Open season for fish board

WASILLA — There’s going to be a fish fight.

Once every three years, a seven-member panel of Alaskans is given the weighty task of shaping fisheries regulations for Upper Cook Inlet, an area that, because of its proximity to the state’s population centers, contains the most heavily used — and hotly debated — fisheries in Alaska. In past years, these Alaska Board of Fisheries meetings have been dominated by sport and commercial fishing interests based mainly on the Kenai Peninsula. But with Mat-Su anglers upset over dwindling salmon returns to Valley streams, that likely won’t be the case this time around.

As chair of the Susitna Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee, Bruce Knowles said he’s spent much of his time over the past couple months doing everything he can to get Mat-Su anglers involved in the board process.

“We’ve been working on it really hard,” Knowles said Monday.

That includes calling friends and neighbors, as well as running radio spots to inform the public that the time to speak up is now.

For Knowles, the issue of diminishing salmon returns to rivers in the Susitna drainage is easy to see. As a longtime fishing guide and area resident, he said he’s seen chum and sockeye salmon numbers dwindle to the point that local anglers no longer have an opportunity to harvest the fish in meaningful numbers. He blames Fish and Game biologists and current salmon management plans for allowing Cook Inlet commercial fishermen to harvest too many fish at the expense of Valley streams.

“They’re not allowing anything in for consumptive use for the people up here in the Valley,” Knowles said.

Knowles is not alone in his assessment of the situation. Both the Susitna and Matanuska advisory committees have asked the Board of Fish to look at the situation in the Valley, as has the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which on Jan. 15 passed a resolution calling for the board to designate sockeye and chum salmon stocks from the Susitna River and Fish Creek as “stocks of concern.”

Knowles also wrote a proposal for the board to consider calling for the designation. Such a move would force the Department of Fish and Game to look more closely at fish stocks in the area, and could possibly lead to more restrictions on commercial fishermen.

“I just think we need a good, solid look at what we do have coming back,” Knowles said.

Fish Creek, which used to support a personal use and sport sockeye fishery, is now closed to both for much of the year because of fewer fish reaching the Knik stream. On the Susitna and Yentna rivers, sockeye salmon numbers are down as well.

Not seeing eye-to-eye

Why the numbers aren’t what they used to be is open to debate. Mat-Su anglers are convinced overfishing is to blame, but United Cook Inlet Drifters Association president Steve Tvenstrup said that’s not the case.

“A lot of guys in the Valley think it’s a harvest situation,” Tvenstrup said Monday from Soldotna. “It is not a harvest situation.”

Tvenstrup said commercial fishermen in the inlet have been restricted significantly by board actions in past years, to the point they believe too many fish are getting past their nets and into the Kenai and Kasilof rivers.

Jeff Fox, the management biologist in charge of the inlet’s commercial fishing, said earlier this month he believes the problem could lie within the river systems themselves. Even when commercial fishing hours have been restricted, the fish haven’t been returning to Valley streams.

“We’re not seeing the rebound we should see,” Fox said at a Matanuska Valley Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month in Palmer.

Everything from pike predation to beaver dams can impact fish production in a given system. Because of budgetary concerns, many small streams in the Valley haven’t been studied to determine where the problem lies. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that further study of the issue is sorely needed.

“If they’re not producing, what’s the problem here?” Tvenstrup asked. “Something’s going on with that system that we’ve got to figure out what it is.”

Confounding the issue for fisheries managers and board members is that Kenai and Kasilof returns have been extremely solid in recent years, meaning more than enough fish are getting up those streams. In fact, both rivers have routinely exceeded the department’s escapement goals despite solid commercial hauls. If commercial fishermen are further restricted in order to allow more fish to reach the Mat-Su, Tvenstrup said the overescapement situation on Kenai Peninsula rivers could lead to a disaster.

“If you put too many cows on the pasture, you’re not gonna get any production from those cows,” he said.

Voice concerns

Commercial fishermen and Mat-Su sport anglers aren’t the only groups hoping to have their say on the issue. The Kenai River Sportfishing Association, a well-heeled Peninsula-based conservation and sport fishing advocacy group with powerful supporters like U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, also figures to be a major player during the board meeting.

KRSA executive director Ricky Gease said he believes the situation in the northern inlet is one that must be addressed by the board.

“I think there’s a continuing concern for escapement in the Northern District,” Gease said last week from Washington, D.C.

Gease would like to see further study of the problem come out of the board meeting. But in order for anything to happen, he said it’s imperative Mat-Su anglers make it a priority to have their say both at the regular board meeting, as well as a supplemental meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Wasilla. The more people talk about the issue, the better chance something will be done to address the concerns, he said.

“It’s good to see people paying attention to the issues and participating in the comments and planning on being at the Board of Fish meeting,” he said.

Part of the reason Northern District fisheries have been overlooked in the past, he said, is that people from the Valley haven’t had an active voice in the process.

“As much as the folks in the Central District butt heads with each other, we’re there from the beginning to the end,” he said.

Another issue close to the hearts of Mat-Su residents is the state’s personal use fisheries at the mouths of the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. The annual dipnet fisheries are popular with Mat-Su and Anchorage residents, who drive hundreds of miles for a chance at filling coolers with fresh sockeye salmon.

Southcentral Alaska Dipnetters Association President Ken Federico wants the board to look more closely at the fishery with an eye on allowing for a more predictable harvest. He said it’s not uncommon for dipnetters to arrive on the peninsula on the weekend, only to find that commercial nets are in the water at the same time. He’d like to see windows — designated times when commercial fishermen aren’t allowed on the water — expanded to cover longer periods so dipnetters have a better idea when fish might be moving into the rivers.

“We need that predictability,” he said.

Federico’s group is a natural ally of KRSMA, which was instrumental in getting the windows-based management plans installed at the most recent board meeting three years ago. Both groups believe the concept allows for stable pulses of fish to enter the river and escape the nets for sport and personal use anglers to harvest.

Gease said he believes the windows concept on weekends is one way of protecting personal use anglers.

“Most people come down for the weekend,” he said.

The Board of Fish will consider comments from all interested parties over the next two weeks as it decides what to do with managing the delicate and contentious fisheries of the inlet. As the sole governing body in charge of regulating the inlet, its powers are broad, and since it meets once every three years on Upper Cook Inlet issues, the meeting is likely to attract heated debate from all sides.

No matter what side of the issue people fall on, it’s clear that everyone believes the best way to impact the process is by participating.

“That’s our biggest deal, getting people out there to testify,” Federico said.

Folks interested in having a say have more than one opportunity to be heard by the board. On Wednesday, a special public meeting will be held at the Best Western Lake Lucille Lodge in Wasilla beginning at 2 p.m. There, members of the public can provide testimony in front of a three-member panel of Board of Fish members.

Then on Friday, members of the public can travel to the Coast International Inn in Anchorage, where public testimony will be taken through the weekend. The deadline to sign up for that meeting is 11 a.m. Saturday.

IF YOU GO

What: Meetings of the Alaska Board of Fisheries on Upper Cook Inlet fisheries management issues.

Where: Best Western Lake Lucille Lodge, Wasilla; Coast International Inn, Anchorage.

When: The Wasilla meeting will begin at 2 p.m. Wednesday; the Board of Fisheries regular meeting on Upper Cook Inlet will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Anchorage, with public testimony taken over the weekend. Deadline to sign up to comment is 11 a.m. Saturday.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com.