With Great Wild Alaska Pollock Comes Great Responsibility

Wild Alaska Pollock is the fish you may have been eating for years without knowing it. It’s a smaller species whose population replenishes readily and whose mild flavor offers generous versatility and vast culinary space to explore. Found in everything from California rolls — it’s the main ingredient in surimi — to fish sticks in school lunch halls and fast-food fish sandwiches, this fish brings Alaska into kitchens around the world.

It is the second-largest fishery on the planet, second only to the Peruvian anchovy. Because of its incredible abundance, when we talk about Wild Alaska Pollock, we are actually talking about the entire North Pacific — its food web, habitats, the infinitely complex relationships among all marine life, and, of course, the human connection to that bounty as food, work, and culture. Wild Alaska Pollock touches it all.

This level of harvest is impactful — not only in the economic value it generates for Alaska and global seafood markets, but also in its influence on the broader marine ecosystem, which is why it is critical that the Alaska pollock fishery be managed with the utmost care, relying on science-based management, conservative catch limits, and transparent, enforceable accountability standards that sustain the balance between harvest and conservation.

The Alaska pollock fishery — particularly in the Bering Sea — already operates within some of the most rigorous frameworks in the world, thanks to a science-based, collaborative management system that integrates federal and state oversight with strong industry compliance. Onboard monitoring, genetic testing of salmon bycatch, and conservative harvest strategies in those fleets reflect real progress. However, other areas and sectors — as well as some aspects of the fishery more broadly, such as the current uncertainty about the effects of bottom contact — are still in earlier stages of advancement, underscoring the need for continued investment and innovation across the entire fishery.

Even a system this advanced must keep evolving. The challenges ahead — from climate change to shifting species patterns — demand ongoing vigilance and innovation. The ocean is a dynamic, ever-changing force. It is our collective responsibility to live in concert with nature, to observe and adapt, and to support the economic, cultural, and social well-being of Alaska’s coastal and inriver communities. From that lens, sustainability isn’t simply a checkmark or logo on a seafood label; it’s a never-ending journey of continuous improvement — a lifetime commitment to high standards, ongoing review, and thoughtful adaptation.

So What Does That Mean for Wild Alaska Pollock?

As the surrounding marine ecosystem changes, a growing dialogue among community and industry leaders, fishermen, scientists, and policymakers recognizes that we must continue to evolve and refine the harvest practices of the world’s second-largest fishery — balancing ecological, economic, cultural, and social considerations to ensure a sustainable future that benefits all stakeholders. Any adjustments should be made with care, honoring both the importance of this vital food source and our shared responsibility to the environment and Alaska’s coastal and inriver communities. A few key areas deserve focus:

Bycatch Reduction: Smarter Fishing, Healthier Seas

Bycatch is the incidental harvest of non-targeted species. While the Alaska pollock fleet maintains among the lowest bycatch rates of any major fishery, that record shouldn’t be mistaken for perfection. Scale alone means that even small percentages translate into meaningful impacts for other fish stocks and for the communities that rely on them. When it comes to reducing fishing impacts and driving innovation and technological adaptation, there can be no “status quo” — only continuous improvement, built on constant innovation and shared responsibility.

Building on decades of research and innovation — including salmon excluder devices and other gear improvements that have had tangible impacts on bycatch — industry, policymakers, and regulators must now work closely with scientists and local communities to promote even greater transparency, accountability, and investment in smarter fishing. The goal should be collaborative, continuous improvement that pairs ongoing gear innovation and refined fishing practices with modern, adaptive management systems and data-rich, AI-enabled tools that minimize bycatch and deliver targeted species to market at the highest quality and value.

With advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, humanity stands on the precipice of a technological sea change with the potential to fundamentally transform how we manage, harvest, and process wild seafood. For all its flaws, the farmed salmon industry shows what’s possible when technology is used to address the complex challenges of large-scale aquaculture. Some salmon farms now use underwater robots, computer vision, and high-powered lasers to zap sea lice from salmon without harming the fish. Comparable tools should be adapted for wild fisheries to reduce bycatch further and strengthen long-term sustainability. AI-driven imaging that distinguishes pollock from other species in real time — paired with selective fishing gear such as salmon excluders — should become standard practice to ensure non-targeted fish escape unharmed. AI-integrated electronic monitoring should also ensure that every fish caught is transparently documented, strengthening confidence in science-based management. Predictive models and shared, real-time fleet “hotspot” maps should become commonplace, allowing vessels to anticipate and avoid bycatch before it occurs.

The underlying technology to dramatically reduce bycatch rates even further is within reach; what’s needed now is the collective will, the right incentives, and cross-sector collaboration to make it happen — for the health of Alaska’s fisheries, coastal communities, and the ocean.

Bottom Contact Mitigation: Protecting the Seafloor, Sustaining the Future

Just as technology can help dramatically reduce bycatch, it also holds immense potential to better understand and minimize the footprint of fishing gear on the ocean floor. Many of the same innovations — from real-time data systems to adaptive management tools — can enable more precise fishing and help prevent unnecessary contact with sensitive habitats.

Wild Alaska Pollock is a pelagic fish, meaning it typically occupies the midwater zone of the ocean. The majority of Wild Alaska Pollock is harvested via midwater trawl, which differs from bottom trawls that are explicitly designed to operate directly along the seafloor. However, pollock can school near the bottom, and it is no secret that midwater nets can make contact with the ocean floor. At present, too much uncertainty exists around the extent of bottom contact in the fishery and its impact on the seafloor.

Best-in-class management requires addressing uncertainty wherever it exists. The industry and scientists have recently initiated modeling and field testing to develop more precise estimates of bottom contact, and some companies are now conducting research on alternative gear designs that reduce seafloor contact.

However, much more work is needed — from industry, scientists, policymakers, and regulators alike — to ensure that unobserved impacts from fishing gear are fully integrated into management frameworks and ecosystem assessments, and to better understand and limit seafloor disturbance as species distributions and ocean conditions shift.

Advancing the next generation of smart gear, monitoring technology, and adaptive management — from rethinking footrope design and developing bottom-contact sensors to establishing limits in sensitive habitats and deepening research into seafloor health — is critical to safeguarding ocean ecosystems while maintaining an efficient, sustainable fishery. Alaska has both the opportunity and the responsibility to ensure that the abundance of Wild Alaska Pollock is matched by responsible, science-based stewardship of the seafloor.

Continuous Improvement: Managing for the Whole Ecosystem

The North Pacific is undergoing rapid ecological change, with some species adapting or expanding while others are in decline. State and federal science-based catch limits have been instrumental in preventing overfishing, and Wild Alaska Pollock remains abundant as a result. The fishery’s evolution from foreign operations with limited oversight to today’s cooperative, highly accountable U.S. fishery demonstrates the power of structured management and shared stewardship. But that same system must now adapt to ongoing innovation needs and new ecological realities — from warming seas to shifting food webs — without losing its precautionary edge. Given all of these changes, it is also critical that the industry, policymakers and regulators strengthen relationships with coastal and inriver communities — deepening engagement and collaboration moving forward. As the world’s second-largest fishery and a biological cornerstone of the North Pacific, Wild Alaska Pollock plays a role so significant that any major ecosystem shifts should prompt a careful, comprehensive and collaborative review of how the fishery interacts with the broader environment.

Future policy must deepen its commitment to ecosystem-based fisheries management, ensuring that catch limits safeguard not just target species but also the food webs and communities they support. Iceland offers a useful example — a nation that rebuilt its fisheries after a painful collapse in the 1970s through bold reforms in quota management, traceability, and full utilization.

Alaska need not wait for a crisis such as the one Iceland once experienced to act. By studying what’s worked elsewhere and adapting those lessons to local realities, Alaska can continue evolving toward greater transparency, efficiency, and resilience while charting its own path forward.

When the economics of fishing reward care, precision, and sustainability, the system reinforces itself — creating a cycle that incentivizes responsible harvest, protects marine habitats, and strengthens stewardship, resilience, and long-term prosperity for all stakeholders.

Keeping the Conversation Constructive

Alaskans have a long and storied history of fiercely debating fisheries policy. A deep culture of holding the seafood industry, policymakers, and regulators accountable — coupled with a constant push for improvement — has driven many of the innovations that define Alaska’s fisheries today. That open exchange — the free flow of ideas and healthy tension — has always been essential to progress, and it’s a big part of what earned Alaska its reputation as the global gold standard for sustainable, wild fisheries management.

No matter how great Alaska’s fisheries are — or will ever become — we must never fall into the habit of defending the status quo; rather, we must continually improve and adapt together. Acknowledging Alaska’s strengths should be the starting point for honest and courageous dialogue — not the end of it.

Unfortunately, in today’s hyperpolarized environment, many of the conversations most needed — around bycatch, bottom contact, adaptive management, and other important topics — have become less productive. With so much at stake, passions have flared among stakeholders across the state. To make matters worse, outside special-interest groups have seemingly capitalized on this tension, attempting to turn a necessary and nuanced conversation into a black-and-white wedge issue designed to divide Alaskans for economic and political gain.

But the ocean is changing — and Alaskans don’t have time to fight one another any longer. True progress requires an honest and ongoing conversation about how fishing affects both the environment and the coastal and inriver communities connected to it — and genuine collaboration among industry, scientists, community leaders, and policymakers committed to solving problems together. Now more than ever, it’s critical to set aside division and focus our energy on working together to find thoughtful, nuanced, and lasting solutions. Alaska’s strength has always come from facing hard truths together, grounded in respect, curiosity, and shared purpose. We must continue in that spirit — urgently and creatively — to strengthen and improve Alaska’s fisheries, the lifeblood of the state’s coastal communities and the foundation of our shared future.

Shared Seas, Shared Future

With the scale of the Wild Alaska Pollock fishery comes a mandate to be a diligent steward and proactive participant — working alongside the whole of Alaska to align with the cultural and ecological needs of stakeholders, and to move forward with both innovation and respect. By doing so, we ensure that Wild Alaska Pollock, as well as the other fisheries and the communities it touches, continues to thrive not just today, but for generations to come.

With great Wild Alaska Pollock comes great responsibility — and that work is never done.