Board of Fisheries agrees to consider coho salmon ACR In March

On Tuesday Oct. 29, by a narrow 4-3-0 split vote, members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) decided to schedule Agenda Change Request (ACR) 5 to be considered out of normal board cycle.

Shortly after that decision, Chair Marit Carlson-Van Dort provided her rationale as to why ACR 5 and ACR 8 (the only other ACR the BOF decided to consider out of cycle) should be scheduled for the March 2026 Statewide Finfish meeting in Anchorage. There was no objection from any other BOF member, so ACR 5 and ACR 8 are now both scheduled to be heard during that March meeting.

On the ADF&G website that meeting is listed as running from March 17- 20, 2026, however, the BOF also made some slight scheduling adjustments to that meeting, which I did not record, but will provide an update on in the future.

If adopted, provisions of ACR 5 would reduce commercial drift gillnet fishing opportunity in the middle of Upper Cook Inlet during years with more than 2.3 million sockeye salmon returning to the Kenai River, while still allowing drift gillnet harvest in the Expanded Kenai, Expanded Kasilof, and Anchor Point Sections located closer to the Kenai River and Kasilof River terminus areas with Upper Cook Inlet.

The intent of this ACR is to provide a Conservation Corridor in the center of Upper Cook Inlet for a longer time duration in July and August thereby allowing adequate passage of coho salmon to better ensure attainment of the Deshka River and Little Susitna River coho salmon sustainable escapement goals (SEGs).

Scheduling this decision to be made in March provides the public and interested user groups advance notice and opportunity to comment on the merits of ACR 5, or possibly more agreeable solutions that could be considered to 5AAC 21.353 Central District Drift Gillnet Fishery Management Plan.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang asked Chair Carlson-Van Dort if she would prefer the ADF&G staff comment only on ACR 5 proposed language or more broadly on the entire management plan. Van Dort’s response, “Some of both.” Department comments on the plan and merits of proposed changes contained in ACR 5 may be available for the public to consider and comment on about a month (mid-February) in advance of the “mid”- March Statewide Finfish BOF meeting.

More in depth information concerning these and other BOF decisions that occurred at the October 28 and 29 work session should be posted on ADF&G’s website, possibly by the time this article is in print on Friday October 31, 2026.

Andy Couch is a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission and the Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee, however comments expressed in this column are his own unless noted otherwise.