Salmon fishery regulation: Comment away!

National Marine Fisheries Service - Proposed Amendment 16, after reading through 27 pages of small print legal wording I would summarize by saying it appears to me the proposed federal regulation for the entrance waters to Upper Cook Inlet would set a combined species all salmon season limit for the drift fishery that would occur in the Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) based primarily on past harvests and a preseason return projection(s).

Picture the Cook Inlet EEZ as federal waters (more than 3 miles from each shoreline) between Anchor Point and Ninilchik. From Ninilchik angle the boundary to within 3 miles of the southern end of Kalgin Island near the center of the inlet to form a pentagon-shaped area encompassing roughly 1200 square miles.

The currently proposed season for this area would run from July 19 - August 15 with the drift gill net fishery allowed to occur for 12 hours on each Monday and Thursday. Allowable drift gill nets could be up to 200 fathoms (1.1 kilometers) in length, up to 45 meshes in depth and with a maximum mesh size of 6 inches.

A National Marine Fishery Service statement concerning the fishery, “The goal of this rule is to preserve or facilitate as much fishing opportunity within the EEZ as possible without causing overfishing and creating adverse impacts on stocks of low abundance or any other part of the ecosystem.”

From my perspective the first part of the goal statement would appear to set the stage for overfishing and adverse impacts. Consider the size of the fishing area, the duration of the proposed season, the mixed stock nature of the fishery, differing productivity of discrete salmon stocks migrating through the fishing area, size of allowable fishing gear, and differing distances in time from where salmon spawning escapements will be counted after large commercial exploitations have already occurred. A miscalculation on any one of many variables could undoubtedly create adverse impacts — as past management history has shown. That is the very reason the State of Alaska had transitioned away from such an outdated management system.

The Mat - Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission will be considering comments to be submitted to the proposed federal regulation at our November 16, 2023 public meeting in Palmer. I hope some of the now-retired fishery management professionals on the Commission may offer some strong suggestions for effective comments that would ensure conservative management that does not further jeopardize Northern Cook Inlet salmon stocks and reasonable salmon harvest opportunities to all other user groups located upstream from the drift gill net fishery. This one has my head spinning, but I plan to be part of the public process, and would encourage others who could be affected to do so as well. The public comment deadline for this one is December 18, 2023 so any group that may need to schedule, and have a public meeting before commenting, may want to do so soon.

Alaska Outdoor Expo — I mentioned I would be attending this event in last week’s fishing column — after signing up for the event I found out it was also a gun show — or perhaps I should say mainly a gun show. Last weekend I enjoyed an opportunity to talk fishing (or hunting) with several people I do not see very often, and even had one new guest purchase a mid-August 2024 salmon fishing charter.

Ice Fishing or NOT!

I know a few people are already venturing out on thin ice in hopes of catching some fish (one friend was even catching some trout through the ice already). My advice — wait and let the ice get thicker. There are simply too many locations where the thin newly-formed ice may have thinner / weaker spots. Thanksgiving-time is my general rule of thumb as to when I might be interested in ice fishing for the first time on Mat-Su Valley core area lakes — and even then I will be checking / testing ice before venturing out over deep water.

Fish On!