Dan Sullivan was recently exposed for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign checks from donors connected to the trawling industry as Southwest Alaska fisheries face growing challenges.  

“As Alaska’s fisheries struggle, Dan Sullivan is reeling in campaign cash from out-of-state trawlers at the expense of Alaska fishermen,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “Self-Serving Sullivan poses an existential threat to Alaska’s fishermen and fisheries – and Alaskans can’t afford six more years of his pro-trawl leadership.”

Dan Sullivan has repeatedly been in lockstep with his Lower 48 trawl donors, including his second largest donor Trident Seafoods, who was fined millions of dollars after repeatedly engaging in practices that harmed Alaska’s sea life. Sullivan has refused to support real regulatory legislation to rein in factory trawling during his time in the Senate, including his eleventh-hour bill, which was described as “a looser approach than Peltola’s original and resulting slack for Big Trawl.” Instead, he’s sitting quietly on the sidelines as Alaskan fishermen, including subsistence, sport, and commercial, struggle under trawling-tied fishing restrictions across Alaska.

See more of Dan Sullivan’s anti-fish record:

• Betting Against Alaska Fishermen: Self-Serving Sullivan broke federal law by failing to report tens of thousands of dollars in sales of stock in Mowi – the “world’s largest farmed salmon company.” He reported trading stock in a direct competitor to Alaska’s salmon fishermen and got caught red-handed concealing it. 

• Protecting Pebble Mine: Sullivan has a nearly two-decade “long relationship of advocacy” for Pebble Mine, a project that is overwhelmingly opposed by Alaskans because it would jeopardize Bristol Bay, the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Not only does Sullivan have a history of association with Pebble Mine, he broke his promise to Alaskans to donate Pebble Mine-tied campaign cash and has continued cashing checks from the current Pebble CEO while staying silent publicly as executives push to resurrect the mine. 

• Selling Out to Special Interests: Dating back to his time as the head of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, Sullivan approved a controversial coal mine on the Chuitna River that would “obliterate” 11 miles of important salmon-spawning streams in Southcentral Alaska. The mine would have completely dewatered the streams in order to mine coal set to be exported to China. The mine would have wiped out salmon in the river and faced intense opposition from locals and the fishing community. As a result of his greenlighting the project, Sullivan was called “anti-salmon” and was criticized by the fishing community for siding with “outside companies at the expense of everyday Alaskans.”