Last week, the Mat-Su Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee hosted a public meeting with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Blue Ribbon Committee had asked ADF&G to explain how they planned to manage the Cook Inlet salmon fisheries for this 2009 season and how their management approach would impact sports fisheries in the Northern District specifically. It was an interesting meeting!

Both of ADF&G’s fisheries management divisions, Commercial Fisheries and Sport Fish, were represented by their respective division directors, the area management biologists involved in the day-to-day management decisions, and regional staff. Three legislators representing the Valley (Senator Charlie Huggins, Representatives Mark Neuman and Bill Stoltz) and one from Anchorage (Representative Craig Johnson) were in attendance as were two Board of Fisheries (BOF) members (Karl Johnstone and Howard Delo).

Before I mention the substance of the meeting, here are some general comments and observations. First, there were many in-depth questions asked by members of the public which indicated a very thorough understanding of the fisheries situation in the Northern District. Several of these questions were answered inadequately or not at all by ADF&G. Second, some explanations presented to support various department actions were superficial in detail and some used questionable data or facts as support. And finally, some disturbing statements were made by department staff. Larry Engle, a retired ADF&G Sport Fish Division biologist and former BOF member and Chairman, moderated the meeting. John Hilsinger, the Commercial Fisheries Division Director, opened the presentation by talking about changes being made in how the department would monitor sockeye salmon returns to the Valley. Essentially, ADF&G is abandoning the nearly thirty-years of sonar counting sockeyes in the Yentna River and replacing that approach with weir counts of sockeyes entering three lake systems off the Yentna. Jeff Fox, the CFD Area Management Biologist from Soldotna, explained the details.

This new approach is a concern to knowledgeable valley anglers since the use of different numbers to determine overall sockeye escapement into the Susitna Drainage will mean the escapement goals will almost always be met, even though the same number or fewer fish as enumerated by the old index methodology will be in the system. Using the old sonar indexing method, in five of the last eight years, sockeye returns have not met even the minimum escapement goal. Further, this new approach will have significant ramifications on how the existing Northern District fisheries management plans will be implemented and on the Stock of Concern status for the Yentna sockeye stock.

This next point was hinted at in both questions asked and answers given, but no department spokesman ever flatly stated that this new sockeye management approach is actually a transitional phase to see if this new methodology is more accurate than the old sonar index counts. I’m not sure most of the public in attendance understood that, by being transitional, this new approach may not be permanently adopted if it proves to be no better than the sonar indexing approach. Had this statement been clearly made, some heartburn might have been eliminated.

When the discussion turned to Deshka River king salmon, the SFD staff took over. Charles Swanton, the SFD Director, made introductory comments and turned the detailed explanation over to Dave Rutz, the SFD Northern District Area Management Biologist.

Rutz explained the recent history of king salmon returns in the Northern District and the concerns his division has about this season’s possibly weak return strengths. These concerns are what led to the preseason issuing of restrictions on the Deshka. A questioner asked the CFD how they planned to restrict the commercial king set net fishery in light of the Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy and these SFD concerns. The biologist answered that the commercial fisheries do not share in the burden of conservation.

That statement was very disturbing to Northern District folks!

The only staff member who seemed to recognize the negative severity that statement engendered was Jennifer Yuhas, ADF&G’s legislative liaison. She immediately tried to explain that the burden of conservation is built into the management plan followed by CFD in managing the fishery.

That explanation sounds good, but has no significant meaning. Just as triggers are built into commercial fisheries management plans to limit or close commercial fishing activities, restrictions in regulation govern the sports fishery. Limited hours of fishing, no bait, restricted bag limits, restricted fishing areas and other “conservation burdens” are built into the sport fish “management approach.” The original question was never answered.

The questioner further asked if CFD and SFD agreed that a potential problem existed in this season’s returning king salmon run strengths, and if so, why the CFD has not issued any restrictions on the set net king fishery. No answer was given.

CFD explained that king populations cycle over time and that the current low run strengths in the Northern District will rebound with no additional restrictions on commercial fisheries. A questioner asked why, then, the Theodore and Lewis Rivers’ king populations have not rebounded after ten years of no in-river harvest allowed, but with both a commercial and subsistence harvest occurring annually in saltwater. No answer was given.

At meeting’s end, the four legislators were given the chance to make closing comments. Each legislator “warned” the two division directors that they should start listening to folks’ concerns about how the fisheries are being managed in Cook Inlet. Rep. Stoltz asked the two directors if they understood the message sent by the failure of Brent Johnson, a Cook Inlet commercial fisherman, being confirmed to a seat on the BOF. He was met with total silence.

According to Stoltz, the message sent was that many legislators are unhappy with the way Cook Inlet fisheries are currently being managed and that the management approach must change. Stoltz suggested that if this message was not being received by ADF&G, then perhaps a blunter action by the legislature might be necessary for the message to register!

I’m not sure this meeting did anything to allay fears Northern District residents have about the CFD and their management approach to Northern District salmon stocks. In fact, more questions were probably raised and more distrust developed as a result of the answers or non-answers CFD made to very specific and direct questions.

The drama continues....

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.