Alaska’s Board of Fisheries has been accused of “bowing to industry pressure” after blocking calls from campaign groups to ban trawl fishing in the Prince William Sound, an area surrounded by towering mountains and glacier-fed waters that is now left susceptible to the “devastating impact” trawling has on marine life and marine ecosystems.

A move that has been welcomed by those in the industry – including the Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance (APFA) – the Board of Fisheries dismissed all proposals to restrict or ban trawl fishing. The APFA has called the decision a “collaborative victory for science-based fisheries management, sustainable fishing practices, and Alaska’s coastal communities”.

It was in mid-December last year that the salmon industry advocacy group SalmonState called on the Alaska State Board of Fisheries to limit or eliminate the Prince William Sound pollock pelagic trawl fishery, the only fishery of its kind to be managed by the state. 

The campaign group argued that the “supposedly ‘midwater’ trawlers” operating in the area “regularly bycatch bottom-dwelling species” like shortraker and rougheye rockfish, halibut, black cod, lumpsuckers, skates, sole, flounder, octopus, and prowfish as well as non-bottom species like the endangered Chinook salmon, chum salmon, and squid.

Among those backing the call for a ban on such fishing practices was marine ecologist Dennis Lees, who has been studying nearshore ecosystems in Prince William Sound since 1975.

“My knowledge of the seabed makes clear that the damage trawlers do to bycatch is just part of the problem,” he said. “Dragging on the seafloor does considerable damage to the basic ecosystems that support not only the resource trawlers intend to harvest, but also other associated fisheries and the ability of those infaunal systems to support those fisheries resources.

“The volume of science describing these injuries is extensive, from all over the world, and goes back centuries.”

Despite the calls and the evidence of the damage trawl fishing causes to marine ecosystems, the Alaska Board of Fisheries, last month, chose to reject all proposals to ban the practice. The move has since been celebrated by those within the trawl fishing sector.

“This wasn’t a victory only for the trawl fishery,’ said Alaska Groundfish Data Bank executive director Julie Bonney. “It was a victory for every family, crew member, and processor who depends on sustainable Alaska fisheries to keep our coastal communities alive.”

A press statement released by the Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance, has claimed that trawl fishing in the Prince William Sound is a “clean practice” with minimal rockfish bycatch when compared with incidental catch in other fisheries, adding that “well-designed conservation management measures – not blanket bans – are the appropriate response to fishery challenges.”

Research published in January 2024, however, has previously made clear that midwater trawlers are in fact dragging the seabed between 40 and 100% of the time. In fact, in federal waters off Alaska’s coast, these midwater trawlers are legally dragging the bottom in protected halibut nurseries, crab savings areas, and other sensitive locations off limits to other fisheries.

Findings cited by SalmonState has also highlighted that trawlers off Alaska’s coast – including the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska – bycatch 141 million pounds of marine life each year; part of the reason 70% of Alaskans from across the political spectrum are said to be in favour of a complete ban on trawling off Alaska’s coast.

In a statement issued via social media, Seaspircacy, the ocean conservation and advocacy group said that Alaska’s Board of Fisheries had “bowed to industry pressure” despite the devastating impact that bottom trawling has upon marine life within the Prince William Sound’s fragile ecosystem. 

“This fragile ecosystem is still recovering from the Exxon Valdez oil spill,” it said online. “The pollock trawl fishery will continue to destroy this critical site, which is home to whales, sea otters, seabirds, and countless other species that rely on its rich biodiversity.

“At a time when Alaska’s fisheries face collapsing crab populations and salmon shortages, this decision puts profits over ocean health once again.”

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