Fisheries debates continue

Alaskan fisheries politics is never ending!

If you’re interested in keeping the major gains we have seen this year on coho returns to the Valley, please pay attention to what’s happening with the Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) and their regulation process.

The BOF is gearing up for the coming cycle by preparing for their workshop meeting in Juneau on October 15-16. This is a non-regulatory, organizational meeting where the coming year’s cycle of meetings is addressed, any additional topics deemed necessary for discussion and/or regulatory action are added to specific upcoming meetings, and so forth. Two things scheduled to come before the BOF will have a direct impact on our Northern District salmon fisheries, even though these topics are not scheduled to be addressed in cycle for two more years.

First, ACR 20 (agenda change request) will be deliberated. This ACR wants the BOF to make specific changes to the Central District Drift Management Plan to redirect how the drift fishery is to be closed as the fishing season winds down. Changes made to the drift plan at the 2014 Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) BOF meeting added specific provisions on how to have an orderly closure to the drift fishery. Commercial drift fishers argue that the method used to facilitate the closure unfairly restricts their ability to catch chums, pinks, and the few remaining red salmon.

What they really want is target the coho runs headed north through the commercial fishery at this specific time of year. The management plan specifically states that Fish and Game is to manage the coho runs primarily for the sports and guided sports anglers of Cook Inlet. This has never really been done until the 2014 UCI BOF meeting regulatory changes were incorporated in the management plan and actually followed by Fish and Game. For example, under the old management scheme in 2013, the commercial fishers harvested 257,000 coho. This last year, 2014, the commercial fleet’s catch was about half that at 128,000 coho. That’s a major reason why you saw the coho returns we had to Northern District waters this summer.

Second, there will be a major push for the BOF to schedule the next UCI meeting on the Kenai Peninsula. The last time the BOF held a regulatory meeting on the Kenai, board members were accosted and the police had to be called in to maintain order. This is hardly the environment in which to make major allocative, economic, and conservation decisions affecting resources and livelihoods!

Folks on the Kenai will bitterly dispute that any such “situations” actually happened at that meeting and that I am merely telling “tales” to keep the meeting off the Peninsula. I heard the confrontation stories from board members and others who personally attended that meeting and who eye-witnessed the events. When I was on the board, members were not comfortable with having a regulatory meeting on the Kenai for those reasons.

Because of the contentiousness of many of the decisions made at an UCI BOF meeting, the best place to hold the meeting is in a “neutral” location. The best fit as things currently exist to do that is to hold the meeting in Anchorage. Everybody has to travel to get there and nobody has a “home field” advantage.

So what can you do about all this? If you are unable to personally attend the Juneau workshop to lobby board members, and most of us cannot, send in written comments about your thoughts and experiences regarding these two situations. I would suggest you oppose ACR 20 because the requested changes would undo what has finally been accomplished in managing the Cook Inlet coho runs. I would further suggest you recommend the next UCI BOF meeting be held in Anchorage as the best “neutral” location.

All your participation at the 2014 BOF meeting resulted in unprecedented changes to allow more salmon north to our area. Written comments from you addressing the issues mentioned above will help assure that years of work to achieve gains for our northern salmon resources will not be undone – especially in an off-cycle year!

Written comments are due by October 1 and can be submitted online by following the prompts at www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.main. To learn more about the BOF meeting schedule and to read the ACR’s, click on “meeting information” on the left side of the page. To send comments by mail, address to: ADF&G, Boards Support Section, P.O. Box 115526, Juneau, Alaska 99811-5526. Address your comments to the Board Chairman.

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.