Shucking the shellfish issues

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is currently meeting in Anchorage at the Egan Center to deal with statewide Dungeness crab, shrimp, miscellaneous shellfish, and supplemental issues. Most of the proposals will not affect the Cook Inlet area.

However, there are a few exceptions.

One proposal would convert the current commissioner’s permit for the Kamishak District commercial scallop fishery into the same management elements in regulation. This would make life easier for all involved. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is proposing this change. Related to this is another statewide proposal to clarify reporting requirements for scallop fisheries.

Razor clams in Cook Inlet are the subject of three proposals, all of which are seeking a reduction in the bag limit. The current limit of 60 clams is deemed too high by these three proposers, who all want the limit lowered to anywhere from 15 to 30 clams per day, depending on the specific proposal.

Another proposal wants to close parts of Kachemak Bay to commercial, sport, and personal use shellfish harvest from April 15 through September 15. The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, Inc. has submitted this proposal to protect areas with a long history of use in their educational programs and tours.

A final proposal is asking to change the personal use regulations to allow a person to use another’s shrimp or crab gear only with written permission. This proposal is aimed at trying to slow down the amount of “pot raiding” that currently is occurring in some areas of the state. Rather than just having “prior permission,” this proposed regulation change would require written and dated permission in order to pull someone else’s pots.

There is one other proposal that indirectly could have an effect on Valley residents. This proposal seeks to create a commercial shrimp fishery in Prince William Sound. Currently, of the approximately 100,000 pounds of harvestable shrimp available in the Sound, non-commercial users (sport, personal use, and subsistence) harvest about 60,000 pounds per year. If this proposal is approved, a management plan allocating the remaining approximately 40,000 pounds to a commercial fishery would occur. That could cap the amount allowed to non-commercial users in the future.

There are two other supplemental issues affecting Cook Inlet which will be heard. The first involves a request made to the BOF by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association to restructure their cost recovery program to allow them to cover their annual operating expenses. I’ve written a little about this in a previous column, so I won’t belabor the point now. The bottom line is that, without a restructured cost recovery program, CIAA will probably be forced to shut down their operations at the end of this calendar year. That would be a loss to all salmon user groups and would probably lead to increased friction in the reallocation of existing Cook Inlet salmon resources among those user groups.

The second issue was just presented to the BOF at the recently completed meeting in Sitka. This request is scheduled to be discussed at this Anchorage meeting. The Susitna Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee submitted an emergency petition asking the BOF to declare the Alexander Creek Chinook salmon stock as a stock of concern. King salmon returns have been below guidelines in five of the past seven years.

Last year, all in-river use of the Alexander Creek kings was closed. However, the Northern District set gillnet, commercial fishery was allowed to continue through most of their scheduled openings. What percentage of Alexander Creek king salmon are caught in this set net fishery is unknown. The SVFGAC, in addition to their concerns about the status of the fish stock, also feels that when a return is so poor that all in-river use is curtailed, then the commercial sector should also share in the burden of closure to protect those weak fish stocks.

If the agenda for the BOF meeting is accurate, all public testimony will probably be done, or nearly so, by the time you finish reading this column. If you are interested in having your voice heard on any of the topics in front of the board, you should be at the meeting before noon today and see about getting involved in the committee process which normally follows public testimony.

If all else fails, you can still submit written comments on not only the actual proposals but also the committee reports as they become available to the public for review. Written comments will be accepted right up until the actual proposal is scheduled for board deliberation or by a time as announced at the meeting. According to the agenda, deliberation is scheduled to start on Thursday afternoon, probably after lunch at around 1:30.

If you’ve never attended a BOF meeting, I would encourage you to do so. The process is the most open to public participation of any state and the information available on the topics being discussed is usually very detailed and in-depth. You’ll come away with a better appreciation of what goes into the protection and management of Alaska’s fisheries resources.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.