The amount of Pacific cod fishermen can harvest in the state-managed fishery around Kodiak Island this year is slightly down by about 6% compared to last year. But the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says that quota is not based on the latest stock assessment data, which indicates the number of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska is increasing.
Last month the department announced a harvest level of 5.3 million pounds of fish for the Kodiak area. Last year’s quota was 5.6 million pounds. And in 2024, the guideline harvest level was about the same.
Nat Nichols, the area manager for commercial groundfish and shellfish fisheries in Kodiak, Chignik and South Alaska Peninsula areas, said when the federal government shut down for a record 43 days last fall, that prevented the 2025 Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod stock assessment from being finalized. He said the state and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council rely on that stock assessment for setting the harvest levels for both the state and separate federally managed Pacific cod fisheries.
“The [2025] assessment was not completed because the people who were supposed to be working the assessment were not working," Nichols said. "So, the council adopted, essentially, rollover quotas and that’s why we’re getting very similar quotas to last year even though the survey indicated that they found more cod.”
Nichols is referring to the Gulf of Alaska bottom trawl survey that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducts every two years. Despite staffing cuts to the federal agency last year, NOAA Fisheries was able to do its biennial bottom trawl survey in the Gulf of Alaska last summer. That survey gathers data on the health of the Pacific cod population, among other things.
Nichols said last year’s federal survey data and some information Fish & Game collected during its annual Tanner crab survey last summer between June and September, all show Pacific cod stocks increased by about 40% since the last stock assessment in 2023.
“The main takeaway is that we saw a similar increase in our surveys as we saw in the federal survey, so just all indications are that the cod stock is rebounding," he said.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council said in an email that the council plans to review the latest Pacific cod stock assessment at its meeting next month, and possibly update its Gulf of Alaska harvest specifications for the current season.
Although that is for the federal fishery, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game said if federal harvest levels are revised then the department will also issue updated harvest levels for the Pacific cod fishery in state-waters.
Nichols said it’s too early to speculate how the council’s upcoming meeting will impact this year’s Pacific cod fishery in state waters around Kodiak Island. But an increased fish population tends to result in a higher harvest level.
Seven fishermen registered to jig for Pacific cod in the Kodiak area this season, according to Nichols. The Kodiak area jig fishing season opened at the beginning of the year on Jan. 1 but the pot gear season is not expected to open until at least the end of this month, seven days after the Central Gulf of Alaska federal Pacific cod pot gear season ends.
