Sullivan reintroduces sweeping bill targeting bycatch, seafloor impacts
Carli Clancy
National Fisherman
July 7, 2026
US. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has reintroduced the Bycatch Reduction Act, legislation that would expand federal efforts to reduce bycatch, limit seafloor impacts from trawl gear, improve fisheries monitoring and increase transparency in fishery management.
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The proposal would establish new standards and monitoring requirements designed to keep both midwater and bottom trawl nets off the seafloor, require proven salmon excluder devices on pollock vessels, invest in salmon tagging and genetic sampling, expand ecosystem research, and create a new flume tank testing facility to evaluate fishing gear under simulated ocean conditions. The bill also would reauthorize NOAA’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program and encourage fishermen to test new gear and technologies aimed at reducing bycatch and habitat impacts.
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“I’ve heard from countless Alaskans—from subsistence harvesters to commercial and recreational fishermen, and from residents of coastal communities to upriver villages—who are rightfully demanding direct action to reduce bycatch and gear contact with the seafloor to better protect our fisheries,” Sullivan said.
Gabriel Prout, president of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, said the measure addresses “critical data gaps in Alaskan fisheries” while promoting collaboration and new technologies to better understand fishing gear impacts on the seafloor and reduce unobserved mortality of benthic species.
Michelle Stratton, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said the organization has long advocated for stronger accountability around bycatch, unobserved fishing mortality and seafloor contact. She said the bill’s focus on research, monitoring and performance standards tied to seafloor contact represents “important steps in the right direction,” while emphasizing that the work must ultimately result in “measurable, enforceable standards.”
Support also came from the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, whose executive director Shannon Martin said the legislation advances reforms to reduce bycatch while strengthening protections for benthic habitat and improving transparency within the North Pacific Council process.
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said the bill reflects “meaningful action to reduce bycatch and protect seafloor habitat from bottom trawling,” calling it “a bold step forward.”
According to Sullivan’s office, the legislation also would authorize additional funding for research infrastructure, support testing of innovative fishing gear by commercial fishermen, and require expanded studies of salmon migration, marine heatwaves, sea ice loss, ocean acidification and other ecosystem changes affecting salmon, halibut, crab and other commercially important species.
Read more here.
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