LETTER: Protecting Salmon

To the editor:

Regarding the closure of upper Cook Inlet King Salmon:

“Our first job is to protect the fish. We have a constitutional directive to ensure the sustainability and health of the salmon runs, and with our projection suggesting that we aren't going to make escapement, we really don't feel we have any choice but to start out with heavy restrictions”

What a crock.

1. Your job in the last 30 years was to protect the King Salmon. So now you take your responsibility seriously? Where were you then? You let 50% of king runs be caught as by-catch for as long ago as I can remember. Shame on you. the lack of fish in the Matsu Valley is a symptom, not the problem. what are you doing about the problem? What action are you taking to STOP the commercial harvest of King Salmon? Do the Kings need there own attorneys. DO YOUR JOB.

2. We are not sport fisherman. Don’t get a good feeling because you are restricting a sporting activity. We are personal use fisherman. Sport fishermen catch and release. Our caught salmon go into our freezers to feed out families. Our families need protein. We use the fish to fulfill our family’s need for protein. This is not a sporting activity. The state wants to call the citizens sportsman so it can limit our fishing because sporting is optional, and to think we have no real right to the fish. They call us sportsmen so they can make us use sports gear to fish. Those definitions do not sit well with us because we take our personal responsibilities seriously. We have no right to the fish because we use a fishing rod? Sleep well you, bureaucrat.

— Donald Dunavant

Anchorage