Member nations of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) reported a total harvest of 425.7 million Pacific salmon in 2025, the lowest aggregate weight for an odd-numbered year since 1987.
Total numbers of salmon caught in the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and Korea rose 39% over 2024 but were 41% lower than the record catch in 2023, NPAFC said in a report issued on May 15 after its 33rd annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
More adult salmon are typically harvested in odd-numbered years than even-numbered years because pink salmon are more abundant in odd-numbered years, but in 2025 the overall catch was 25% lower than the recent five-year average of odd-numbered years in terms of weight and 27 percent lower in total numbers of fish caught.
The biggest national harvester was the United States with 378,800 metric tons, followed by Russia with 341,300 metric tons, Japan with 18,000 metric tons, Canada with 6.900 metric tons, and Korea with 205 metric tons.
The bulk of the harvest by weight included 53.5% pink, 22.3% sockeye, and 21.1% chum salmon, followed by 2.4% coho. By weight, the Chinook and cherry salmon and steelhead trout were less than 1% of the harvest.
Asian commercial salmon caught in 2025 came to 359,468 metric tons, the fourth lowest catch since 1992, but was still 17% higher than 2024, while the pink salmon harvest of 220,942 metric tons was 54% lower than that of 2023 and a change from the trend of increasing catch in odd-numbered years dating back to 2025. The Asian chum catch, which has continued to decline since 2015, came to 86,497 metric tons in 2025, the lowest since 1973.
In Alaska, the 2025 sockeye catch of 122,080 metric tons comprised 98 percent of all sockeyes harvested in North America, similar to the five-year average of 124,089 metric tons that includes the record catch in 2022. Chum salmon harvested in Alaska rose in 2025 but was similar to the recent 10-year average of 58,509 metric tons. Pinks caught in 2025 weighed in at 172,529 metric tons, the lowest odd-year catch since 2009.
Meanwhile, the total number of hatchery fish released from PPAFC member countries in 2025 was 4.8 billion fish, including 2,035 million in the U.S., 1,597 million in Russia, 1,050 million in Japan, 167 million in Canada, and 6 million in Korea. The number of hatchery salmon released in the North Pacific in 2025 was down for a second year in a row, and for the second time in the past four years, fewer than five billion salmon were released in 2025.
According to William Stanbury, acting deputy director of the NPAFC, each country has its own goals for the release of salmon into the North Pacific, and their releases are based on those goals. The NPAFC does not tell its members how many fish to release, he said.
The NPAFC also reported on efforts to curtail illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the high seas of the North Pacific. These vessels had historically used large high-seas driftnets, which are internationally banned because of high incidental catch of non-target species. The Convention for the Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North Pacific Ocean prohibits fishing for salmon within the NPAFC convention.
Coordinated enforcement efforts of NPAFC member countries in 2025 included nearly 332 hours of aircraft patrols, 235 ship-days, and 54 high seas boardings and inspections to deter and detect IUU fishing activity. None of these efforts, however, involved high seas driftnet activity or salmon retention.
2025 was the first time four NPAFC member countries were represented in one enforcement platform. They included ship riders from the Fisheries Agency of Japan, Korea Coast Guard, the United States NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, joined by the Canadian Coast Guard and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, onboard the CCGS Air Wilfred Laurier during the annual Operation North Pacific Guard mission to detect and deter IUU high seas fishing.
