Alaska Board of Fisheries Archives

Alaska’s Sitka Tribe sues state, claims mismanagement of herring fishery

December 19, 2018 — A tribal government is filing suit against the State of Alaska, alleging mismanagement of the Sitka sac roe herring fishery. The Sitka Tribe of Alaska has retained a major Anchorage law firm that specializes in tribal advocacy and subsistence issues. KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports on the build-up to this moment over the future of Sitka’s sac roe herring fishery.

For 20 years, tribal leaders have been worried about the health of Sitka’s herring. The silvery fish return every spring to spawn and are pursued by commercial fisherman, subsistence harvesters, and marine mammals alike. As a forage fish, they’re a cornerstone of the ecosystem.

Herring rock is blessed with water to mark this seasonal moment.

Audio: “This is spring. We are getting ready for our season. This is our time for work. Gunalchéesh.”

Jessie Johnnie told the story of herring rock to the Board of Fish in 1997 — one of a young Tlingit woman sitting on the rock and lowering her hair into the ocean for the herring to lay their eggs. “All the herring would come to the rock and swim around,” she said, “and she would sing lullabies to them.”

Herring have cultural, ecological, and economic significance for Sitka. But the message to the Board of Fish back then was that the herring weren’t spawning the same way in the same places, and subsistence harvesters were struggling to gather enough roe.

Herman Kitka, testifying at that 1997 meeting, feared for the worst. “If nothing is done,” he said, “we will lose the herring stock that is left in Sitka Sound.”

In 2018, his son Harvey Kitka went before the Board of Fish to say the same thing: Act now, or potentially lose our herring. Sitka Tribe proposed capping the commercial harvest of herring at 10-percent. But the Board took no action, maintaining a formula that calculates a sliding scale of 12- to 20-percent depending on the size of the biomass.

Read the full story at KCAW

ALASKA: Nushagak and Naknek-Kvichak Advisory Committees will oppose permit stacking

November 14, 2018 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries Bristol Bay Finfish meeting is two weeks away, and public comment is due by Wednesday. The state board that regulates commercial, subsistence and sport fishing the region will convene in Dillingham at the end of November. It will take up the 47 proposed regulation changes. In October, the Naknek-Kvichak and Nushagak advisory committees met to decide which proposals they will support.

Permit stacking, subsistence and gear restrictions are hot topics on the table. Both committees made it clear that they prioritize subsistence and that they want to protect the interests of local commercial fishermen.

In that vein, they voted against extending vessel length from 32 to 42 feet.

The Naknek-Kvichak committee supports all subsistence proposals.

“Dip netting, more time to fish, having a subsistence fishery in a different location in Egegik, using hook and line. All priority fisheries in the bay. We were in support of all of them,” said committee Chair Everett Thompson.

Five proposals related to permit stacking generated some controversy at the Naknek-Kvichak AC meeting. Permit stacking refers to one fishermen owning and operating two permits.

“Even though we have voted in the prior cycle to support permit stacking, with the price and trying to keep local vested interest in the fishery, we didn’t support the permit stacking proposals,” Thompson said. “But there were some on the committee that felt it was still a pretty good way to do business in the fishery. With that said, we also felt that we should shoot down the new language in proposal 23 that would prohibit this from being a discussion in the future.”

A dual permit configuration currently allows a Bristol Bay drift gillnet vessel with two permit holders on board to operate 200 fathoms of gear. That’s 50 more fathoms than a boat with one permit holder is allowed. Proposal 23 would make it explicit in the regulations that a person couldn’t own two drift permits and operate them on the same boat. In other words, an individual couldn’t use extra gear by stacking permits.

The Naknek-Kvichak AC also submitted several proposals to protect sport fishing for trout and Chinook in the Naknek river. They voted against ending postseason aerial counting of king salmon in the Alagnak River special harvest area. Thompson says they want to continue counting to promote conservation. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has recommended that the aerial surveys be discontinued because they say the surveys don’t provide reliable escapement estimates.

Like the Naknek-Kvichak AC, the Nushagak Advisory Committee spent much of their meeting considering subsistence proposals. The committee supported allowing subsistence fishing with drift gillnet, hook and line, and dipnet gear. It also supported extending subsistence fishing periods.

“We voted all for them,” said Nushagak AC Chair Frank Woods. “We do want to carry a message that subsistence is a priority, whether the board or sports fisheries or commercial fisheries participants agree or not. Access to resource for the local residents is a concern, but there’s a conservation concern too. That’s what the majority of the meeting time took up – where do we draw that balance and where do we draw the line?”

Read the full story at KDLG

ALASKA: Board of Fish agenda heavy with hatchery issues

October 16, 2018 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries will kick off its annual work session in Anchorage Monday and salmon hatcheries will once again be a prominent topic of discussion. The board will consider whether to add issues surrounding production levels to future agendas and it will kick off a broader discussion on the hatchery industry Tuesday.

Disagreements over salmon hatcheries have been roiling over the past few years, and those arguments have played out at Board of Fish meetings.

Hatchery opponents want the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to conduct more studies on the effects of hatchery fish spawning with wild populations and to start examining potential ocean carrying capacity issues. The department is currently in the midst of a large hatchery-wild spawning study.

Hatchery operators point to that as an example of due diligence by the department. Operators like Cook Inlet Aquaculture Executive Director Gary Fandrei say they’re ready for the board’s broad discussion on the state of hatcheries Tuesday afternoon, which may touch on some of those issues.

“We’re prepared for it. The hatchery programs are based on good sound science and we follow those principals,” Fandrei said. “They’re well regulated by the Department of Fish and Game, and we believe we are above board with everything we’re doing.”

An emergency petition back in March sparked the board’s discussion. The petition asked the board to look into Prince William Sound pinks that have been straying into lower Cook Inlet streams.

Valdez Fisheries Development Association Executive Director Mike Wells thinks the discussion will help the public better understand how hatcheries operate.

Read the full story at KBBI

Hatchery salmon supplement Alaska’s wild stocks but have critics

October 4, 2018 — Salmon that begin their lives in Alaska hatcheries often save the day for thousands of fishermen when returns of wild stocks are a bust. This year was a prime example, when pinks and chums that originated in hatcheries made up for record shortfalls for fishing towns in the Gulf of Alaska.

“This year Kodiak hatchery fish added up to more than $6 million for fishermen, and also for sportfish, subsistence and personal use fisheries,” Tina Fairbanks, director of the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, said in testimony to the Kodiak Island Borough after one of the island’s poorest salmon seasons.

But Alaska’s hatchery program, which has operated since the early 1970s, is under assault by critics who claim the fish are jeopardizing survival of wild stocks.

A Kenai sportfishing group said in statements to the Alaska Board of Fisheries that “massive releases of pinks from Prince William Sound hatcheries threaten wild sockeye and chinook salmon” bound for their region. An individual from Fairbanks is calling for a decreased cap on how many pink salmon some hatcheries are allowed to release to the ocean each year.

Currently, 29 salmon hatcheries operate in Alaska, producing primarily chums and pinks. Twenty-five are operated by private nonprofit corporations funded by the sale of a portion of the salmon returns. Two sportfish hatcheries are operated by the state at Fairbanks and Anchorage, one research hatchery is run by NOAA Fisheries, and one is operated by the Metlakatla Indian Community.

Alaska hatcheries don’t grow fish to adulthood, as fish farms do. They can be likened more to salmon maternity wards, where fertilized eggs from local stocks are incubated until they become big enough to be let out into the world.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

Alaska Board of Fish Finds for Salmon Emergencies in Chignik and the Yukon

July 19, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Alaska Board of Fisheries declared the low Chignik sockeye return an emergency yesterday, as well as a situation in the Native villages of Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross on the Yukon River triggered by years of low chinook salmon returns.

The petition brought to the Board by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association to reverse the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s decision to allow increased production of pink salmon at the Valdez Fisheries Development Association’s hatchery in Prince William Sound was voted down 3-4. KRSA was concerned with straying into Cook Inlet and ocean capacity issues.

Their concerns will be addressed in the regularly scheduled cycle of meetings later this year. Yesterday’s meeting was whether several petitions — including one that was submitted the evening before the Board meeting — met the standard of an emergency.

Three petitions asked the Board to issue a “finding for an emergency” on the Chignik sockeye run, two concerned about the early run and one on the late run to Chignik. All asked for additional conservation measures in waters outside of the Chignik Area L management district to protect those sockeye heading to Chignik Lake.

In a 5-2 vote, the Board found for an emergency on all three petitions. ADF&G has already executed conservation measures in the adjacent Area M management district to protect sockeye in transit to Area L. Yesterday’s decision extends the restricted measures in a subsection of the Dolgoi Islands, an outer area that traveling sockeye move through on their way to Chignik, until August 8 or “unless and until escapements for the late run to Chignik improve.”

Board Chair John Jensen and Robert Ruffner voted against the finding.

“I’m happy to take this up in the regular cycle rather than create regulations now,” Jensen said during the discussion. The management of Area L and Area M are among others the Board will discuss during their meetings later this year.

With the finding, additional conservation measures will be taken, but already the department is managing the South Peninsula salmon runs with “outside the box” protections for traveling Chignik salmon.

ADF&G Commercial Fisheries Director Scott Kelley noted “For Chignik and for the South Peninsula fisheries, we are keeping a close eye on the Chignik weir counts, we have daily communications on that, the WASSIP (Western Alaska Salmon Stock Identification Program) data for traveling Chignik salmon, we are literally going hour to hour, day after day. It’s a balancing act, but we are using the best biological data to base our decisions on and taken some ‘outside the box’ management actions at Chignik.”

The Board also found for an emergency in the four Native Villages on the Yukon, referred to as GASH: Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross.

The Board agreed in a 7-0 vote to amend regulations for the lower portion of Subdistrict 4A on the Yukon River to allow for drift gillnet subsistence fishing after August 2.

Low king salmon returns on the Yukon River in the past 5 years have forced fishermen to supplement subsistence harvests of kings with chum salmon. The change allows fishermen to use gillnets to harvest a biologically allowable surplus of fall chum salmon moving through the district.

Two other petitions, one from the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe and Yakutat Fish and Game Advisory Committee of Yakutat to close all areas of the Situk River, and one from the Upper Cook Inlet setnet group, were not acted upon. Those petitions were not denied, but rather failed for lack of a motion.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Criticized fish board nominee withdraws from consideration

March 30, 2018 — JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska Board of Fisheries nominee, who was criticized by sport fishing groups, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post.

Gov. Bill Walker’s office says Duncan Fields withdrew his name so that Alan Cain would have an opportunity to serve a second term.

Walker had nominated Fields to succeed Cain, a retired Alaska Wildlife Trooper from Anchorage. But sport fishing groups saw the pick as an attempt by Walker to break an unwritten rule about the balance of power between commercial and sports fishing interests.

Fields is from Kodiak and has worked in commercial fishing and fisheries policy.

Walker’s office says Cain had planned to leave the board when his term ended this summer, but now wants to seek re-appointment.

Read the full story at KTUU

Commercial fleet highlights economic impact of Sitka Sound herring catch

February 15, 2018 — Despite three days of impassioned testimony before the Board of Fisheries in January, not much has changed for the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery, which will ramp up in about a month.

Local subsistence harvesters won an increase in the size of their exclusive use area, but failed to persuade the board to reduce the commercial catch.

Fishermen and processors from Petersburg joined with other commercial interests to remind the board of the economic importance of the annual springtime export.

Commercial fishing representatives at January’s meeting testified in oral and written comments about the economic importance of the annual fishery in Sitka Sound.

Icicle Seafoods processes some of the catch at its Petersburg plant and the company’s John Woodruff talked about the impact to the Petersburg economy.

“Last year, we spent roughly $450,000 just on Sitka herring labor,” Woodruff said. “Most of this stays in Petersburg and it comes at a time when there’s not much other economic activity in town and a half-million bucks might not seem like much but at that time of year for a town like Petersburg, I think it’s impactive.”

Read and listen to the full story at KTOO

Offshore areas opened for king, Tanner crab in Southeast Alaska

January 31, 2018 — Commercial crabbers in Southeast Alaska will have some opportunity to fish in offshore waters for king and Tanner crab fishing following decisions by Alaska’s Board of Fisheries in January.

The board didn’t go for other changes to those fisheries proposed by crabbers though.

A couple proposals sought to expand the boundaries of king and Tanner crab fishing areas into federal waters beyond three miles offshore.

The Southeast Alaska Fishermen’s Alliance’s Kathy Hansen said other crab fisheries were not limited to 3 miles from shore.

“This would just bring us consistent with the rest of the state and possibly give somebody an opportunity to try something a little different,” Hansen said.

With no federal management plan in place for crab stocks in those waters, the state can manage fisheries there instead.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska: Fish Board cuts king salmon fishing

January 24, 2018 — The Alaska Board of Fisheries has passed an “action plan” to help conserve struggling king salmon stocks on Southeast rivers during their last day of deliberations Tuesday in Sitka.

The plan will keep troll, sport and gillnet fishermen on the docks for significant parts of the fishing season. Commercial trollers, who made about half of their money fishing Chinook, had their pocketbooks significantly affected.

It was the best and most equitable solution the board and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game could come up with under dire circumstances for Chinook stocks on the Unuk, Chilkat, Taku and King Salmon rivers.

All six of the voting board members voted for the plan.

“Nobody is going to be happy with the end results, I am not happy with it. Everyone is feeling the crunch and the pain,” board member Israel Payton said.

The board heard three days of public testimony on finfish proposals. A majority of that testimony was heard on controversial herring proposals, but salmon came in close second.

Public testimony prompted changes to the action plan and the board held the vote until the last day of the meeting to allow public review of those changes.

The action plan combines ideas in several other proposals aimed at conserving Chinook stocks.

Troll fishermen will have their fishing areas and dates significantly cut back and won’t be allowed to fish the last six weeks of winter king salmon fishing.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Southeast Alaska squid fishery shot down

January 18, 2018 — Declining king salmon stocks are playing a role in the Alaska Board of Fisheries decisions for other commercial fisheries.

On Sunday, the board voted down a proposal for a new fishery in Southeast Alaska for market squid.

The proposal sought to allow purse seining for the squid, a species that can grow to 7-and-a-half-inches long and ranges from Mexico to Alaska.

Salmon seiner Justin Peeler of Petersburg told the board he’s also fished for squid in California.

“As somebody that had a background in fishing squid I got reports from other fishermen during various times of the year of seeing squid, biomass is showing up, water temperature is warming a little bit and we’re seeing changes of that in our other fisheries and after seeing it grow and kind of more and more sightings and the density of the schools and the sightings growing I decided well I should put this proposal in,” Peeler said.

Peeler thought the fishery could be opened to other gear types as well. He saw squid as an opportunity for fishermen but also a potential threat to other species.

“They’re eaters,” Peeler said. “In a short period of time they have to eat grow and spawn and that’s the fear I have is that these could move in in a very rapid rate and we could see a huge change in some of our other fisheries due to us not realizing that this is somewhat of an invasive species as oceans warm. Our local inside waters may stay cool enough that they might hold ‘em off a little bit but if it’s warm out in the deep they’re gonna come up and they’re going to spawn and they’re going to be in our waters as their population booms.”

Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued what are called “commissioners permits” in 2014 and 2017 to Peeler and others interested in testing whether they could catch squid.

Read the full story at KTOO Public Media