BOF proposals would affect Valley fishing

The state Board of Fisheries (BOF) met in Cordova the first week in December to take action on proposals affecting fisheries in the Prince William Sound (PWS), Upper Susitna, and Upper Copper River areas. Some of those proposals were of interest to Valley residents. Here’s what the board did regarding those proposals.

The greatest interest by far concerned proposals dealing with subsistence and personal use fisheries. Proposal 1 called for the Chitna personal use dipnet fishery to be reclassified as a subsistence fishery. This was the eighth time a proposal of this type has been in front of the board. Seven of those times, the board either reclassified or kept the Chitna dipnet fishery as a personal use activity. This was one of those seven times.

A reclassification of this nature has significant legal ramifications. Subsistence has priority over all other resource uses. The commercial, sport or personal use fisheries on the Copper River would all be closed in times of a salmon resource shortage before any significant reduction in subsistence would be invoked. Lawsuits are often quickly filed when one or another group is closed out of using a resource while another group is still allowed access.

As a result of this legal situation, the Department of Law (DOL) attorneys who advise the BOF stated that, basically, the personal use fishery could be reclassified to a subsistence fishery only if at least one of two criteria were met: either the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) would provide significant new information about the uses and users of these fish since the last finding was made in 2003 and reviewed in 2005, or the board needed to document errors in the previous finding made by the board.

In that same memo, the DOL lawyers stated that they felt the previous finding was defensible in court. That means there were no errors made. ADF&G also told the board that there was no new information on either the users or uses involved in harvesting this resource. I think you can appreciate the position the board found itself in here.

The next two proposals are related but distinct. In one, the proposal asked for a customary and traditional (C&T) use finding on freshwater fish, other than salmon, found in the Upper Copper and Upper Susitna drainages. The second proposal asked that Crosswind Lake be opened back up to subsistence fishing.

ADF&G presented data that supported this and the board voted for a positive C&T finding. The next step was to determine an amount necessary for subsistence (ANS) range for each species. ADF&G did not have sufficient data to establish an ANS for each species of freshwater fish, but it did have a range of total pounds of all freshwater species harvested. The ADF&G recommendation was to adopt that range and have the department come back in three to six years with data supporting the actual pounds for each individual species. The board could then adjust the numbers. That was done.

The board also voted to reestablish a subsistence fishery in Crosswind Lake. This area already had a positive C&T finding for freshwater fish use. Crosswind Lake had been removed from the subsistence list in 1969 for biological concerns. Those concerns no longer exist, according to ADF&G, so subsistence fishing was again allowed.

Another proposal sought to develop a spot shrimp fishery management plan in PWS that would be the first step in allowing a commercial fishery for spot shrimp. ADF&G presented data that indicates, in round numbers, that about 100,000 pounds of harvestable surplus spot shrimp exists. The current noncommercial fishery, involving sport, personal use and subsistence activities, is harvesting around 60,000 of those pounds. That leaves about 40,000 pounds that could be taken by a small commercial fishery.

A management plan was developed by board members, ADF&G staff and a small group of commercial and noncommercial users. This plan was presented to the full board, but final action was delayed until the March 2009 meeting in Anchorage to allow more public comment and input to the plan.

The last action of major interest to Valley residents involves rescheduling proposal 379 back into cycle from its original scheduled date of March 2009. This proposal, dealing with establishing a corridor closure for the commercial drift gillnet fishery in Cook Inlet, will now be taken up for action at the next regular Upper Cook Inlet board meeting sometime in early 2011.

This rescheduling was done to avoid requiring folks interested in this proposal from having to attend a meeting in 2009 and turn around and have to attend the regular cycle in 2011. There are also several new management tools and situations in place now that, if properly used by ADF&G in the management of the Cook Inlet stocks, could negate the need for a conservation corridor. The listing of the Cook Inlet beluga whale as an endangered species will also have significant ramifications on boat traffic in Cook Inlet. To date, the feds have not specified what actions they plan to implement.

You can hear more about these BOF actions by attending the local fish and game advisory committee meeting tomorrow night starting at 7 at the MTA building in Palmer.

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.