Wild Fish Conservancy plans lawsuits over Alaska salmon management

ADF&G data show most South Peninsula commercial Chinook originated outside Alaska

The Wild Fish Conservancy has notified the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries that it intends to file two lawsuits over management of sport and commercial salmon fisheries in Kodiak, Chignik and Alaska Peninsula waters, alleging Endangered Species Act violations. An Oct. 28 letter to Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang said one lawsuit would target the National Marine Fisheries Service under the Endangered Species Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The group also plans to petition the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to rewrite salmon-management plans for federal waters of the Alaska Peninsula Management Area, known as Area M, and Kodiak.

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 group said the legal action highlights a long-standing gap in federal salmon protections. It contrasted strict limits in Washington and Oregon on those fisheries’ impacts on Endangered Species Act-listed Chinook with Alaska commercial salmon fisheries’ lack of comparable federal ESA oversight over their impacts on threatened and endangered Pacific Northwest Chinook, even when they catch salmon from the same protected populations. The group’s letter said communities where the fish return face strict fishing limits and invest heavily in recovery.

The Wild Fish Conservancy cited ADF&G’s own genetic studies in its planned legal claims. A February 2026 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. The group’s letter said 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. In Kodiak, a 2016 study found that British Columbia and US West Coast fish made up more than 80% of both commercial and marine sport Chinook harvests, and a July 2026 study corroborated the earlier finding. Kodiak native Chinook runs accounted for less than 5%.

The group also claimed that federal regulators failed to adequately account for the fishery’s effects on endangered Southeast resident killer whales. Vincent-Lang disputed the group’s legal premise, writing: “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.”

Vincent-Lang outlined his response in a press release Friday. He said the notice mirrored language in an unsuccessful bid to limit Southeast Alaska trollers in 2020. He said the state would respond forcefully to the planned litigation: “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.”

Wild Fish Conservancy Executive Director Emma Helverson connected the Alaska harvests to restoration spending elsewhere. “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,” she said. Helverson added: “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.”

ADF&G Policy Advisor Dani Evenson described the scope of the proposed action: “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.”