Borough lauds BOF decision

ANCHORAGE — The Mat-Su Borough has hailed as historic an Alaska Board of Fisheries decision made Tuesday that supporters say puts the health of a fishery resource above simply continuing the economic wellbeing of that resource’s user groups.

“We will look back on this action to implement conservation measures as a game-changer in restoring the once-robust salmon runs in the Valley,” Assemblyman Jim Colver says in a press release from borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan.

But not everyone is happy about the change. The drift net fleet in Cook Inlet issued a statement decrying the new rules.

“We are discouraged by the needless, unscientific attacks on the more than 5,000 Cook Inlet commercial fishermen and their families that have occurred over the last 10 days,” said Arni Thomson, executive director of the Alaska Salmon Alliance.

The board of fish adopted a major revision of the management plan that governs how the Central District commercial drift gillnet fleet will be allowed to harvest salmon returning to Cook Inlet. The revision will allow more fleet fishing time in a larger area early in the season, and that area shrinks as the season continues and salmon stocks bound for the Northern District begin arriving in greater numbers. A new expanded area called the “Anchor Point Section” was added on the east side of Cook Inlet to accommodate the drift fleet fishing out of Homer.

During the second half of July and into early August, the fleet will be largely restricted to the “Expanded Kenai,” “Expanded Kasilof” and “Anchor Point sections” for the bulk of their fishing. This area restriction allows the fleet to continue harvesting the robust Kenai and Kasilof sockeye stocks forecasted to return by Alaska Department Fish and Game while staying out of the main migration corridor up the center of the inlet used by all returning salmon species. This shift in fishing effort is expected to move the northern-bound Susitna-Yentna stock of concern sockeye in greater numbers to their natal stream to improve the health of this long-declining run.

The plan also contains a step-down framework that is expected to shift the commercial fishing pressure off returning coho stocks later in the season, allowing greater numbers of silvers to return north. By regulation, coho are to be managed primarily for the benefit of sport and guided sport fishers in Cook Inlet. This plan change should accomplish that directive better than any previous management approach, according to Larry Engel, acting chairman of the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.

A large number of Valley residents either were present at times during the meeting or submitted written comments asking the board of fish to make changes to pass more salmon to the Northern District. This area currently has seven of the state’s 11 stocks of concern salmon populations, with the potential for a couple of additions yet to be determined at this writing. Coho runs have been poor in recent years, sockeye runs across the Valley have declined for decades, and king salmon have all but disappeared from Valley systems. The king problem is a statewide concern and is not thought to be related to commercial exploitation.

In addressing 25 personal use fisheries proposals, the majority of which were submitted by commercial fishing interests to reduce bag limits or reduce fishing times, the board of fish decided the food security potential these fisheries offered to more than 35,000 Alaskan families outweighed the commercial fleets’ implied need to harvest more fish.

During deliberations, the statement was made by a board member that having a strong personal use dipnet fishery on the Kenai River provided Fish and Game with another tool to manage escapement rates of sockeye into that system. In recent years, between 800,000 and 900,000 sockeye have been harvested from the river by both the personal use and sports fishing anglers. Some housekeeping personal use proposals were passed. One clarified that personal use fish needs to be marked as personal use fish before being removed from view or before leaving the fishing area. Another aligned the closing date of the Kenai River hooligan personal use fishery with similar surrounding fisheries.

A proposal to open the Fish Creek personal use dipnet fishery by regulation rather than by emergency order failed because of conservation concerns for the strength of the sockeye run. The precautionary principle contained in the Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy, which is found in regulation, was cited as the reason this change was not made.

Other proposals to establish a commercial fishing season on northern pike, establish a bounty on northern pike, requiring barbless hooks for sport fishing in all Cook Inlet freshwater areas, specific handling procedures for catch-and-release salmon fishing, establishing more escapement goals in the Northern District to aid in management decisions, the establishment of a Deshka River king salmon management plan, and changes to subsistence fishing on the Yentna River are yet to be decided as of this writing.

The Mat-Su Borough fish and wildlife commission, along with the Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee and the Anchorage Advisory Committee, spearheaded the effort to accomplish major change in the management of commercial fisheries in Cook Inlet.

Borough support from the assembly and the mayor allowed the borough Fish and Wildlife Commission to work with board members to accomplish the changes made.

Tom Kluberton, vice chair of the state board and a former Mat-Su Borough assemblyman representing the Talkeetna and Willow areas, said that to have not changed the way fish were allocated would have meant giving up on Mat-Su.

“I think it makes no sense to give up on a piece of real estate that is the size of Scotland and decide, ‘Oh, it just can’t raise sockeye because it has habitat issues.’ Yes, it does. We have means, pieces and places to address those,” Kluberton said. “Our No. 1 priority is conservation.”

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who writes a regular Frontiersman column. He also holds a seat on the Mat-Su Borough’s Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Frontiersman reporter Andrew Wellner contributed to this report.