Fish petition angers anglers

March 18, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH

Frontiersman

WASILLA - An emergency petition taken up last week by the Alaska Board of Fisheries has sport anglers around Cook Inlet worried that commercial fishermen will be getting a bigger slice of the salmon pie this summer.

The petition, filed on behalf of a group of Cook Inlet commercial fishermen, seeks clarification of the Upper Cook Inlet Salmon Management Plan adopted at the board's regular meeting in 2005. The fishermen want the board to amend the plan so biologists within the Department of Fish and Game would manage the Cook Inlet sockeye fishery with achieving established escapement goals as their primary objective.

This would be a subtle, yet significant change in the plan. Currently, biologists are directed to stick to the management plan - and its mandated fishing closures - even in years when the sockeye return to the Kenai and Kasilof rivers are projected to meet, or even exceed, escapement goals.

At the heart of the issue is the concept of closure &#8220windows,” periods of time when commercial fishing has to shut down, no matter how many fish happen to be heading upriver. Commercial fishermen - and some biologists - argue these mandated closures amount to missed opportunities and poor management policy. But sport anglers like the idea of having predictable pulses of fish able to get past gillnets.

The board is scheduled to take action on the petition in an emergency teleconference April 16. If the seven-member board sides with the commercial fishermen, the new rules will only be in place for 180 days. A permanent change to the management plan could come only during the board's regular meeting, set for February.

Some Mat-Su anglers are worried that, if the petition is adopted, it could mean fewer fish will escape commercial nets and make it to northern Cook Inlet streams like the Yentna and Susitna drainages.

Bruce Knowles is vice chair of the Blue-ribbon Sportsmen's Committee, formed last month by Mat-Su Mayor Curt Menard to look into hunting and fishing issues affecting the Valley. Knowles said the petition could have a big impact on how many fish return to Mat-Su next summer.

&#8220This could really kill us next summer,” Knowles said during a group meeting Thursday.

The panel is considering a letter to the board asking it to deny the petition. Not only could the proposed rule change mean fewer fish for the Valley, they argue, but such an emergency action leaves little room for the public to weigh in on the debate.

&#8220It circumvents the public process,” said Larry Engel, a member of the panel who is also a former Board of Fisheries member.

Engel said when he was on the board, such emergency petitions were not taken up as a normal course of action. He'd rather see changes to the management plan made in-cycle.

&#8220The public has got to know what they've got to lose,” Engel said.

Kenai River Sportfishing Association is the largest - and arguably the most-influential - sportfishing organization in Southcentral Alaska. Executive director Ricky Gease said he believes commercial fishermen are simply making a play to get more nets in the water.

&#8220Basically, what they're saying is, get rid of the windows and give us more time to go fishing,” Gease said.

Gease said the idea of the board taking up such a contentious allocative issue out of the cycle is poor public policy. He argues there is no &#8220emergency” in the fishery, and therefore the petition should be moot.

&#8220There is no rare event in evidence,” he said. &#8220The code says a petition needs ‘a finding of emergency.'”

Gease said he believes the board has made a terrible decision by taking up the petition.

&#8220People should be just as outraged about this,” he said.

Cook Inlet setnet fisherman Jeff Beaudoin was one of the petitioners who asked the board for the change. He said there is an emergency in Cook Inlet, and said the situation last summer was a perfect example, when more than 1 million sockeye salmon escaped into the Kenai River.

&#8220They did find an emergency situation did exist,” Beaudoin said.

He said commercial fishermen aren't asking for the right to fish nonstop.

They just want the board to make it clear that biologists should manage runs for the escapement goals, rather than to provide predictable opportunities for in-river users.

&#8220The direction from the board has been not as clear in regards to management objectives,” Beaudoin said.

If the Board of Fish makes the temporary changes, Beaudoin said, the effect on sport fishermen won't be as severe as some anglers seem to think, and he simply asks that biologists manage the fisheries as per the management plan.

&#8220I think it gives direction to the department and allows them to accomplish their goals,” he said.

Cook Inlet management biologist Jeff Fox said he doesn't the changes would have negative impacts on sportfishing in the Valley or elsewhere in Southcentral. He agrees with the petitioners that it would allow biologists to better manage for the goals in the plan.

&#8220If I've used all that (emergency order) authority, and I'm going over the goal, what do I do next?” he said.

Fox said anglers should not worry about commercial fishermen overfishing Mat-Su stocks, because biologists still have to meet escapement goals.

&#8220It doesn't really change that much unless we're going over,” he said. &#8220We still have to manage for the escapement goals.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at

352-2265 or matt.tunseth@

frontiersman.com.