Fishing for a Solution · Episode 1 of 12 · 23 min
The Fight Over Fish
In summer 2026 the silver salmon season on the Kuskokwim was closed and fish camps stood empty, while the pollock fleet landed nearly three billion pounds and caught salmon as bycatch. By fall, bycatch was an issue in Alaska's close Senate race. The episode lets villagers, a trawl family and federal scientists speak, sets out the numbers with their sources, and states the series thesis of the greatest good for the greatest number.
Who's who
- Dan Sullivan+4 more episodesRepublican U.S. senator from Alaska and sponsor of the Bycatch Reduction Act
- Mary Peltola+1 more episodeDemocratic former U.S. representative and 2026 Senate challenger
- Ed Markey+1 more episodeMassachusetts senator who objected to passing the bycatch bill by unanimous consent
- Maria Cantwell+1 more episodeWashington senator who voted against the bill in committee
- Lukas DeFilippo+2 more episodesNOAA scientist who linked the Yukon king collapse to a marine heatwave
- Mary Nicolai+1 more episodeTribal president of Kwethluk
- Heather MannHead of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative
- Gifford Pinchot+12 more episodesFirst chief of the U.S. Forest Service; source of the greatest-good maxim
Where it happens
- Kuskokwim River, Alaska+2 more episodesSalmon season closed and fish camps empty in 2026
- Bethel, Alaska+5 more episodesKuskokwim hub where villagers say they are closed first
- Kwethluk, Alaska+1 more episodeVillage once with sixty active fish camps
- Kodiak, Alaska+3 more episodesHome port of a family trawler in the pollock fleet
- Bering Sea+10 more episodesSite of America's largest fishery
Timeline
- February 1, 1905Letter sets forest conflicts by the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run
- 2022Lowest Yukon River Chinook return on record
- January 17, 2024Five tribal organizations petition for an emergency zero cap on Chinook bycatch
- February 11, 2026Council votes 8 to 3 for a 45,000-fish chum bycatch limit
- June 24, 2026Sullivan introduces the Bycatch Reduction Act
- November 3, 2026General election decided by ranked-choice voting
Still debated
What caused the salmon collapse is argued: NOAA and an April 2026 study point mainly to ocean conditions, while tribal organizations and critics say every salmon killed by people matters at such low runs. Readings of the bycatch numbers, the committee vote count and trawl-industry money also differ by source.
Connected episodes in other series
Alaska's Zinc Boom and the Collapse of the Yukon SalmonThe Uncosted West · Episode 12
Dead ReckoningStorm Warning: America's Earth Science · Episode 12Also features Dan Sullivan
How One Arizona Hillside Built Modern ForestryGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot
How America Made Indigenous Fire a Crime, and Its ReturnThe Fire This Time · Episode 3Also features Gifford Pinchot