Fish, wildlife issues on the calendar this month

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about newspaper deadlines. Even though my column usually appears in the Sunday edition, I need to submit it by Wednesday evening. That gives the editors time to edit and get the pages built incorporating the advertizing and other sports-related articles.

Because of those constraints, I’m writing this column even earlier than normal. I plan to be in Soldotna this Wednesday as one of four commissioners representing the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission at the Board of Fisheries Workshop meeting, being held from Oct. 18 - 20.

The MSBFWC submitted three proposals which will be addressed at this workshop meeting. One requests the BOF to upgrade the Susitna-Yentna sockeye stock from a stock of yield concern to the next higher level of stock of management concern. The second proposal asks the BOF to declare the Shell Lake sockeye stock as a stock of conservation concern. This is the highest level of stock of concern designations. The third proposal asks the BOF to require a protocol as part of an action plan containing the measurable criteria and goals needed to determine when a stock of fish in the SOC program has improved or recovered and can be downgraded or delisted.

This last proposal is similar in concept to the federal Endangered Species Act. That law has a series of biological measurements which determine if a species is either threatened or endangered. The designation of either level brings additional management and protection regulations which are designed to help the species rebound from its current depleted condition.

The ESA also has criteria listed which allow the managing agency to measure and determine when the species has improved or recovered. If the species is endangered, criteria exist to downgrade the species to a threatened status. Additional measurable goals and protocols are then used to determine if and when the species has recovered enough to delist it entirely.

The current SOC program has measurable criteria which must be met before a stock of fish can be declared a stock of concern. The regulations also require the action plan mandated by a declaration of a SOC to contain measurable goals to be used in determining if the stock has recovered. This “second half” of the policy has never been done, at least in a public format. Fish and Game will make recommendations for downgrading and delisting a SOC, but the goals and procedures are not public knowledge.

In a recent letter to the BOF, Fish and Game says they will release any SOC determinations for this coming cycle and the methods used to make those determinations at some future point. I have never seen any measurable delisting goals or other criteria specified in action plans developed for our eight SOC’s here in the Northern District. This lack of following the regulations concerning SOC’s is why the proposal was submitted to begin with.

While we’re talking fisheries management, here’s a reminder of another upcoming meeting. On Thursday evening, Oct. 27, at 6 pm, the MSBFWC will host an end-of-season meeting with Fish and Game at Fire Station 61 in Wasilla. The meeting will be held in one of their training rooms and is open to the public.

The purpose of the meeting is to find out the department’s take on how well, or not, the past fishing season went. Both fisheries divisions of Fish and Game will be represented by managers actively involved in the decisions made this past summer in managing both the commercial and sports fisheries.

The commission has developed several questions which will be submitted to the department prior to the meeting to allow the managers to have the information most folks are interested in available. The questions also seek to have the department explain why they took certain actions in managing the various fisheries. I suspect information presented by the department will trigger other questions as the meeting progresses.

In addition to the general public, Borough officials and several state senators and representatives have been invited, along with candidates seeking either a senate or representative seat in the November election. These folks need to understand the importance and condition of our Northern District salmon fisheries to assure any needed legislation can be developed to protect our fisheries resources

If you can, plan on attending all or part of this meeting. You might be surprised at what you will learn and you’ll get an insight into the complexities of managing Cook Inlet salmon.