Alaska is ‘trolling’ B.C. with its winter chinook fishery
October 10, 2025
By: David Mills
Only Alaska allows its commercial fishers to harvest chinook during the winter. Why? Because the salmon are not from Alaska.
With a few potential openings for late-running chum remaining, commercial fisheries in B.C. are closed until next May, when the first of the 2026 salmon run returns to our coast. However, in Alaska, next year’s fishery is just about to open–and the target is chinook. Chinook are the most sought-after salmon, and trolling is the most effective method for targeting them.
When chinook return from the open ocean to the coastlines, not all of them head directly to their home rivers. Many wait to complete their migration the following year, fattening up and growing stronger on local prey. This means chinook are always hanging around. However, to minimize impact on endangered stocks, B.C., Washington, and Oregon only allow low-effort recreational openings during the winter.
Troll gear. Photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
Alaskans have the same conservation concerns for their chinook. During the 2025 Board of Fish meetings, officials at Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game were instructed to “identify and implement actions that provide conservation for Southeast Alaska wild chinook salmon stocks.”
So, why is Alaska still permitting a six-month-long commercial troll fishery during the winter? Because it’s restricted to “outside waters” where there is an “abundance of non-Alaska stocks.”
The Pacific Salmon Treaty calls for “cooperative management and research on fisheries harvesting chinook salmon from populations in Canada and the U.S.” This means that fisheries need to account for how many of each other’s fish they are catching. They achieve this by collecting sufficient DNA samples from harvested fish to estimate the stock composition of a fishery. In the Alaska winter troll fishery, recently collected data shows that the vast majority–eighty-eight per cent of the chinook harvested come from…you guessed it: B.C., Washington and Oregon.
This past season, Alaska caught more Canadian salmon than Canadians did. And this winter, Alaskan trollers will be catching Canadian chinook while our fishers are tied up. For a great many B.C. chinook stocks, the majority of their harvest–sometimes up to 50 per cent–happens in Alaska. We desperately need a better Pacific Salmon Treaty to protect winter chinook and stop Alaska’s exploitation of B.C salmon. To find B.C. chinook from a sustainably managed troll fishery, visit the B.C. Salmon Marketing Council.
Troll Fishing Boats. Photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
Feature image photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
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Alaska is ‘trolling’ B.C. with its winter chinook fishery
October 10, 2025
By: David Mills
Only Alaska allows its commercial fishers to harvest chinook during the winter. Why? Because the salmon are not from Alaska.
With a few potential openings for late-running chum remaining, commercial fisheries in B.C. are closed until next May, when the first of the 2026 salmon run returns to our coast. However, in Alaska, next year’s fishery is just about to open–and the target is chinook. Chinook are the most sought-after salmon, and trolling is the most effective method for targeting them.
When chinook return from the open ocean to the coastlines, not all of them head directly to their home rivers. Many wait to complete their migration the following year, fattening up and growing stronger on local prey. This means chinook are always hanging around. However, to minimize impact on endangered stocks, B.C., Washington, and Oregon only allow low-effort recreational openings during the winter.
Troll gear. Photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
Alaskans have the same conservation concerns for their chinook. During the 2025 Board of Fish meetings, officials at Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game were instructed to “identify and implement actions that provide conservation for Southeast Alaska wild chinook salmon stocks.”
So, why is Alaska still permitting a six-month-long commercial troll fishery during the winter? Because it’s restricted to “outside waters” where there is an “abundance of non-Alaska stocks.”
The Pacific Salmon Treaty calls for “cooperative management and research on fisheries harvesting chinook salmon from populations in Canada and the U.S.” This means that fisheries need to account for how many of each other’s fish they are catching. They achieve this by collecting sufficient DNA samples from harvested fish to estimate the stock composition of a fishery. In the Alaska winter troll fishery, recently collected data shows that the vast majority–eighty-eight per cent of the chinook harvested come from…you guessed it: B.C., Washington and Oregon.
This past season, Alaska caught more Canadian salmon than Canadians did. And this winter, Alaskan trollers will be catching Canadian chinook while our fishers are tied up. For a great many B.C. chinook stocks, the majority of their harvest–sometimes up to 50 per cent–happens in Alaska. We desperately need a better Pacific Salmon Treaty to protect winter chinook and stop Alaska’s exploitation of B.C salmon. To find B.C. chinook from a sustainably managed troll fishery, visit the B.C. Salmon Marketing Council.
Troll Fishing Boats. Photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
Feature image photo: B.C. Salmon Marketing Council
