Alaska Salmon Fisheries

F/V Sounder gillnetting in Lynn Canal, Southeast Alaska. Photo: Joe McCabe

Salmon Fisheries Management

The Fishery Management Plan for the Salmon Fisheries in the EEZ off the Coast of Alaska (salmon FMP) allows a commercial troll fishery in the EEZ off Southeast Alaska, and closes the remaining EEZ off Central and Western Alaska to commercial salmon fishing. All other salmon fishing occurs either in state waters or in one of three historical State-managed net fishing areas that extend into the EEZ. The salmon FMP does not cover the fisheries in these three State managed fishing areas; Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Alaska Peninsula.

The salmon FMP delegates management of the commercial troll fishery in Southeast Alaska to the State of Alaska and, under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Commission. The Southeast Alaska troll fishery is a mixed-stock, mixed-species fishery that primarily targets chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and coho salmon (O. kisutch), with pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) taken incidentally.

The NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region has jurisdiction over the salmon species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Related Resources

• FMP for the Salmon Fisheries in the EEZ off the Coast of Alaska and FMP Amendments 
  • Analyses
• North Pacific Fishery Management Council Cook Inlet Salmon Committee
• Chinook Salmon Bycatch
• Non-Chinook Salmon Bycatch
• Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Salmon Fishery Buyback Program
• State of Alaska Commercial Salmon Fisheries
• State of Alaska Sport Salmon Fisheries
• State of Alaska Personal Use Salmon Fisheries
• State of Alaska Subsistence Salmon Fisheries
• Federal Fisheries in Alaska