Questions about fisheries board appointment

Former Alaska Board of Fisheries chairman, Karl Johnstone, had a comment piece in the Alaska Dispatch News’ Wednesday edition where he gave his perspective on the recent announcement by Gov. Bill Walker that Johnstone would not be renominated to a board seat and Roland Maw, from the Kenai area, would replace him.

One reason stated why the governor refused to renominate Johnstone was based on the Joint Board’s decision not to interview or forward Maw’s name for consideration to become the new commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

By law, the two boards, BOF and the Board of Game, meet as the Joint Board to select and forward potential commissioner candidates to the governor, who then chooses and appoints his choice from the list of forwarded candidates. A majority of four members of each board must vote in favor of a candidate for an interview to occur. The BOG voted unanimously to interview Maw while the BOF voted unanimously not to interview.

Why the dichotomy in votes?

I suspect Maw has had very little interaction with the BOG. I spoke with one BOG member over the weekend who told me he didn’t even know who Roland Maw was, but voted based on academic credentials. Maw has a long history of dealings with the BOF and the fisheries divisions within ADF&G. You see, Maw, in addition to owning and fishing a Cook Inlet drift gill net permit, is the executive director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, the group that represents the commercial drift net fishing fleet in Cook Inlet at BOF meetings. Currently, UCIDA, under executive director Maw’s leadership, has a lawsuit pending against the State of Alaska and the BOF to return management of our salmon fisheries to the federal government.

Maw is also guilty, over a number of years, of openly criticizing both the BOF and ADF&G for supposedly managing our salmon fisheries based on political influence and not scientific information. Yet, interestingly enough, UCIDA flatly refused to participate in a research planning program held here in the Valley just last week. I’ll write more on that topic in future columns.

Johnstone said it quite well in his commentary that the governor has the right to appoint “his people” to the various commissions and boards in the state. On paper, I guess Maw impressed the governor and his staff with his academic credentials and the governor apparently thought, for that reason alone, Maw should have been interviewed and his name forwarded. It appears nobody on the governor’s staff bothered to “vet” Maw’s background.

For instance, when has a person who is responsible for a lawsuit against the state and a state board been appointed to that same board while the lawsuit is still pending? Why should this same person be considered to lead the state department which he has trashed over the years as being incompetent and influenced by politics instead of the science the department is structured to develop and implement in their management responsibilities?

Can you see “conflict of interest” anywhere in here?

On top of these items, add the fact that Maw has intentionally presented misinformation to the BOF during public testimony at various board meetings. I have sat and listened to his factually inaccurate discussions of “science” and, while holding a seat on the board, I once asked him if he agreed with the testimony of two previous persons, both of whom were professional biologists working in the specific field of question. Maw’s answer was in total and sharp disagreement with the accepted scientific information previously presented.

In another instance while I was a BOF member, Maw verbally threatened me during a break after I had proposed a board generated proposal to correct an error in regulation that had a bearing on the commercial drift gill net fleet fishing in Cook Inlet.

This is the governor’s new board member, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. Ask any former BOF member and see what they say.

The shame is that Roland is a likable guy if you’re just chatting about topics unrelated to fisheries. When it comes to things which have a potential bearing on the Cook Inlet drift fleet, however, if you don’t agree with him, the gloves come off.

That will make for real smooth board operations in the future!

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.