The debate over diverse fisheries escalated last week with protests of the Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s Classic.
Those arguments will continue this week as the Alaska Supreme Court hears both sides of the Setnet Ban initiative on Wednesday.
One of the protest’s signs is still on display in Soldotna. We asked protest organizer Dave Athons with the Kenai Area Fisherman’s Coalition, if any more demonstrations are planned.
Athons: “Not necessarily at this point, we will gather and have a debrief and talk about where to go from here, have people heard our message. We do know that a lot of folks in town are really pretty upset with the way that they have divided the community, tried to keep the board process out of our community, whether you’re a sport fisherman, a commercial fisherman, whether you’re guided, many of them would like to be able to testify and it costs a lot of money to go to Anchorage.”
Various fisher groups rallied for two days of protests last week and Athons said the goal of their demonstrations was show donors the community’s discontentment with KRSA.
At both demonstrations, one theme was common: people are displeased with how KRSA handled the Board of Fisheries nomination of local biologist Robert Ruffner.
In May, KRSA’s Executive Director Ricky Gease said the organization’s opposition to Ruffner’s appointment represented what their members wanted regardless of community pushback.
Gease: “I think some of this has to do with Robert Ruffner’s appointment to the Board of Fish and some of it has to do with broader context with the potential pending setnet initiative and people getting confused between Kenai River Sportfishing Association and a separate group that’s been formed, the Alaska Fishery Conservation Alliance and that’s two separate groups with two separate missions.”
On Wednesday, the Alaska Supreme Court will hear arguments from both sides of the Alaska Setnet Ban Initiative which was signed by Lt. Governor Byron Mallot on August 5.
