One of the ideas rising to the top of the Alaska Seafood Task Force’s forthcoming recommendations is an insurance pool for commercial fishermen. That's according to information the group’s chairperson shared on Dec. 18 with the Kodiak Fisheries Work Group.

Kodiak’s largest seafood processing plant has a new owner. The sale from Trident Seafoods to Pacific Seafood comes about two months after the companies announced a deal was in the works and over a year since Trident announced it would sell its Kodiak assets.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries has tweaked some regulations related to trawl bycatch in the Prince William Sound pollock fishery. It was part of just one agenda item at the group’s meeting in Cordova from Dec. 12-16. But some wanted the board to go further and completely close the only state managed pollock trawl fishery in Alaska.

Alaska's Seafood Task Force holds its final meeting of the year today, and over the last several months lawmakers have been looking at ways to aid all sectors of the state’s seafood industry, which faced a number of struggles. But the group could also address the outmigration of fishing permits and unequal fishing access in rural Alaska communities.

Among the roughly one hundred proposals on the Alaska Board of Fisheries agenda at its upcoming meeting next month are a handful focused on further restricting or closing the state-managed pollock trawl fishery in Prince William Sound. Now, a Kodiak organization is trying to drum up support for local trawlers, and oppose the proposals.

Hundreds of commercial salmon fishermen around Kodiak Island opted not to fish this past summer. That’s according to data released by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Nov 5. Limited participation, a lack of salmon, and additional market factors created one of the lowest valued commercial seasons on record.

The Kodiak region’s commercial Tanner crab fishery will open again in 2025. But fishermen will have just a fraction of last year’s harvest level, following a decades-long up and down pattern for the species’ population.

It's part of a total $104 million headed to Alaska to help pay for coastal infrastructure. About half the money will go towards Anchorage, the other five communities awarded will receive about $11 million each.

A Kodiak High School cooking class had an important lesson only a coastal community school could host – what to do with a live king crab. Students were also reminded where food comes from.

For the first time in decades, there will be a commercial herring fishery in Prince William Sound. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Oct. 25 that a small food and bait fishery will open this month – that is, if fishermen can find a buyer.