Controversy continues to surround past board nominee

This whole Roland Maw fiasco is so very unfortunate. Maw has been an advocate for his commercial fishing gear group, the drifters, for a long time and, at one point, was effective in securing the benefits and advantages he was seeking for that group. However, over the years, an arrogant attitude as to what he felt the “system” owed the folks he represented, saw him approaching Board of Fisheries meetings with a “we don’t need to compromise or even talk with other stakeholders” style of representing UCIDA (Upper Cook Inlet Drift Association). I would add that he also had a somewhat “self-serving” approach as well, since he held a drift permit too.

This attitude of refusing to even speak to “the other side” was apparent at the most recent Upper Cook Inlet BOF meeting about a year ago. The Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission submitted a proposal to rewrite the Central District drift fisheries management plan in a manner than would protect northern bound fish while allowing the fleet to hammer the Kenai and Kasilof stocks. Commission representatives approached the drifters on more than one occasion during the two-week BOF meeting and asked for a chance to discuss the proposal and allow the drifters to make suggestions on modifying the plan to better accommodate their concerns. The requests were ignored. At one point, a BOF member intervened to ask for a meeting which he would oversee and was told no.

Commission members kept working with BOF members to explain the proposal and why it was considered a critical component in turning around the declining trends in salmon returns to the Northern District. Suddenly, about an hour before the proposal was anticipated to come before the board for deliberations, Maw and some other drifters decided they wanted to talk to the commission folks. It was too late. The BOF went on to deliberations and passed the proposal unanimously (7-0).

Maw’s attitudes and approach have been noticed by folks involved in fisheries regulation and management all over the state. During the recent confirmation process, the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee went on record with a formal letter opposing Maw’s appointment to the BOF. I don’t recall hearing of any advisory committee which has ever taken such an action.

Now, not only has Maw withdrawn his name from consideration, but he also is being investigated for possible criminal charges regarding residency issues between Montana and Alaska involving hunting licenses and other possible claims. I’m amazed at times about how far the fall from grace can be.

Oh, how well is the revised drift management plan working after one season of use? Some Knik Arm systems saw the best coho returns in a decade and the drifters had the ninth best season in the last 40 years. It would appear this approach to managing Cook Inlet salmon might be the way to go, but one year’s worth of data isn’t enough to make any pronouncements of success.

Only time will tell if this approach is the answer.

On another note, additional king salmon regulations for the 2015 Northern District season were released about a week ago. The regulations are essentially the same as last year’s. You can view the four emergency orders and accompanying news release online or stop by the Fish and Game office to get a copy.

For those of you who enjoy the annual spring high/low tide ritual of driving down to the Ninilchik area to dig razor clams, there is bad news. Quoting from the department news release: “Low density of mature and juvenile razor clams in the Ninilchik and Clam Gulch areas have resulted in the closure of all Eastside Cook Inlet beaches to clamming in 2015. The closure prohibits the taking of any clam species from Eastside beaches and will go into effect at 12:01 a.m., March 1, 2015 and will be in effect for the remainder of the year. The affected area runs from the mouth of the Kenai River to the southernmost tip of the Homer Spit.”

From the tone of the release, I get the impression some significant level of restriction, at least for the Eastside Cook Inlet beaches, will be in place for the next few years. The Westside beaches are not affected by this announcement.

I’ve discussed going down to the Eastside beaches over the years but never managed to have the motorhome up and running that early in the season. Another opportunity missed!