The Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed the late run Kenai River king salmon fishery last Sunday, which resulted in an automatic closure of the east side set net fishery under the paired restrictions within the late run Kenai River king salmon plan, which was recently revisited last April by the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The fisheries will remain closed until the department can project to meet the late run Kenai River king salmon goal.
Brian Marston with the Division of Commercial Fisheries points to the 2020-2022 Cook Inlet Area Commercial Salmon Fishing Regulations:
“It’s closed because of low king salmon abundance in the Kenai River and the various management plan had triggers and if the Kenai king salmon abundance is low, the east side set net fishery is closed. The east side in totality is open early in the season. That early season starts in late June. The East Side Set Net fishery has been closed around the 20th and as early as the 17th this year for the last three years in a row.”
Marston addresses recent calls to open the East Side Set Net fishery:
“We follow the management plans and currently, the management plans have closed them. we do have a lot of sockeye in the district and I see where that sentiment is coming from, they want to harvest the abundant sockeye, but currently, the regulations limit the fishery based on king salmon abundance.”
In response, Ken Coleman, Vice President of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association said:
“You might know that we’ve had a couple of years where we’ve been trying to get a proposal passed at the Alaska Board of Fish that would allow, in these circumstances, to have limited harvest opportunities. We’ve been unsuccessful in that, although there was some commiseration and some understanding during the last board hearing that it appeared that the board wanted to wait to the normal Cook Inlet cycle in 2024. That doesn’t give us any relief. This closure is devastating to 400 families and businessmen that depend on the east side set net fishery including all the support industries.”
In response to the closure, the Kenai City Council plans to hold a special public meeting to address the subject on Tuesday. The proposed resolution, if passed, would request ADF&G’s commissioner to allow the set net fishery an additional opportunity to harvest sockeye salmon during this season.
