FEC data shows Sullivan received nearly $280,000 in donations from trawling industry

Reports say Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who in June introduced legislation in the Senate to regulate trawling and its impacts on bycatch and the seafloor, has accepted campaign donations from trawling companies and individuals and PACs connected to the trawling industry.

Sullivan is running for reelection to the Senate. On Aug. 18, a ranked-choice nonpartisan primary will decide the four candidates for the general election on Nov. 3 from a field of 16. The front-runners are Sullivan and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

The same week Sullivan introduced the Bycatch Reduction Act in the Senate, news outlets reported that he had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from individuals and PACs connected to the trawling industry. Alaska Public Media reported July 21 that the total amount Sullivan had received was nearly $280,000, which included PAC money and contributions from trawling company executives.

A Sullivan campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

In May, Sullivan received $11,500 from two pollock industry PACs, and around $7,000 from executives who work in the trawling industry or for pollock processing companies, according to Alaska Public Media.

Federal Election Commission disclosures, first flagged by opposition research group American Bridge 21st Century, show that Sullivan received $97,650 from Trident Seafoods and its owners, the Bundrant family, from 2015 to 2025. Sullivan and associated PACs also received $22,000 between 2017 and 2025 from the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, an industry group that represents trawlers.

Sullivan said in a press release that his bill would improve monitoring of and establish strict enforcement measures for trawl fleets, and that it would make bycatch monitoring and reporting more transparent by funding new technology and investigations, guided by a task force made up of Alaskans.

Aubrey Wieber, executive director of the government watchdog organization 907 Initiative, previously told the Alaska Independent that Sullivan’s bill is as far as the trawling industry will “let him go” when it comes to bycatch.

“He’s doing everything he can to win reelection, but you’ll never see him go further than this, and I would venture to say that you’ll never see this bill passed,” Wieber said.

When Peltola was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022, she received contributions from trawl industry executives and an industry PAC totaling about $10,000. This year, Peltola received $500 from an industry executive, but, Alaska Public Media reported, the campaign was in the process of returning the contribution. It said she had not received donations from trawl industry PACs in 2026.