Federal Fishery Disasters
The Secretary of Commerce recently announced allocations totaling $131.8 million in fishery disaster assistance to address losses across several fisheries in Alaska affected by fishery failures.
- 2019 Norton Sound Red King Crab: $1,433,137
- 2020 Norton Sound, Yukon River, Kuskokwim River, Chignik, and Southeast Alaska salmon; and 2021 Yukon River salmon: $55,928,849
- 2018 and 2020 Copper River and Prince William Sound salmon: $34,326,265
- 2020 Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod: $17,772,540
- 2019/2020 Eastern Bering Sea Tanner crab: $12,935,199
- 2018 Upper Cook Inlet East Side Set Net and 2020 Upper Cook Inlet salmon: $9,404,672
The State supports an open and transparent process for distributing disaster relief funds and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) will work with affected stakeholders and NOAA Fisheries to identify funding priorities and develop spend plans for each of these fishery disasters.
Disaster spend plan guiding principles: Funds are intended to assist fishery participants harmed by the fishery disaster, to improve fishery information used to assess and forecast future fishery performance, and to develop management approaches that mitigate the impacts of future fishery disasters that cannot be prevented.
Previous Alaska fishery disaster spend plans have provided funds for two general categories: research and direct payments to affected fishery participants such as harvesters, processors, communities, and households. To assist in development of the spend plans for the six recent fishery disasters, the State is requesting comments on:
- categories of affected fishery participants to receive direct payments,
- allocation of funds among direct payment categories,
- eligibility criteria for direct payments,
- research priorities, and
- allocation of funds among fisheries if several areas or years are included in the fishery disaster.
The initial public comment period for the six recently funded fishery disasters ended June 15, 2022, and ADF&G is now drafting initial spend plans based on input received. Additional comments will be requested as spend plans are drafted; and the public will be notified via e-mail and press release.
For questions, or to be added to our contact list, please e-mail: dfg.com.fisheriesdisasters@alaska.gov or call Karla Bush: (907)465-6153
Current Fishery Disasters:
- Alaska Bering Sea Tanner Crab Fishery, 2019/2020
- 2019 Norton Sound Red King Crab
- Alaska Norton Sound, Yukon River, Chignik, Kuskokwim River and Southeast Alaska Salmon Fisheries, 2020 and 2021 Yukon River Salmon Fisheries