NOAA recently announced the allocation of $123.6 million in fishery resource disaster funding, appropriated by Congress in the American Relief Act, 2025. Some of the funding will support fishery resource disasters that occurred in multiple Alaska fisheries between 2019 and 2023. Alaska allocations totalled approximately $99 million dollars and are being used to address Bering Sea Snow Crab and Chignik and Cook Inlet salmon harvests. The Cook Inlet component is for the East Side set net fleet with a total of approximately $5.8 million in aid for the 2023 fishery.
“Fishery resource disasters have devastating effects on local communities and our economy,” said NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs in a NOAA press release. “This disaster funding provides much needed assistance to our fishing industry and we will work with the affected communities to help them recover. This action demonstrates our continued commitment to hardworking American fishermen and to the president’s vision to uphold the United States as the world’s dominant seafood leader.”
In a letter from Governor Mike Dunleavy requesting determination of the resource disaster he wrote: “In 2025, an estimated 85 percent of the permit holders who hold an Upper Cook Inlet set gillnet permit were Alaska residents and 80 percent of those residents have addresses in the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Low levels of salmon harvest in 2025 from the East Side Setnet fishery resulted in severe impacts for permit holders, crew, processing companies and communities that participate in the fishery.”
On June 18, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan welcomed the announcement and the support that it will provide.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
