Don’t remain silent

Details for the meeting I mentioned in last week’s column have firmed up. The meeting will be with the Mat-Su Valley legislative delegation and Cora Campbell, the commissioner of Fish and Game, and happen at Willow Island Resort at Mile 71.5, Parks Highway at 3 p.m., Aug. 29.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the status of Upper Cook Inlet/Mat-Su salmon fisheries management issues in light of the federal disaster request the governor has submitted regarding Cook Inlet king salmon. The meeting is open to the public. In fact, the public is strongly urged to attend and ask questions about Cook Inlet salmon management. For more information, contact Rep. Mark Neuman’s office at 376-2679.

I participated in another meeting last week where one person presented a rather interesting perspective on the nature of the Central District commercial salmon fishing industry. This will not be a popular perspective with some individuals, so I will not identify the speaker, but I think it’s a worthy topic for public discussion.

Because of the weak return strength of the late-run king salmon to the Kenai River, Fish and Game closed the east side setnetters for the month of July to protect the returning kings. The setnetters intercept king salmon along with the sockeyes they primarily target. This group sat on the beach while the drift fleet was turned loose to harvest the returning Kenai and Kasilof sockeyes (and a pile of our Northern District sockeye and coho as well). Since the drifters fish further off shore, their collective harvest of Kenai kings tends to be small.

As the season progressed, the drifters harvested the surplus sockeyes and delivered them to the processors. The commercial industry of the region did not lose any money, as a whole, even with the setnetters sitting on the beach. The total number of harvested fish was average for the run, the processors processed their usual products and the shippers did their thing as well. The ex-vessel price of fish was the same and the volume was about the same as if both gear groups had participated. The industry as a whole survived the 2012 commercial restrictions essentially as if there were no restrictions at all.

Within the commercial industry, the allocation of money was totally one-sided. Since only the drifters fished, they were the only ones paid. I would expect that several setnetters will file for bankruptcy and others suffer serious damage to their financial status. However, the commercial industry as a whole did just fine.

Something similar happened, only the other way around, with the setnetters fishing and the drifters sitting in port, during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. I suspect, because of the nature of the respective gear types, the setnetters didn’t catch as many fish that year as the drifters might have. But again, the commercial industry as a whole survived in decent shape in 1989.

Cook Inlet has a heavily over-capitalized commercial fishing industry. When one gear group misses essentially the entire season of fishing a particular species and this absence presents no meaningful detriment to the industry as a whole, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate the industry. The 2012 sockeye season shows that the setnet fleet can be beached and the harvest will continue just fine. Perhaps this gear group is not necessary to the health and management of the sockeye resource in Cook Inlet? There’s an interesting concept. Dry dock the drifters and the setnetters are capable of picking up most of the slack going the other direction. Do we really need both gear groups hammering salmon stocks in Cook Inlet at the same time?

Wouldn’t each active commercial permit holder make a better income if the competition were reduced by removing gear from the water (a permit buyback program perhaps)? Wouldn’t the resource be helped, especially here in the Northern District, by removing commercial gear from the water as well?

While the commercial industry survived just fine in 2012, the sport-fishing industry was crippled by major restrictions or outright closures of sports fisheries all over Cook Inlet. There are no other gear groups to cover that industry’s health. I’ve heard an estimate of a $50 million to $80 million loss to the Mat-Su this year alone with the failure of the king and coho sport fisheries.

It’s past time to start asking the commissioner why the department is managing the way it is. Show up Aug. 29 and participate.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.