs.
The draft was reviewed at a two-day hearing in Anchorage Thursday and Friday of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry. It will be refined in the coming days, members said.
The bill that created the task force, Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, sets a deadline for a report to the full Legislature of Jan. 21, which is the scheduled first day of the session. However, a final task force report may take a little longer and be submitted as late as Feb. 1, said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, the group’s chair.
The draft is a good start to what is expected to be a session-long process, said Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, a task force member.
“We can hit the ground running because we’re got some good solid ideas,” Stutes said in closing comments on Friday. The session can last until May 20 without the Legislature voting to extend it.
Another task force member, Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, urged his colleagues to focus on the big picture and the main goals.
“We need to take a look at how we can increase market share for Alaska seafood and how we can increase value. Those two things aren’t easy, but those are the only two things that are going to matter long term. Everything else is just throwing deck chairs off the Titanic,” he said Friday.
Many of the recommended actions on subjects like insurance and allocations, if carried out, are important but incremental, Bjorkman said. “If the ship’s going down, that stuff isn’t going to matter,” he said.
Alaska’s seafood industry is beset by crises in nearly all fishing regions of the state and affecting nearly all species.
Economic forces, heavily influenced by international turmoil and a glut of competing Russian fish dumped on world markets, have depressed prices. Meanwhile, operating costs have risen sharply. Climate change and other environmental factors have triggered crashes in stocks that usually support economically important fisheries; Bering Sea king and snow crab fisheries, for example, were closed for consecutive years because stocks were wiped out after a sustained and severe marine heatwave.
In all, the Alaska seafood industry lost $1.8 billion from 2022 to 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Those problems inspired the creation of the task force last spring. The group has been meeting regularly since the summer.
The draft recommendations that have emerged from the task force’s work address marketing, product development, workforce shortages, financing, operating costs, insurance and other aspects of seafood harvesting, processing and sales.
One set of recommendations focuses on fisheries research. These call for more state and federal funding and an easy system for fisheries and environmental scientists from the state, federal government and other entities to share data quickly.
The draft recommends several steps to encourage development of new products and markets for them, including non-traditional products like protein powder, nutritional supplements and fish oil. Mariculture should be expanded, with permitting and financing made easier, according to the draft.
The draft recommendations also propose some changes in the structure of seafood taxes levied on harvesters and processors, along with new tax incentives for companies to invest in modernization, product diversification and sustainability.
Other recommendations are for direct aid to fishery workers and fishing-dependent communities in the form of housing subsidies or even development of housing projects. Shortages of affordable housing have proved to be a major challenge for communities and companies, the draft notes. More investment in worker training — using public-private partnerships — and the creation of tax credits or grants to encourage Alaska-resident hire, are also called for in the draft recommendations.
Expanded duties for ASMI?
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the state agency that promotes Alaska seafood domestically and internationally, figures large in the draft recommendations.
The draft calls for more emphasis on the quality and sustainability of Alaska fish and, in general, more responsibilities for ASMI. An example is the recommended expansion of ASMI’s duties to include promotion of Alaska mariculture. That would require legislation, such as an early version of bill that was sponsored by outgoing Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan. It would also require mariculture operators’ willingness to pay into the program.
But ASMI, as it is currently configured, is not equipped to tackle such expanded operations, lawmakers said. Even obtaining modest increases in funding for ASMI has proved to be a challenge. A $10 million increase approved by the Legislature last year was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who cited a failure by ASMI to develop a required plan for the money.
The governor’s proposed budget released in December includes an increase in state money for ASMI, but his suggestion that $10 million in new funding be spread over three years falls far short of what the organization needs, Stevens said at the time.
Incoming House Speaker and task force member Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said there will probably be a need to reorganize or restructure ASMI to make it more autonomous. That might mean partnering with a third party and the creation of more managerial and financial independence from whoever happens to be in political office at the time, as he explained it.
“The umbilical cord needs to be perhaps cut to some degree,” Edgmon said on Friday, during the hearing’s public comment period. The solution could be to make ASMI more of a private entity, he said.
“Because the world is changing. It’s a global marketplace. We need to have ASMI to have as large a presence as possible,” he said.
But for now, ASMI and plans for its operations have been constricted by political concerns. “People are afraid of how it’s going to go back to the governor’s office,” Edgmon said.
Federal assistance
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, spoke to the task force on Thursday about ways the federal government could help the Alaska seafood industry.
One recent success, she said, is passage of the bipartisan Fishery Improvement to Streamline Untimely Regulatory Hurdles post Emergency Situation Act, known as the FISHES Act, which was signed into law a few days earlier.
The act establishes a system to speed fisheries disaster aid. It can take two to three years after a fisheries disaster is declared for relief funds to reach affected individuals, businesses and communities, and that is “unacceptable,” Murkowski said. The bill addresses that situation, though not perfectly. “It’s still not the best that it could be,” she said.
Another helpful piece of federal legislation that is pending, she said, is the Working Waterfronts Bill she introduced in February. The bill contains provisions to improve coastal infrastructure, coastal energy systems and workforce development.
More broadly, Murkowski said she and others continue to push for legislation or policies to put seafood and fisheries on the same footing as agriculture. That includes the possibility of fishery disaster insurance similar to the crop insurance that is available to farmers, she said.
But getting federal action on seafood, or even attention to it, can be difficult, she said.
“It is a reality that we have faced, certainly since my time in the senate, that seafood has been viewed as kind of an afterthought by many when it comes to a food resource, a source of protein,” she said.
Inclusion of seafood in even simple programs can be difficult to achieve, she said. She cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision, announced in April, to include canned salmon as a food eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC. She and others had been working for several years to win that approval, she said.
Tariffs a looming threat
Seafood can also be an afterthought in federal trade policy, Murkowski said.
Tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to impose on U.S. trade partners pose a serious concern to Alaska’s seafood industry, she said.
“The president-elect has made very, very, very, very clear that this is going to be a new administration and we’re going to use tariffs to our advantage. I don’t know what exactly to expect from that,” she said.
In the past, tariffs imposed by the U.S. government have been answered with retaliatory tariffs that cause problems for seafood and other export-dependent industries.
Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s executive director, has similar warnings about tariffs, noting that about 70% of the Alaska seafood, as measured by value, is sold to markets outside of the U.S.
“We tend to be, as an industry, collateral damage in a lot of trade relationships. We’re not the main issue. And that usually is a bad outcome for seafood,” he told the committee on Thursday.
To avoid or mitigate problems, Alaska leaders and the Alaska industry will have to respond quickly and try to educate trade officials about tariff impacts on seafood exports, Woodrow said.
Task force members expressed concerns about impacts to the export-dependent Alaska industry.
“If we raise tariffs on another country, won’t they simply turn around and raise tariffs on us?” asked Stevens.
Tariffs on Chinese products, which Trump has suggested repeatedly, could cause particular problems for Alaska seafood, Stutes said. She pointed to the companies that send fish, after initial processing, to China for further processing in preparation for sale to final markets, some of which are back in the U.S.
“If there is a huge tariff put on products going and coming from China, that would seem to me to have another huge gut shot to those processors that are sending their fish out for processing,” Stutes said.
Bjorkman, a former high school government teacher, said history shows the dangers of aggressive tariff policies.
The isolationist “America-first” approach, as carried out at turns over the past 150 years, “hasn’t worked out very well. It’s been real bad,” Bjorkman said.” As an alternative, he suggested broader seafood promotions, backed by federal or multistate support, to better compete in the international marketplace.
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Fairbanks, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) – On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox and Lee Zeldin, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), spoke to press at the University of Alaska Fairbanks power plant.
During their time at the university, the federal and state leaders spoke about developing resources such as coal, oil, gas and critical minerals in the 49th state.
During his 24-hour trip to Fairbanks, Zeldin said he has spoke to business and state leaders about environmental regulations impacting operations in Alaska, saying the EPA needs to consider whether regulations are solving problems or are solutions in search of a problem.
He also discussed the concept of “cooperative federalism,” where the EPA takes its cues from state leaders to determine where regulations and help are needed.
“We’re here at the University of Alaska’s coal plant, and the most modern coal plant in the United States of America,” Dunleavy said.
Zeldin said visiting Fairbanks in winter helps inform decisions the agency is considering.
“There are a lot of decisions right now in front of this agency that the first-hand perspective of being here on the ground helps inform our agency to make the right decision,” he said.
Zeldin also said the agency is hearing concerns from Alaska truckers about diesel exhaust rules in extreme cold.
“We then met with truckers who have been dealing with unique cold weather concerns with the implementation of EPA regulations related to diesel exhaust fluid system,” he said.
When asked about PFAS in drinking water, Zeldin said the EPA is not rolling back the standards.
“So the PFAS standards are not being rolled back at all,” he said.
On Fairbanks air quality and PM2.5 regulations, Zeldin said the agency wants to work with the state.
“We want, at the EPA, to help the Fairbanks community be able to be in attainment on PM 2.5. We want to make it work,” he said.
Dunleavy said energy costs and heating needs remain a major factor in Interior air quality discussions.
“People have to be able to live. They’ve got to be able to afford to live,” he said.
Zeldin said EPA is considering further changes to diesel regulations and urged Alaskans to participate in the rulemaking process.
“We need Alaskans to participate in that public comment period,” he said.
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This is the beginning of the Iditarod spring, signaled by the burst of sun and what used to be the long wait for dog teams to pass under the arch in Nome, the finish line a thousand miles away from Anchorage. For old-timers, it’s the story of the way Alaska used to be. What once was a 30-day wait has become about 10 days for winners to celebrate and the rest of us to shout, “Well done.”
My story is about family that welcomed immigrants from all over the world to be among the last groups of Indigenous people in the country, a life of taking good care of dog teams, and of parents who taught their children how to live in a wild, rugged frontier.
I came to be in a different age, a time of dog teams that ruled the trails to mining camps and where the salmon ran strongest — before the introduction of the snowmachine that revolutionized rural and Native Alaska.
For the Blatchford family, it is a recognition that some things will always stay the same and everything else changes. All four of my grandparents were noncitizens. My mother Lena’s parents of Elim were Alaska Natives, as was my dad Ernie’s mother, Mae, of Shishmaref. The name Blatchford comes from his father, the Englishman who was born in Cornwall and arrived in Nome during the gold rush. His brother, William, was one of the early immigrants, and by 1899 there was a creek just outside Nome named after him. He discovered gold. My grandfather, Percy, found gold, too, but it was a different kind of wealth, a finding that he had found home and never left.
I was born in Nome, delivered by an Iñupiaq Eskimo midwife in a one-room cabin where the frozen Bering Sea met the treeless tundra’s permafrost. Dad had a dog team. I like to think that the dogs were anxious for me to be born because it was hunting time for Dad to hitch them up and mush out to where the sea mammals, snowshoe hares, ptarmigan and other game thrived in the winter. My earliest memories are of dogs; all of them working as a team to bring home the game so we could have a fine meal cooked by Lena. In the Arctic, dogs were essential for family survival. If you didn’t hunt, you didn’t eat.
There are several memories that remain strong. I suppose I can call them lessons of the Arctic.
The first is to take care of the dogs and treat them well. Dog lovers all over the world know very well that a dog, whatever the breed, is loyal and will die to protect the one who feeds and pets it. If you don’t feed a husky, it won’t pull, and it could mean a long time before the family eats. When a dog team is hungry, it will race back home to be fed a healthy meal. Mother Lena must have been a great cook because Dad said the dog team always raced back to the edge of Nome, where Lena was waiting beside the propane stove. For Mike, Tom and me, our job was to take the rifle, shotgun and .22 into the cabin to be cleaned and oiled. Once that was quickly done, we unhitched the dogs and then fed the team.
All three of us boys had special responsibilities to Tim, Buttons and Girlie. Tim, the lead dog, was brother Mike’s pet; Tom had Buttons, and I had Girlie. We made sure they were healthy and well cared for. Dad would often comment that “Papa,” our grandfather Percy, the Englishman, took good care of his dog teams, being kind to the dogs and feeding them. Dad was the oldest of a large family that lived in Teller and later Nome.
“Papa” Percy was a prospector, fox farmer and a contestant in the All-Alaska Sweepstakes, the dog team race from Nome to the mining camp of Candle, a 400-mile race. He didn’t win, but he finished well, very well. The stories of the Sweepstakes have remained with the family for over a century. At a memorial service in Palmer for “Doc” Blatchford, Aunt Marge, without a question or a prompt, said that Papa took good care of his dogs.
Percy Blatchford was a legend in the Alaska Territory. As a teacher of Alaska newspapers, I would find headlines similar to one in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that blazed on the front page: “Blatchford Wins Solomon Derby.” There was even a story in The New York Times.
There’s probably no other sport in Alaska that brought Alaskans together like dog mushing. When old-timers would visit over strong coffee, dogs and dog team racing would come up. In the territory, there were few high schools and fewer gymnasiums, so the only team sport was dog mushing. It was something to talk about that was unique to Alaskans.
I used to travel in rural Alaska quite a bit. In the smaller communities, I would see the teams and would wonder how long they would power the engines that brought the mail and the foodstuffs down and up the trails. When I think of dog teaming, I think of the Iditarod and wonder, and then come to know, what the strength of the story would mean for bringing generations together from Papa Blatchford to his eldest son Ernie and to the fourth generation of Blatchfords in Alaska.
There are times when I think that old-time Alaska is gone. But then my faith and confidence in the old-time spirit are ignited when I see what others in the Lower 48 see. When I was walking in downtown Philadelphia, I looked up and saw on an ancient federal building a stamped concrete sculpture of a dog musher leaning into a blizzard. Such is the way I think of the Iditarod and the lessons I learned growing up with the dog team, preserved in my memories.
Edgar Blatchford is former mayor of Seward, Mile 0 of the Iditarod Trail.
• • •
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New Alaska voyages debut in 2026 as lines like MSC Cruises and Virgin Voyages expand into the booming market.
How to find the best price, perks when booking a cruise
Find the cruise that works for your budget with these tips.
Problem Solved
Travelers will have new ways to see Alaska this year.
A number of cruise lines are launching sailings to the Last Frontier in 2026, from luxury to large family-friendly and adults-only ships. About 65% of people visiting the state during the summer do so by cruise ship, according to Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, and demand is high.
“I think Alaska is always very popular, but we’re seeing that ships are selling out way quicker than they used to,” Joanna Kuther, a travel agent and owner of Port Side Travel Consultants, told USA TODAY.
With new inventory opening up this season, here’s what travelers should know about Alaska cruises.
Which cruise lines are adding Alaska sailings?
- MSC Cruises will launch its first-ever Alaska sailings aboard MSC Poesia on May 11. The ship will be fresh from dry dock to add enhancements, including the line’s luxe ship-within-a-ship concept, the MSC Yacht Club.
- Virgin Voyages’ newest ship, Brilliant Lady, will operate the company’s inaugural Alaska cruises. The adults-only cruise line will set sail there starting on May 21.
- The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will debut its first Alaska cruises this year on its Luminara vessel. The first of those sailings will depart on May 28.
Those join other operators like Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, American Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises and more.
What are the draws of Alaska cruises?
Glaciers are a major attraction for visitors. “One of the major (draws) is Glacier Bay,” said Kuther. “…And then the other one is definitely the wildlife.”
That includes bears, whales, moose and salmon. In addition to its many natural wonders, the state is also a cultural destination where visitors can learn about its Native peoples.
When is the best time to take an Alaska cruise?
That depends what you’re looking for. The Alaska cruise season generally runs from April through October, and Kuther said visitors will tend to see more wildlife between the end of June through August.
“That’s super peak season,” she said. “That’s also where you’re going to have more families, more crowds.” Some locals have also said those crowds are putting a strain on the very environment tourists are there to see.
Travelers may find less packed ships and ports by visiting earlier or later in the season – and there are other perks. If passengers go in May “it’s still a little bit snowy, so your scenery is going to be really cool,” Kuther said. Travelers visiting in September or October, meanwhile, could have a better shot at seeing the northern lights.
Where do ships usually sail?
The most popular itinerary is the Inside Passage, according to Kuther. That often sails round-trip from Seattle or Vancouver with stops such as Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. “People will go back to Alaska and do different routes,” she said. “This is a very good way to start.”
Other options include one-way cruises between Vancouver or Seattle and Anchorage. Travelers can also take cruisetours that combine sailings with land-based exploration, including train rides and tours of Denali National Park and Preserve.
Tips for Alaska cruises
- Book early: Alaska itineraries sell out quickly, and so do shore excursions. Unique offerings like helicopter tours and dog sledding are popular, and there are only so many spots.
- Consider a balcony cabin: This is “almost a must” in Kuther’s opinion. Crew members may make announcements about whales or other sightings near the ship, and guests with their own private viewing spot won’t have to race out on deck.
- Pack carefully: “Packing is an art when it comes to Alaska,” Kuther said. “It really is, because you need so many things.” Her top three picks are bug spray, layers of clothing for the fluctuating temperatures and a waterproof jacket in case of rain.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.
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