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Alaska

Strengthening Alaska Fishing Communities

Restoring rural access to Alaska’s commercial fisheries

Two men wearing orange in a boat fishing for salmon.
Salmon Fishing Two salmon setnet fishermen navigate the breakers of the Situk River estuary near the Tlingit community of Yakutat. © Bethany Sonsini Goodrich

Alaska boasts some of the last, best salmon strongholds on Earth and is home to some of the few remaining intact salmon-based cultures. Salmon have sustained people and animals and improved the landscape for thousands of years.

Today, Alaska's commercial salmon fisheries provide 40% of global wild-caught salmon and 77% of the world’s wild sockeye salmon, but the benefits of these iconic fisheries are bypassing Alaska’s fishing communities. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

More than 50 years ago, Alaska’s Limited Entry Act created a commercial fishing permit system to manage who could catch and sell Alaska’s abundant wild seafood. Part of the Limited Entry Act’s intent was to ensure that rural and Indigenous fishing families and communities retained access to fisheries vital to their economic, cultural and community well-being.

Limited Entry in Alaska Fisheries: 50 Years Later (4:05) Alaska has used limited entry for 50+ years to manage fisheries, but transferable permits have shifted benefits away from rural, young and Alaska Native fishermen.

Unfortunately, the system wound up having the opposite impact on the very people it was supposed to serve. The price of limited entry permits skyrocketed on the free market, resulting in the consolidation of permits in the hands of people with financial resources who often do not live in Alaska’s fishing communities.

For example, Bristol Bay, which produces half the world’s wild sockeye salmon, has experienced a 50% decline in local permit ownership. Across Alaska, the limited entry system made it prohibitively expensive for current and future generations to join the commercial fishing industry.

Bristol Bay Salmon Indigenous Guardians collect important baseline data about water levels on a river that supports the globally significant wild sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay. © Jason Ching
Coffman Cove Fishing Michael Kampnich and Ivan Carter fish for salmon in Coffman Cove, Alaska. © Chris Crisman
Smoking Salmon Salmon fishing is a way of life in small towns throughout Alaska, where the resource is essential for economies, food security and cultural values. © Brian Adams
King Salmon roe King salmon roe is gathered during a commercial trolling trip in Sitka, Alaska. © Bethany Sonsini Goodrich

A 2021 report called “Righting the Ship," produced by Rachel Donkersloot, Ph.D. and The Nature Conservancy in Alaska, documents the enduring and uneven impacts to rural and Alaska Native fishing communities. The 2024 “Gulf of Alaska Fisheries Limitation Study,” authored by Courtney Carothers, Ph.D. and Brett Watson, Ph.D., and made possible by Sealaska, Koniag, Rasmuson Foundation and TNC, summarized the cumulative impacts of state and federal fisheries limitation programs on the economies and sociocultural fabric of Alaska Native villages in the Gulf of Alaska.

In remote fishing-dependent communities across Alaska, keeping permits in the hands of those who rely on the fisheries for food, culture and livelihoods strengthens local economies, promotes fishery and community stewardship and is integral to sustainable resource management.

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For more than a decade we’ve been working in partnership with fishing communities, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders to identify solutions to restore and secure local access to the commercial fisheries that form the backbone of rural economies and cultural traditions. Improving access for impacted communities is complex, but there is a growing awareness, commitment and movement to ensure that Alaska’s fishing communities are a part of Alaska’s fishing future.

As part of TNC's commitment to Indigenous Right Relations, our approach is grounded in the creation of long-term partnerships with Alaska’s Indigenous communities and organizations, ensuring conservation strategies are developed and led by the communities they are intended to serve. In our work with Indigenous partners, our role remains one of listening, support, partnership and amplification.

Fishing for Generations Fishing is a part of the culture of Alaska’s many coastal communities, like those in Bristol Bay, home to one of the world's last great salmon runs. © Jason Ching
Prince of Wales A commercial fishing boat seeks salmon in the fishery off the coast of Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. © Bridget Besaw
Off to Market Commercial fishing boats line up to sell their catch to the tender in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The tow boats line up and will weigh the catch. © Jason Ching
Harbor Commercial fishing and private boats are situated in the Craig town harbor on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska. © Bridget Besaw

Further Reading

Media

Presentations

  • Outmigration of Limited Entry Fishing Permits Legislative Lunch and Learn, Alaska State Legislature April 1, 2026

    • Rachel Donkersloot, Ph.D., Coastal Cultures Research
    • Courtney Carothers, Ph.D., University of Alaska Fairbanks, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
    • Joe Nelson, Ph.D., J.D., Alaska Federation of Natives Board Co-Chair

    Sponsored by Representative Bryce Edgmon

Reports & Resolutions

Stories in Bristol Bay

A commercial salmon fishing vessel at work with seagulls on the water.

Salty Slang from Bristol Bay’s Commercial Fishing Fleet

Bristol Bay continues to be home to the most remarkable wild salmon runs on Earth. Here’s some of the slang overheard from the men and women who work on Bristol Bay’s commercial fishing boats.

4 people in waders stand beside boat pulled onto rocky

Preserving the Last Salmon Run

On the edge of Alaska, a community weighs the future of the greatest sockeye salmon run on Earth.

By Dustin Solberg

Aerial view of Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Bristol Bay Science

To protect Bristol Bay's wild salmon populations and the people who depend on them, TNC has invested in a science-led process to assess the risk of developing the proposed Pebble mine in the headwaters of two major salmon rivers.

View More