Federal Fishery Disasters

The Secretary of Commerce has approved several requests from the State of Alaska for federal fishery disaster determinations in recent years. If Congress appropriates funds for disaster assistance, NOAA Fisheries determines how much funding is allocated to each approved fishery disaster. The State supports an open and transparent process for distributing disaster relief funds and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) works with affected stakeholders and NOAA Fisheries to identify funding priorities and develop spend plans for each fishery disaster.

The initial public comment period for the recently funded 2022 Yukon River salmon fishery disaster will be open through March 13th, 2024. ADF&G will hold a listening session on March 11th from 12:30p to 1:30 p AKST, to take initial comments on these spend plans: Disaster Listening Session

Additional comments will be requested as the spend plan is drafted and the public will be notified via e-mail and public notice.

Guiding principles for fishery disaster spend plans:

Fishery disaster funds are intended to assist fishery participants harmed by the fishery disaster, to improve fishery information used to assess and forecast future fishery performance, and to develop management approaches that mitigate the impacts of future fishery disasters that cannot be prevented.

More information about the fishery disaster process can be found in the "Helpful Links" section at the bottom of this page. For more information about recent Alaska fishery disasters, including spend plan development, see the specific fishery disaster by species and area below. For questions, comments, or to be added to our contact list for a specific fishery disaster, please e-mail: dfg.com.fisheriesdisasters@alaska.gov or call Darion Jones: (907) 267-2593

Fishery Disasters by Species and Area:

Salmon

Arctic, Yukon, and Kuskokwim

Chignik

Cook Inlet

Prince William Sound

Southeast Alaska

Crab

Bering Sea

Norton Sound

Pacific cod

Helpful Links

Flow chart of the federal fishery disaster process (PDF 669 kB)

Fishery Disaster Determinations | NOAA Fisheries external site link: NOAA Fisheries webpage shows a list and summary of pending and approved fishery disasters determinations.

Fishery Disaster Assistance | NOAA Fisheries external site link: NOAA Fisheries webpage provides an overview of fishery disaster assistance with links to the Fishery Disaster Improvement Act, NOAA's policy on Disaster Assistance, and frequently asked questions.

Fishery Disaster Administration | Fisheries Relief (psmfc.org) external site link: PSMFC's webpage provides the status of approved fishery disasters in Alaska and links to applications once available.