Biden administration advances bid to list Gulf of Alaska king salmon as endangered or threatened

Last week, the Biden administration advanced conservation group's bid to list Gulf of Alaska king salmon as endangered or threatened. The move comes months after Washington state-based environmental group, The Wild Fish Conservancy, filed a 68-page petition with the Biden administration to list southern Alaska king salmon as an endangered species earlier this year, saying that king salmon, also known as chinook, are threatened by climate change and competition from hatchery-raised fish, and that existing state and federal management are failing to stem their decline.

The petition targets all populations that use the Gulf of Alaska, including fish that spawn in the Kenai and Kasilof rivers, in the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers in Southeast Alaska and in the Alaska Peninsula’s Chignik River. It does not include populations that have crashed in Southwest Alaska’s Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers, however.

The action comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced of a study into the merits of listing Gulf of Alaska King Salmon as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Representative Mary Peltola released the following statement: “While I understand that NOAA has to follow its process, I sincerely hope the regulators and scientists will remember that rural Alaskan communities have relied on and lived alongside these salmon for millennia. Our communities are built around fish - listing Gulf of Alaska King Salmon as threatened or endangered risks that long-standing relationship.”

Representative Peltola went on to say that continuing to ignore the impact of declining salmon runs on families that rely on fishing, more must be done to manage salmon to have high escapement, incorporating traditional knowledge with western science to find solutions.

“Subsistence fishermen who rely on these salmon to feed their families and communities throughout the winter shouldn’t be left in the cold while this administration and Lower 48 environmentalists take another resource away from Alaskans. The far-reaching, negative impacts of this potential listing underlines how urgently we need to act to protect our fish in more concrete ways, like restricting bottom trawling and reducing bycatch.”