May 22, 2023 — As $216 million in federal aid is flowing to help Alaskans cope with salmon and crab collapses over the past three years, conditions that caused some of the harvest failures persist.
The Alaska congressional delegation announced on Friday that the U.S. Commerce Department released the disaster aid. The money is to go to harvesters, processors and communities affected by designated disasters in salmon and crab fisheries that occurred between 2020 and 2022. Some money will also go to research programs, the delegation said in the joint statement released by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
“This disaster funding comes at a time when several of our state’s fisheries are experiencing traumatizing and devastating collapses—so it will make a real difference for impacted fishermen and communities,” Murkowski said in the statement.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in December issued disaster declarations for the salmon and crab problems in Western Alaska and the Bering Sea, as well as some extremely weak salmon runs in 2020 in the Prince William Sound and Copper River areas. The biggest chunks of resulting disaster aid now arriving are designated as responses to Bering Sea and Norton Sound crab collapses