Current Board of Fisheries decisions may have far reaching consequences

Earlier this week Anchorage television news covered the Alaska Peninsula / Area M Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting occurring in Anchorage this week. Of concern at this meeting are low salmon escapements in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers along with the resulting loss of subsistence harvest opportunities. A similar situation has also developed near Chignik with reduced sockeye salmon returning up the Chignik River into Chignik and Black Lakes. While subsistence harvest levels are often miniscule compared to some commercial harvest opportunities, in the State of Alaska, subsistence harvest opportunities are considered to have priority over other fishery harvest opportunities.

Furthermore, maintaining salmon spawning escapement objective levels takes priority over even subsistence harvest opportunities. According to genetic studies, the commercial fishery in Area M harvests salmon bound for Bristol Bay, destinations East of Kodiak (including Cook Inlet /south-central Alaska), within the Kodiak and Alaska Peninsula area, Western Alaska (including the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers), and even Asia. Consequently, Area M is known as an intercept fishery, because it intercepts considerable numbers of salmon bound for other locations. This type harvest pattern has a long history in Area M, with an additional history of both conservative actions and liberalizations to the amount and types of commercial harvests allowed in the area. Board decisions that may restrict the Area M commercial fisheries to more terminal harvest locations within this area tend to focus management in a way that should result in more consistent local salmon escapements and subsistence harvest opportunities for locals who may not own commercial permits or large boats. This type decision would also likely result in passing larger numbers of salmon, bound through Area M, to other parts of Alaska.

Board decisions that maintain the amount of Area M commercial harvest opportunity away from terminal areas have a likelihood to maintain current commercial harvest levels in particular by the larger seine and drift gillnet boats, but at the expenses of local and distant salmon escapement levels and at the expense of local and distant subsistence harvest opportunities, and at the expense of smaller set net commercial opportunities within Area M, and finally at the expense of distant commercial, sport, and personal use harvest opportunities that may already be managed much more conservatively than Area M.

In addition, there are also several proposals seeking to expand Area M commercial harvest opportunities aimed at pink, coho, and /or local chum salmon stocks. If any of these new opportunities were to pass with large harvest areas extending far from local terminal stock locations, the impact on nonlocal pink, coho, and chum stocks and also nonlocal sockeye and king salmon stocks could be significant.

I am hopeful for Board changes to address conservation needs, and also provide for a more equal sharing of both conservation burdens, and harvest opportunities amongst the many common users of Alaska’s salmon resource. The Alaska Peninsula / Area M fisheries may often be far from most Mat-Su anglers' minds, however, these fisheries and how they are managed have a significant impact on salmon returns and harvest opportunities throughout a large part of Alaska. This meeting is scheduled to run through February 25 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage (unless board deliberations conclude before then).

Coming up soon will be the Board of Fisheries Hatchery Committee on March 9 and the Statewide Board of Fisheries meeting (with proposals seeking to restrict personal use and subsistence fishing opportunities) scheduled for March 10 - 14 both at the Egan Center in Anchorage.

The Board of Fisheries meeting schedule can be seen here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs/2022-2023/22_23%20Meeting%20Schedule%20revised%20January%202023.pdf

Fish On!

Andy Couch is a member of the Matanuska - Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission and Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee. Opinions expressed in this column are his own.