More gift ideas and a Board of Fisheries outlook

I’ve got a few more gift ideas and then we’ll move on to other items.

I hunt way off the beaten path every few years and communications with the home front is a critical item now that I’m getting a little older. Cell phones provide that link in some surprising places, but not everywhere – especially if you’ve wandered away from the highway system. I have wondered about satellite phones for a while but never really pursued them because of cost. The phone itself usually runs from $500 to well over $1,000 depending on brand. The costs of operating the phone are just as scary.

One popular brand is currently offering a half-price sale on their satellite phone through the end of December, making the phone price itself only $250. The service fees are still considerable, but if you have a need/use for a satellite phone, even if only occasionally, this could be an opportunity to provide that remote communications link for your favorite wandering hunter or angler.

A related option is buying a gift certificate from a satellite phone provider for a rental unit your favorite outdoors person could use on that next remote hunt. I haven’t explored this much, so I don’t have knowledge of costs, but it would be a definite safety factor on that next remote wilderness adventure.

If your nimrod is an avid shooter interested in precision shooting, a wind meter could be quite useful. I’ve see these units in the sporting goods stores for around $50. In addition to wind speed, the small unit I have gives barometric pressure, temperature, and altitude. All these physically measureable atmospheric and geographic characteristics can have a significant bearing on the precision placement of a shot, especially at longer ranges.

The final item I’ll suggest is an in-home weather station. My wife recently bought a small, inexpensive one just to see how well it works. We have the receiving (and indoor monitoring) unit in the living room and the outside, wireless sending unit on the deck. I plan to move it to a more sheltered permanent location around the front of the house, as per owner’s manual suggestions. I think the unit we have sold for around $25. I have seen bigger and more sophisticated units priced as high as $300.

Our unit measures indoor and outdoor temperatures and relative humidity; displays time, day and date; measures barometric pressure; and displays forecasted weather. The bigger units can measure wind speeds, rainfall amounts, and other weather parameters in addition to those listed. We’re happy with the smaller unit. Temperature was our main interest. I can look out the window to check for precipitation and watch the flags on our deck to get an idea of wind conditions.

I’m not too concerned about the unit’s weather forecasting abilities based on barometric pressure changes either. The amount of pain in my arthritic joints tells me more about the coming weather than some electronic gadget ever could!

This current cycle of the Alaska Board of Fisheries is primarily concerned with Cook Inlet. The BOF recently finished the Lower Cook Inlet meeting in Homer, where they took action on fisheries proposals pertinent to that area. The Upper Cook Inlet meeting will be held in Anchorage from February 23 to March 8, 2017 and will address approximately 173 proposals.

There are literally dozens of proposals coming before the board which seek to significantly change or totally eliminate all the changes made to various salmon management plans at the 2011 and 2014 UCI board meetings. Commercial fisheries would be preferentially favored in the management plans for salmon stocks if these proposals are adopted. The original changes were made in an effort to move more northern bound salmon through the Central District commercial fisheries and into their natal streams in the Northern District.

The most significant plan changes affecting us were made in the Central District Commercial Fisheries Drift Net Management Plan. This revised plan has only been in effect for three years and, while the jury is still out on benefitting northern bound sockeye, improvements in coho returns have been noted even given a couple of generally poor return years.

You can access all the proposals and other BOF related information on the fish and game website. I would suggest you review the UCI meeting proposals and think about attending the BOF meeting. Only a strong show of support for our northern salmon stocks will protect the improving trend of salmon returns.