It’s legislature’s turn to act on salmon

Wild Alaskan salmon.

Those words alone send unforgettable images racing through nearly everybody’s mind: seeing, tasting, smelling, touching, and hearing these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat, or fresh out of the oven at home.

When I think of wild salmon, I think of clean, clear water spawning tributaries

teeming with paired-up salmon, ready to perform their last and most important dance.

Unfortunately though, there are those who seek to interrupt this dance for their own personal gain. Short term gain is not worth the decimation of the last great stocks of wild salmon in the world. That’s right. In. The. World. It’s time the citizens of Alaska, and the United States, make their voices heard.

And right now we have an even greater opportunity. Over 40,000 Alaskans have put their signatures on the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative, saying we need to consider reforming protections for salmon streams and rivers. As the Alaska Legislature heads into session, our elected officials will have one last opportunity to pursue those reforms before the issue heads to the statewide ballot later this year.

So we need to push them to modernize our state’s habitat permitting law, which – despite Alaska’s history as a salmon state -- hasn’t been updated in 60 years.

It can be tough to get politicians to listen, especially since the majority of them only have their own interests in mind. They haven’t put yours or mine first, let alone some pesky fish. Maybe they enjoy eating farmed salmon. I, for one, do not.

But now that people across the state are pushing habitat protections forward, politicians won’t be able to ignore this issue. We need to keep the pressure on by calling our elected officials to action; the Stand for Salmon campaign will be leading the charge and it’s high time to join them. Our own personal connections to salmon matter in this debate. Without salmon, I wouldn’t be able to make a living as a sport fishing guide in the great state of Alaska.

Seeing someone catch their first wild salmon makes the early mornings and long days well worth it. More than anything though, I love seeing how jubilant my two young boys become when a wild salmon is brought to the boat.

Wild salmon habitat needs to be conserved for our generation, and for generations to come. The commercial, sport fishing, and tourist industries of Alaska depend heavily on wild salmon stocks. It just baffles me that anyone would want to put a resource like this at risk for short term gain. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you stand on, this is one issue that should bring everyone together.

Don’t think for a second that you can’t make an impact. You can. Stand up and be heard.

Christopher Tobias and his wife Hillery run the Roe Roe Hard Guide Service in the Mat Su Valley and live, with their two boys, in Wasilla.