Alaskan push for more answers on salmon bycatch, putting pollock industry in the crosshairs

As chum and chinook salmon numbers become scarcer in Western Alaska, the US pollock and groundfish industry has been thrust into the spotlight when it comes to the salmon they haul in as bycatch.

Chief Karma Ulvi of the Native village of Eagle highlighted the issue at a recent Alaska Bycatch Task Force review meeting, where she serves as a voting member representing the subsistence Yukon River fishing community.

"We have been without fish for three years now," she told other voting members on the committee, which include At-Sea Processors Association Director Stephanie Madsen, who represents US pollock fishing giants that include American Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, Arctic Storm, Coastal Villages and Glacier Fish.