Alaska Senate Race: Salmon Decline Drives Political Battle Over Industrial Trawling

The U.S. Senate race in Alaska has centered on a conflict between Indigenous subsistence fishers and industrial trawling operations. As salmon runs in the Kuskokwim River fail to return, the dispute has moved from remote villages to the center of a close political contest. The outcome could determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

In the village of Kwethluk, subsistence fishing remains the primary occupation and a core part of local culture. Tribal president Mary Nikolai observed that most smokehouses in the area sat unused all summer due to the lack of fish. She described the situation as a slow trend of closing out the local workforce. Evon Waska, a resident whose family settled at the water’s edge, noted that his drying racks are empty. Waska attributes the decline to industrial trawlers operating miles offshore in the Bering Sea.

The trawling industry, valued at approximately $1 billion and largely based in Seattle, uses large nets to harvest pollock. These nets, which can be a quarter mile long, often catch king salmon and other species by accident. This bycatch is frequently discarded, a practice known as waste. Pollock trawlers report catching 40,000 Alaska salmon this year, a small percentage of their total harvest. Heather Mann, who leads a trawlers association, argued that eliminating pollock fishing would have a minimal impact on restoring salmon runs according to scientific data.

Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan has positioned himself as an ally of the pollock industry but is now promoting a new bill to address the issue. Sullivan called it the most comprehensive bycatch legislation ever proposed to reduce waste and protect seafloor habitat. Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, who is Indigenous and from the Kuskokwim region, has criticized Sullivan's approach. She stated that Sullivan reeled in over $300,000 from trawlers and introduced a half-hearted solution at the last minute. Peltola says she would ban factory trawlers, the largest vessels in the pollock fleet.

Political advertisements in the state focus heavily on this division. One ad urges voters to thank Sullivan for championing legislation to reduce bycatch. Another ad claims Sullivan is taking big money from out-of-state corporate trawlers. A third ad suggests Peltola tells fish tales to secure votes. The debate reflects a tension between economic interests in the seafood industry and the cultural and nutritional needs of communities in western Alaska that rely on the river for survival.