By David Bayes, August 30, 2026
As Alaska’s fight over industrial trawling moves deeper into politics and the 2026 elections, we will likely see Seattle’s trawl industry increasingly hide its agenda behind the names of Alaska villages(it’s already happening).
Draggers already know that a giant Seattle-based fishing corporation telling Alaskans that we shouldn’t restrict trawling is not a particularly compelling political message.
But…..an organization representing “rural Alaska” communities saying those same restrictions will hurt Western Alaska is far more powerful.
However, the financial connections between the two are not speculation. Alaska’s Community Development Quota program was created to ensure that Western Alaska communities received some of the wealth generated from the Bering Sea. But….over time, several CDQ organizations have become financially intertwined with the larger industrial fishing companies operating there.
Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation(NSEDC), for example, is now the controlling owner of Seattle-based Glacier Fish Company, which operates major Bering Sea catcher-processors.
Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation(BBEDC) lists Arctic Storm and Global Seas among the industry partners involved in harvesting its CDQ allocations.
So…..what happens when the financial interests of organizations representing Alaska villages become intertwined with the financial interests of Seattle trawl-corps. We may already be getting a glimpse of what that looks like politically.
DAVID BAYES
In April, Northern Journal reported that Coastal Villages Region Fund had hired Rick Whitbeck, the former Alaska state director for Congressman Nick Begich, and Adam Trombley, the former state director for Senator Dan Sullivan. CVRF’s chief executive explained that the two brought “strong statewide relationships and experience in public engagement” and would help ensure that Alaskans heard from communities that depend on these fisheries.
There is nothing illegal about those hires. But… in the middle of an election cycle increasingly focused on trawling, they are worth paying attention to.
Two people with extensive political relationships and recent experience inside Alaska’s congressional delegation are now working for a CDQ organization whose own website says it earns its money through the Bering Sea fishing industry and owns and operates vessels fishing for pollock, crab and cod.
So AK needs to watch closely what comes next.
If stronger bycatch protections, lower harvest levels or habitat closures cost the industrial fleet money, they can also cost CDQ organizations money. The political interests of a Seattle trawl corporation and an organization representing Alaska villages can therefore begin to look remarkably similar.
Instead of SEATTLE corporations spending millions openly defending the status quo, watch for the argument to increasingly come through Alaska organizations; AKA “restrictions will hurt our villages, hurt Western Alaska and take money away from rural communities”
That is a much more sympathetic message than saying those restrictions could reduce the profitability of industrial trawling.
To be clear, I am not claiming that Seattle corporations secretly control CDQ organizations. In some cases, the ownership relationship actually runs the other direction. Nor am I suggesting that CDQ programs haven’t produced real benefits for their communities.
I am saying Alaskans should pay VERY close attention to who has a financial interest in the message.
The CDQ program was created to use Alaska’s fisheries to benefit Western Alaska communities. It should never become political camouflage that allows some of the largest industrial fishing interests in the North Pacific to fight fisheries reform from behind the names of Alaska villages.
Seattle’s trawl corporations are entitled to defend their business model.
But….if big Seattle money is going to influence Alaska elections and Alaska fisheries policy, Alaskans deserve to know whose interests are really being represented.
David Bayes of Homer holds a degree in biological sciences and is the owner of DeepStrike Sportfishing. Bayes has served as past president of both the Alaska Charter Association and the Homer Charter Association. He is a co-founder of the Facebook group STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch group with nearly 60,000 followers.
