By CAPT. DAN CARNEY
April 13, 2026 – I’ve spent 45 years working on the Bering Sea and 30 of those as a pollock trawl captain. I’ve seen a lot of crazy things during that time, but these recent attacks on trawl fishing by some candidates for Governor may top them all.
Growing up in Wasilla I didn’t know anyone with a fishing boat, so I hired on as a slime line worker out of Dutch Harbor. Since then, I’ve spent most of my life working in the pollock fishery and I’ve seen how much it has evolved. Technology and technique have come a long way. The fishery I started in is not the same as the fishery we operate today.
Alaska fisheries are the most sustainable in the world. The trawl sector is the backbone of that industry. Trawling harvests 80% of Alaskan seafood and supports thousands of Alaska jobs. Not just on boats, but in processing plants, port facilities, small businesses, and coastal communities throughout our State. These are real people, real families, real towns.
It is recognized as a global gold standard for responsible management, and we operate under some of the strictest regulations in the world. Written into those regulations are mandates to monitor and reduce bycatch. That push also comes from our captains, regulators and vessel owners, who care about the marine environment, and not just our target species.
That is why hearing some of the political rhetoric these days seems so disconnected from reality. For us, fishing isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life. It’s hard to describe how disturbing it is to hear candidates for Alaska governor calling to end it.
Calls to “ban trawling” aren’t new. I remember Greenpeace targeting our fishery back in the 1990s. What is new, and deeply concerning, is hearing those same talking points echoed by people running to lead our state.
To me it’s not just personal… It’s nuts.
A trawl ban would be more than a blunder for Alaska. It would cause a socio-economic tsunami that would increase everyday costs for Alaskans. It would undermine the economic model that maintains cargo services to our state. It would end thousands of Alaskan jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic output. Coastal communities that rely on fishing revenue would be devastated. Processing plants would close. Families would be forced to leave.
And for what?
Activist campaigns are trying to blame trawl fisheries for salmon, halibut and crab declines, but those claims are not based on facts. Changing ocean conditions and marine heat waves were the primary culprits in the recent declines of Western Alaskan chum salmon and opilio crab. These declines have been devastating for many Alaskans, but the science is clear that trawling is not the cause, and a ban on trawling would not be the cure.
I’m not a politician. I’m a fisherman. I’ve spent my life working in one of the toughest industries in the world. I could retire tomorrow, but I stay because the pollock fishery is clean and because I believe in it. I believe in feeding people. I believe in supporting our communities. And I believe in harvesting seafood the right way. I have seen a lot through the years and it really doesn’t get any better than this. It is disturbing to see candidates propose policies that would wipe all of that away without offering real solutions.
Alaskans deserve leaders who understand what’s at stake in this industry. They deserve leaders who are willing to stand up for the working people, and for those who actually produce something that is vital to the economy of the state.
From where I stand, calling for a total shutdown of trawling isn’t just misguided. It’s reckless.
Dan Carney is a lifelong Alaskan with over 45 years of experience in the state’s seafood industry. For the past three decades, he has captained a catcher vessel in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. Throughout his career, Dan has been actively involved in cooperative research, innovation, and long-term fishery strategies. He is an advocate for solutions, and a steward of the resource. He regularly participates in the North Pacific Fishery Management Council process.
5 thoughts on “Dan Carney: Alaska can’t afford reckless calls to end to trawling”
This all sounds to me as what is called ‘illusory truth effect’ where a falsehood is repeated over and over so that people will eventually accept it as truth. If we are the ‘gold standard’ and our fisheries are ‘the most sustainable in the world’, then where have so many fisheries gone? Where are the crab fisheries that used to be so robust? Where are the Yukon King salmon? The Cook Inlet Kings? I am not saying the loss of fisheries are the sole fault of trawlers but it is obvious all of our fisheries were not sustainable and we have problems. Also you cannot say that using nets reaching lengths of a half mile, dragging along the bottom of the ocean for hours, is not disruptive of ecosystems. It angers me management of our fisheries has become more politically driven than based on common sense.
The trollers industry, Fish and Game US federal leaders in your crowds arrogance, stupidity you guys waited to long to address the near empty rivers, creeks, and spawning grounds. You guys are going to have to find a way y get salmon bank into the rivers, or get the bycatch into peoples freezers (at no cost to them. At this moment you guys are going to have to ride this tsunami of a wave of the trawlers leaders, state leaders, and US leaders doing.
They ain’t going to listen until they get the salmon. And the voices who been complaining and criticizing the trawlers for depleting the rivers, streams finally got other leaders who chose to listen to them and loan them their platform to dirt poor locals to be heard after thirty years being unheard.
You guys brought the angst on yourselves
A couple of key point Dan seems to have ignored or is willfully ignorant about when talking about the pollock fishery. BTW, I speak from the perspective of a commercial fisherman.
– The pollock trawl fleet’s bycatch is orders of magnitude more than any other commercial fishery.
– In many commercial fisheries, most of the bycatch can be released alive. This is not the case with trawlers.
– The vast majority of the pollock fleet is not owned by Alaskans, the majority are owned out of Washington.
– The majority of Pollock caught are not processed in Alaskan facilities.
– The majority of the people working on pollock trawlers are not Alaskans. A large percentage are not Americans.
– The damage done to the ocean floor by trawlers isn’t found in other fisheries i.e. gillnet, purse seine, longline, etc.
– Trawl’s are not the only viable means of catching pollock at commercial levels.
And your solution to the problem is what? Crickets…….
Your argument seems to be a variation of “you can’t do that to us. We are important.” Yeah, tell that to every single other resource development effort in the state for the last half century. Note that commfish was in the fat middle or shutting down logging in the Tongass, opposition to Pebble, and shutdown of oil and gas exploration off the North Slope. Those guys must be chuckling, saying welcome to the party, pal.
OTOH, if there is a problem, there is also a solution. The system is to get the maximum number of nets out of the salt. The way to do that is to start the transition from the hunter – gatherer model to a fish farming model. Won’t be easy, but it will be something you guys can do for the next century. There’s a way out of this box canyon. Time to explore it. Cheers –