US: Alaska governor seeks disaster funding for Kotzebue after poorest salmon harvest on record

Alaska Governor Muke Dunleavy has requested federal financial relief for fishers and seafood businesses in the Kotzebue District in Northwest Alaska after the area experienced the “poorest harvest on record.”Despite projections that fishers in the district would harvest between 200,000 and 300,000 chum salmon in 2024, only 5,392 chum salmon were harvested. That places the value of the 2024 Kotzebue salmon fishery at USD 25,085 (EUR 23,741) – 98 percent lower than the five-year average of USD 1 million (EUR 946,408).In a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Dunleavy said the historically poor harvest could be the beginning of a collapse of chum stocks in the area similar to what the state experienced with the collapse of several salmon stocks in the Norton Sound, Yukon, and Kuskokwim salmon fisheries. The exact cause of the poor harvest isn’t clear to Alaskan authorities, but changes in freshwater and marine ecosystems, as well as competition in the ocean, are listed as ...