Last week, members of the body that oversees federal fisheries off Alaska's coast recommended keeping next year's catch limits for the sprawling Bering Sea pollock fishery about the same as this year.
Managing the nation's largest commercial fishery is never simple, but North Pacific Fishery Management Council member Anne Vanderhoeven said during the meeting that this year had unprecedented challenges.
"Because of the lapse in federal funding and the subsequent government shutdown, updated stock assessments are not available," she said.
Without those assessments, the council had to rely on older data and partial updates.
Fisheries biologist Diana Stram runs the groundfish plan team, which presents annual reports to the council. She says the team had to cancel its meeting last month when the federal government shut down for over six weeks.
And that meant the organization recommending catch limits could be doing it without the most recent information.
"We're not able to get new stock assessments from our federal authors because they were on furlough and did not have the time to complete those new assessments," she told the council last week. "We don't have a groundfish plan team report as a result."
It's the latest hurdle for federal fisheries managers since the start of President Trump's second term. Layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center started earlier this year. Many of those workers help with surveys that inform how fisheries should open. The credit cards used to purchase supplies for summer research trips were frozen just as the boats were gearing up. And the council itself saw dramatic budget reductions, leading to its last meeting being moved online.
Still, at the council meeting this month, NOAA scientists emphasized that last year's assessment models were strong and built on decades of survey work. They told the council the projections from last year were reliable enough to guide 2026 limits.
Scientists and council members said that some quotas could have increased if this year's data was included.
Despite the disruptions, council members said the process held together well enough to set this year's recommendations. But they acknowledged that Alaska's largest fishery is increasingly vulnerable to forces outside the water.
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