Now it’s time to be heard

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and uneventful Happy New Year. Other than the dogs being totally spooked by all the fireworks going off around Big Lake, things here were quiet. As I get older, I prefer the quiet and uneventful over the noisy and chaotic I liked when I was 20-something.

I gave you a break over the past few weeks from mentioning fisheries issues, but fair warning, that break is over! Anglers and those interested in the wellbeing of our salmon from the Northern District need to realize that the health and future of our Valley salmon fisheries will probably be decided in the upcoming Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) meeting scheduled in Anchorage Jan. 31 to Feb. 13 at the Egan Civic and Convention Center.

I make that bold statement based on, among other facts, a comment the commercial fisheries division manager made at a recent public meeting in Wasilla. When asked, the manager said that two lakes that have been major contributors to the Susitna-Yentna sockeye run can be “written off as lost” because of poor returns over the past several years. The Susitna-Yentna sockeye are a “stock of concern” (SOC) declared by the BOF in 2008 and recommended to continue that status at the upcoming BOF meeting. As required by regulation, ADF&G was mandated to develop an action plan to bring such a designated run back to a healthy condition. It would appear ADF&G has failed miserably with this task.

There is a small core of Northern District folks who regularly take an active interest in working with Fish and Game and the BOF to try and improve the declining condition of our Northern Cook Inlet salmon runs. At the same time, there is a large group of commercial fishers and fisheries processors who regularly attend BOF meetings to lobby the BOF to change regulations to benefit and increase the dollars these two groups put in their own pockets. If I made my living commercially fishing, I’d be doing the same thing.

However, to offset that commercial influence, the BOF needs to hear from folks who use the Valley salmon populations about how the recent downturn in returning salmon numbers has impacted Valley businesses and borough economics in general, changed a family’s ability to harvest a food resource, affected quality of life in the Valley, etc. The BOF will get an earful from the commercial side about how they and their children will starve if they aren’t allowed to harvest every available returning salmon in Cook Inlet and how the current regulations inhibit their ability to catch fish.

As an example, the commercial drift fleet group has submitted more than 50 proposals calling for the total elimination of any meaningful regulations on the drift fleet during the season, significant restrictions on dipnetters, loss of fishing time and severe restrictions on methods and means used by the sports fishing community, etc. If folks representing these in-river user groups fail to attend and explain why these types of proposals are bad for the fish and even worse for our Northern District communities, there’s a chance the BOF might support regulation changes that will serve as the death knell for our returning salmon.

Here are some facts to support my comments above: the 2012 king and coho salmon run disasters in the Valley cost the local economy an estimated $50 million and several businesses were struggling or went out of business as a result. Many families have changed their summer recreation patterns by either going elsewhere to fish or doing something entirely different. That impacts not only quality of life, but the ability to put a rich protein food source in one’s freezer without spending a significant amount of money at the grocery store.

The Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission (MSBFWC) and members of the area’s local Fish and Game advisory committees will attend to present our Northern District concerns, but that number will total fewer than 10 to 12 people on any given day. The commercial interests will have 50 to 100-plus folks present every day of the meeting. Some board members, unfortunately, count noses and vote with the majority rather than do what’s best for the resource. We need to see as many in-river users as possible present and talking with the BOF if we hope to retain and advance the limited protections for our salmon that we were able to secure during the 2011 meeting.

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.