Tuesday, March 25, 2025 – The changing landscape for subsistence hunting and fishing

The unpredictable availability of salmon and other fish in Alaska is putting additional pressure on the practice of subsistence fishing for Alaska Native residents. A federal board just opened up subsistence fishing and hunting — something reserved only for rural residents — to all 14,000 residents of Ketchikan. The State of Alaska is fighting a federal panel’s approval of a COVID-era emergency subsistence hunt for citizens in Kake. Meanwhile, stakeholders are closely watching a legal conflict over fishing on the Kuskokwim River that has implications for decades of legal precedents over subsistence fishing access.