Commercial fishing is playing a prominent role in Alaska’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, with salmon declines, trawl bycatch, and the future of the state’s seafood industry continuing to separate Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola as Election Day approaches.
A recent Newsweek report put a national spotlight on fisheries issues that have been building throughout the Alaska campaign. For many voters, questions surrounding fish are closely tied to the state’s economy, food security, and coastal communities.
The differences between the candidates were already on display in September, when Sullivan and Peltola faced off during the 2026 Congressional Candidates Fisheries Forum in Kodiak. The debate covered bycatch, fuel costs, foreign seafood competition, NOAA surveys, Coast Guard resources, and the future of federal fisheries management.
Peltola has made trawl bycatch one of the central fisheries issues of her campaign, drawing a distinction between Alaska’s small and mid-sized fishing operations and what she calls “Lower 48 factory trawlers.”
“Strong fisheries are the lifeblood of our economy, communities, and families,” Peltola told Newsweek. “Some of the fisheries that have sustained generations of Alaskans are suffering at the hands of Lower 48 factory trawlers, and we need to take action.”
During the Kodiak forum, Peltola called for changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, additional monitoring and enforcement funding, federal investment in bycatch excluders and real-time monitoring, and Alaska Native representation on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Sullivan has pointed instead to federal research, action through the North Pacific council, and his Bycatch Reduction Act, introduced in June. The legislation targets trawl gear impacts on bycatch and seafloor habitat in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska while also proposing a Bycatch Mitigation and Habitat Protection Assistance Fund.
Sullivan has also argued that Alaska’s salmon declines cannot be attributed to a single cause, pointing to environmental changes, ocean competition, freshwater habitat, predators, and bycatch among the factors affecting returns.
United Fishermen of Alaska President Matt Alward echoed some of that complexity in comments to Newsweek.
“While there are some salmon stocks that have been struggling lately, the science points to a large factor being changing environmental conditions in both the ocean and in rivers,” Alward said. “The trawl fisheries have existed for decades alongside other Alaskan fisheries that have been strong and, if anything, the trawl fisheries are more regulated and monitored than ever before.”
Alward also highlighted Sullivan’s work to expand the seafood industry’s access to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs, including the creation of the USDA Office of Seafood. Alaska’s congressional delegation has pushed to codify the office through the Farm Bill and expand seafood businesses’ access to USDA programs traditionally available to other food producers.
Despite their differences on bycatch, Sullivan and Peltola found some common ground during the September fisheries forum. Both said overharvest is a significant concern in North Pacific fisheries and supported maintaining or increasing federal fisheries and ecosystem survey funding, assistance for safer and more efficient fishing vessels, domestic value-added seafood processing and investment in Alaska seafood infrastructure.
With Election Day approaching, many of the same fisheries issues raised during the Kodiak forum remain part of the Senate race. Bycatch, salmon returns, seafood markets, and federal fisheries management continue to shape the candidates’ messages to Alaska’s fishing communities.
