The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved a resolution that would urge the state of Alaska and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to adopt aggressive measures to reduce commercial fishing bycatch in Alaska halibut and salmon fisheries. Bycatch is defined under federal law as fish that are harvested in a fishery but which aren’t sold or kept for personal use.
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce says that the term bycatch is a created term, which softens the more accurate label of ‘discarded and killed fish’, adding that it’s the cause of the decline of many fisheries:
“For many years now on the Peninsula, we’ve watched our fisheries suffer from a decline of returning fish. All species, specifically if you look at the king salmon fishery in question, there’s been every user group that has fish, that fishery has been blamed for the decline in the number of fish. There’s been measures taken against the individuals that make a living in Cook Inlet, fishing the waters of Cook Inlet, and even in river fishing the waters there. I think that there is a belief, and I’ve been convinced by many of the users and those that manage the fisheries, that they support the state taking some level of action against, or in protection of, our fisheries.”
Mayor Pierce says that everyone suffers because of ‘bycatch’ policy failures:
“We would like to see some resolve and I think that this resolution is sending a message to the state that we would appreciate some, if nothing less than, look at this issue and some changes in the fishery management.”
The resolution urges State and Federal action to stop the destruction of the Alaska fishing industry, asking for more restrictive guidelines, but to also find solutions to the problem.
Borough Mayor Pierce says that Alaskans need results because Alaska’s fisheries depend on it.