US/Climate Change: Alaska empty nets, ageing fleets

International Collective in Support of Fishworkers

Samudura Reports

By: Linda Behnken

December 2023

Stocks of fish and crab have collapsed in Alaska, devastating both commercial and subsistence fishers

Climate change used to be something fishers in Alaska talked of as a concern for the future. No longer. That future is now. Alaska has witnessed, almost overnight, collapses in both fish and crab stocks. The cod of the Gulf of Alaska; the Bering Sea king crab and snow crab; and the Yukon River salmon. These collapses have devastated fishers—both commercial and subsistence.