Alaska Fish & Game announced today, May 13, 2026, that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has denied a petition to list Chinook Salmon under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) after an extensive review found the listing unwarranted.
The State of Alaska supports the NMFS decision, emphasizing that Chinook “do not even come close to meeting the definition for listing under ESA.” According to the Alaska Fish & Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, the biological indicators listed in the petition were “grossly inadequate to support an ESA listing.”
“This decision by NMFS Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler indicates strong support for Alaska’s management of natural resources,” stated Vincent-Lang.
Addressing concerns regarding Chinook declines, Vincent-Lang stated: “Alaska takes the decline in Chinook abundance very seriously. That is why we have taken significant management actions to reduce harvest and have invested heavily in research to better understand the causes of reduced productivity of these stocks.”
NMFS’s decision came after an extensive review of data on salmon abundance, habitat quality, harvest, fishery management, and other factors impacting Chinook Salmon quantities.
