March 26, 2025 — These are tough times for Alaska’s fishermen — and Russia is a primary cause. During his recent confirmation hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joked with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan about the need to counter “communist fish.” In reality, the future of our entire industry could hinge on whether Secretary Lutnick succeeds.
For more than a decade, the Kremlin has been implementing policies that take direct aim at Alaska’s fishing sector. In 2014, Russia banned U.S. seafood imports, choking off a $60 million market for Alaska fishermen, with pink salmon roe hit especially hard. In direct response, ex-vessel prices for pink salmon declined from $0.42 per pound to $0.23 per pound in 2015.
Then in 2017, Russia launched a massive state subsidy program to modernize its vessels and processing plants, undercutting us in global markets and having a similar downward impact to Alaska fishermen’s prices. More recently, Russia has chosen to pursue predatory pricing strategies, with the specific aim of displacing us from our traditional European and Asian markets and harming the long-term health of our state’s seafood economy.
In response to these provocations, Sen. Sullivan led a years-long campaign to secure broad U.S. sanctions on Russian-harvested seafood. These sanctions were finally fully implemented last year, and they are now providing Alaska fishermen a vital lifeline.