In January, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker determined there are commercial fishery failures for nine salmon and crab fisheries in Alaska, California, and Washington.
The Commerce Department found that, in recent years, all nine fisheries experienced sudden and unexpected large decreases in fish stock biomass or loss of access due to unusual ocean and climate conditions.
U.S Commercial Fishery Disasters:
Alaska
Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fisheries (2016)
California
California Dungeness and rock crab fishery (2015-2016)
Yurok Tribe Klamath River Chinook salmon fishery (2016)
Washington
Fraser River Makah Tribe and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sockeye salmon fisheries (2014)
Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay non-treaty coho salmon fishery (2015)
Nisqually Indian Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and Squaxin Island Tribe South Puget Sound salmon fisheries (2015)
Quinault Indian Nation Grays Harbor and Queets River coho salmon fishery (2015)
Quileute Tribe Dungeness crab fishery (2015-2016)
Ocean salmon troll fishery (2016)
Under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Commerce Secretary can determine a commercial fishery failure due to a fishery resource disaster, which then provides a basis for Congress to appropriate disaster relief funding to provide economic assistance to affected fishing communities, including salmon and crab fishermen, affected by the disaster.
source: NOAA Fisheries