Western Alaska's missing salmon and the fight over pollock trawlers
Western Alaska's salmon collapsed, and Yukon River families who lived on them cannot fish for chinook salmon through 2030. Offshore, pollock trawlers legally catch salmon by accident, as bycatch. Federal scientists say a major factor in the chinook decline was deaths at sea, connected to heatwaves. With river chinook fishing suspended, bycatch is where rules can still tighten. A proposed cap on chum bycatch and a Senate bill aim there. In summer 2026 more salmon returned. Researchers are not calling it a recovery.