Group responds to Howard Delo

Howard Delo has not forgotten his statement published in his April 24, 2014, commentary in the Frontiersman where he said “I guess when you can’t argue using facts, the only avenue left is finger-pointing and name-calling.” There is a paucity of facts and a whole lot of finger-pointing and name-calling in his most recent commentary on fisheries board appointments.

One of the many misrepresentations made by Delo in this Jan. 30, 2015, column is this:

“Currently, UCIDA, under executive director Maw’s leadership, has a lawsuit pending against the state of Alaska and the (Board of Fisheries) to return management of our salmon fisheries to the federal government.”

United Cook Inlet Drift Association did not file a lawsuit against the state of Alaska or the Board of Fisheries regarding this issue. UCIDA has filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce. The reasons are as follows.

After the passage of the Magnuson Stevens Act in 1976, the National Marine Fisheries Service set up a process for providing oversight of fisheries that fell under the Act. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is to work with the State and stakeholder groups to write Fisheries Management Plans for regional fisheries that comply with the 10 National Standards in the Magnuson Stevens Act. Authority for managing the fishery can then be delegated to the state. The state of Alaska agreed, in a Memorandum of Understanding, that it would manage fisheries in Cook Inlet in a manner consistent with the Act.

By the late 1990s the state stopped following its agreement with NMFS, and actively took the position that it need not consider the Magnuson Stevens Act, or the national standards, in making fishery management decisions in Cook Inlet. Since that change, harvests of salmon in Cook Inlet have significantly declined. During this time, UCIDA and Dr. Roland Maw have been persistently working to convince the Board of Fisheries to return to accepted, scientifically based principles of fishery management. UCIDA also repeatedly asked the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to update the Fisheries Management Plan for Cook Inlet, last updated in 1990. Instead, in 2012, the Council simply removed Cook Inlet altogether from the plan.

In January of 2013, UCIDA filed a lawsuit against NMFS and the Secretary of Commerce, challenging the approval of this decision by the council to remove federal waters in Cook Inlet from the scope of the federal salmon fishery management plan. This case is currently pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as case No. 14-35928, and is under assessment by the mediation program for settlement potential. The state of Alaska was not sued. The state of Alaska decided to intervene in support of the NMFS and participate as an intervenor-defendant.

UCIDA does not want federal management of the Cook Inlet fishery. We are only asking that the State be held to the same management standards in Cook Inlet that they have to follow in other fisheries such as Southeast Alaska salmon and Bering Sea crab.

Concerns about “federal overreach” through a fishery management plan simply misunderstand the mechanism by which the Magnuson Stevens Act operates. The MSA is our national charter and model for sound, science-based management of commercial fisheries. Federal oversight through NMFS is limited to ensuring that the plan complies with the MSA’s national standards, and that the state complies with the plan.

UCIDA’s principal concern is the long-term health of the salmon fisheries in Cook Inlet. Harvests of salmon in Cook Inlet have significantly declined in the last two decades. These declines, in large part, are attributable to mismanagement by the state. Invasive pike and other habitat problems in the Mat-Su Basin have eliminated 100 percent of the salmon production in eight lakes, and have reduced total production in that watershed by 50 percent.

Rather than address the in-river problems, the state responded by progressively restricting commercial fishing that targets healthy stocks heading to the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers, even though commercial fisheries only catch a fraction of the stocks headed north to the Mat-Su basin. These restrictions continue to result in gross over-escapements to the healthy systems and cause continued diminished returns.

The complete extirpation of salmon from eight lakes in the Mat-Su Basin and the recent crash in Chinook returns greatly increase the probability that one or more of these stocks could decline to the point at which a listing as “threatened” or “endangered” is warranted under the Endangered Species Act. If the current rate of decline continues we could face a real federal takeover of fishery management decisions in Cook Inlet. UCIDA’s lawsuit was an effort to prevent this from occurring.

Delo and his cohorts on the Fish and Wildlife Commission would rather point fingers at UCIDA than work towards real solutions to the salmon production problems in the Mat-Su Basin. It’s unfortunate that they continue to stand in the way of long-term improvements to salmon runs when there is so much at risk.

David R. Martin is President of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association in Soldotna.