Board of Fish member named

By the skin of his teeth, the governor complied with the legal timing requirements to appoint the seventh Board of Fisheries (BOF) member and named Robert Mumford of Anchorage to the seat formerly held by Karl Johnstone.

As you may recall, after Johnstone was informed he would not be reappointed, he resigned. The governor then immediately appointed Roland Maw. Maw withdrew his name after a criminal investigation of him was opened in Montana. The governor then appointed Robert Ruffner from the Kenai area. His legislative confirmation vote failed by the slimmest of margins.

I spoke with Bob Mumford at a couple of different Board of Game (BOG) meetings. Yes, Mumford currently holds a seat on the BOG, but his term on that board expires on June 30. Among other topics, I asked Mumford if he was looking for another term on the BOG. His answer was no. Mumford told me he was looking to do other things in his retirement. That’s why I was surprised to hear of his appointment to the BOF.

News reports say ADF&G Commissioner Sam Cotton personally asked Mumford to accept the BOF appointment. If true, that probably had an influence on Mumford’s decision to accept. When one receives a call from the commissioner, it’s hard to say no.

Mumford will function as a full board member through the 2015-2016 BOF meeting cycle and will be up for confirmation during the 2016 legislative session. That will give him a voting record by the time the legislature votes on his retention.

I wonder if this appointment could be temporary to buy the governor time to find a long-term member, given his lack of success with his first two candidates. Time will tell.

My observations of Mumford while he sat on the BOG indicated that he puts the resource first in his consideration of issues. That is a good thing! His background as a retired state fish and wildlife trooper means he has exposure to at least some of the state’s fisheries and is probably more knowledgeable about fisheries, in general, than the average person applying for a BOF seat. He’ll still have a steep learning curve, but he has a background to build on.

I think Mumford will do a good job on the BOF. I hope he understood the time commitment when he said yes to the BOF appointment. On average, he’ll spend about 120 days per year in studying the issues, reading reports, travel, and attending meetings as a new BOF member.

On another note, many Mat-Su Valley residents travel to the Kenai Peninsula for both sport and personal use fishing. Most of this activity is concentrated along the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers. An action by the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) this past January could have a negative impact on all users of the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers’ fisheries resources.

At that FSB meeting, with very little public input, the board voted to allow the use of gillnets for subsistence fishing on the Upper Kenai and Upper Kasilof Rivers against the recommendations of both federal and state agency staff opposing gillnet use because of fishery conservation concerns. Since gillnets are non-selective gear, while targeting abundant sockeye salmon, they will also incidentally harvest rainbow trout, lake trout, Dolly Varden and king salmon.

Quoting from a draft letter available on the web, “Fishery biologists, land management agencies, and a broad coalition of user groups have talked about best practices for fisheries management for rivers on the Kenai Peninsula. One point of general accord has been that gillnets, by their very nature a non-selective gear type, is not an appropriate harvest method for fishery resources. The decision by the FSB to allow gillnets on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers confounds proper management of the resource.”

The letter continues, “The federally recognized rural communities of Hope, Cooper Landing and Ninilchik already have significant opportunities to harvest salmon in the Kenai River, including dipnetting from a boat on nearly five miles of the river that are off-limits to non-subsistence dipnet users and to dipnet exclusively below the Russian River Falls, a tributary of the Kenai. Additionally the community of Ninilchik has an exclusive opportunity to use a fish wheel and dipnets on 2.8 miles of the Kasilof River between Tustumena Lake and Silver Salmon Rapids.”

If you are concerned about the use of gillnets in the peninsula rivers, go to the Kenai River Sportfishing Association website for more information and to view their draft letter.