Fortunes are changing by the hour at the Board of Fish meetings in Anchorage this week. Monday, the Board approved an increased late run king salmon escapement goal of 16,600-30,000 fish.
Yesterday, that was repealed, leaving the original 15,000-30,000 goal in place. Then, before recessing yesterday afternoon, Board Member Tom Kluberton aired RC 139 – adding an additional layer of restrictions to fishermen when returns are below 22,500. Returns this year are expected to be below 20,000.
You can read RC 139 by clicking here. Commercial fishermen would be reduced to one, 12-hour fishing period. Sports fishermen would be restricted to catch and release and dip netters would be prohibited from retaining kings.
The RC builds on Proposal 209, submitted by Kenai River Sportsfishing Association. KRSA has long been advocating for paired restrictions; Executive Director Ricky Gease…
Gease: “There is something fundamentally different in the returns that we’re having now. And I think one of the things that we need is just to be clear on what we’re actually observing. There is a problem with king salmon; we need to figure out how to deal with it. And that’s hopefully what will happen out of the upcoming Board of Fisheries meeting is we’ll put a management plan in that is clear, is prescriptive, is paired, everybody takes part in the conservation measures that need to be taken.”
Commercial fishermen argue it would cripple their industry, which primarily targets sockeye, while in-river users continue to hook kings.
Board Chair Karl Johnstone took a vote and said they will begin deliberations today at 8am, with no more public testimony…
Johnstone: “This happens like we’re doing now all the time. We have a proposal and something happens and it morphs itself into an RC and we give the public adequate time to digest that and then we come back and we deliberate. Every time, if we were to do a RC of some sort, if we had to do another Committee of the Whole, we’d never finish these meetings.”
However, Johnstone said, fishermen do have the option of talking to Board Members after hours, so long as they’re polite…
Johnstone: “I know it’s upsetting but it’s not productive when you surround board members and fingers are pointed and you’re arguing, you’re tone of voice gets up. It’s not productive for us, it makes us reluctant to come out here to be honest with you. So give us information, don’t be on quite the hard side if you can.”
Today’s committee meeting will deliberate over proposals from Groups 2-4.
You can view the full book of proposals on the Board of Fish website. To listen to the meetings online, click here.
