June 22, 2023 — A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1 — reversing a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water.
“It’s a major victory,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a brief phone interview Wednesday. “We can go fishing.”
June 22, 2023 — The king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska will be allowed to open in just over a week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit paused a district court ruling that threatened to keep the fishery closed this summer and winter.
“This has been an extremely challenging time for all of us,” Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) Executive Director Amy Daugherty said. “But thankfully, with the state’s help and the tribes recent declarations and our delegation, we have alerted the court to the disastrous consequences of a summer in [Southeast Alaska] without trolling.”
June 21, 2023 — As the owner of a commercial fishing boat and sport fishing lodge, it’s easy for me to recognize the importance of the seafood industry for my fellow Alaskans, from sustaining jobs and local economies to embodying cultural connections and a way of life. I know the importance of healthy and sustainable fish populations, science-based management, and healthy ocean ecosystems. Without these, my businesses would fail to thrive — and I know many commercial fishermen and lodge owners across the state who depend on exactly the same factors for their own businesses. Too often sport fishermen and commercial fishermen find themselves pitted against each other in conversations about our state’s wild stocks — when in reality, we all make up the broader community that benefits from Alaska’s seafood industry.
I first started commercial fishing in 1979 on the south end of Kodiak with my mother, uncle and grandparents. I was immediately hooked on fishing. I would sport fish every chance that I got a break from commercial fishing. Fishing taught me the value of hard work as well as educated me on taking care of this valuable resource. My children have learned those same values as they have grown up commercial fishing and working at our lodge. I now have two grandchildren that were born in the last year; I hope to see them have similar experiences and gain the same values and appreciation for this wonderful resource.
June 21, 2023 — U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan held a press call Wednesday to address different legislation and issues across the country that impact Alaska fishermen.
Of particular note to Southeast during the press call was Sullivan’s comments regarding the Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit against Alaska troll fishermen.
The Wild Fish Conservancy’s case rests on the idea that king salmon harvests in Southeast Alaska drive the decline of Southern Resident orcas.
“I’ve been very focused on this issue. I raised it in my speech to the legislature when I was in Juneau. We led the delegation filing of an amicus brief both at the federal district court level, and now we just finished filing an amicus brief, the congressional delegation, at the Ninth Circuit,” Sen. Sullivan said.
June 15, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the summer troll season for king salmon in Southeast Alaska, despite a federal judge’s recent ruling to the contrary.
The service’s Alaska regional administrator, Jon Kurland, told a roomful of trollers during a June 7 meeting in Sitka that the agency was working hard to correct the problems identified in the federal lawsuit. The Wild Fish Conservancy in Washington state sued to stop the Southeast Alaska troll season, seeking to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales’ food sources.
If successful, Southeast trollers might be able to harvest king salmon this summer – if not on the traditional date of July 1, then possibly in August.
To get a feel for the impact of the Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit on Southeast trollers, try sitting in a room filled with them: Grizzled oldsters, seasoned men and women hardened by life on the ocean, well-known fisheries advocates, young families, and a baby or two.
June 13, 2023 — Federal and state leaders have appointed 19 experts to a special task force responsible for creating a science plan to better understand Alaska’s salmon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service announced on Friday.
Task force members must address sustainable management and a response to the recent crashes in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.
The group was chosen in accordance with the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act that passed and was signed into law late last year. The law calls for most members to be appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with Alaska’s governor, and one to be appointed directly by the governor.
June 13, 2023 — A group of shareholders and the developer of the proposed Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska have reached a $6.4 million settlement to resolve investors’ complaints that they had been misled by the company.
The investors had claimed in federal court that they were harmed when the stock price of Northern Dynasty Minerals collapsed following several blows to the project in 2020, including the release of secretly recorded video calls of Pebble executives discussing the project. They asserted that the company and executives made misleading statements about Pebble before a federal agency denied a permit for the project that year.
The Pebble copper and gold prospect is located in the Bristol Bay region, on state land about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. An array of tribal, fishing and conservation groups have long opposed the mine, arguing it will destroy the valuable wild salmon fishery in the region. Northern Dynasty, which has worked to develop Pebble for two decades, has said it can safely be built.
June 13, 2023 — A Washington-based conservation group whose actions have already caused the closure of an iconic Southeast Alaska fishery is now planning to ask the federal government to list several Alaska king salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act.
The Wild Fish Conservancy, last month, formally notified the state of Alaska of its plans to file the Endangered Species Act petition for multiple populations of king salmon, also known as chinook — in Southeast Alaska, Southwest Alaska and Cook Inlet.
If successful, experts said, the proposal could have dramatic impacts, like the closure of commercial harvests of kings, new limits on other fisheries that accidentally catch them and restrictions on development.
June 13, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the summer troll season for king salmon in Southeast Alaska, despite a federal judge’s recent ruling to the contrary.
During a meeting held Wednesday (6-8-23) in Sitka, NOAA Fisheries Alaska regional administrator, Jon Kurland, told a roomful of trollers that the agency was working hard to correct the problems identified in a federal lawsuit brought by a conservation group in Washington state. If successful, Southeast trollers might be able to harvest king salmon this summer – if not on the traditional date of July 1, then possibly in August.
To get a feel for the impact of the Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit on Southeast trollers, try sitting in a room filled with them: Grizzled oldsters, seasoned men and women hardened by life on the ocean, well-known fisheries advocates, young families, and a baby or two.
John Kurland is the regional administrator for fisheries in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which – among other agencies – oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service.
That’s a lengthy title, but Kurland said that he is a neighbor, and he gets it.
“So first off, I know that there’s been just a huge amount of concern about the implications of this suit and the potential for the troll fishery not to be able to open,” Kurland told the room. “I live in Juneau, I have a sense of how important this fishery is for Southeast Alaska for a lot of small businesses, a lot of families, a lot of communities. It’s a big deal.”
June 13, 2023 — Inside Hooper Bay’s brown tribal council building, nearly 50 people gathered to hear more from state officials on why they decided to close chinook salmon fishing in the coastal area from the Naskanat Peninsula up to Point Romanof. That closure includes Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Chevak, Emmonak, Kotlik, Nunam Iqua and Alakanuk.
State biologists said that the closure is intended to protect chinook salmon while they migrate upriver to spawn in Alaska and Canada. But most in the crowd were subsistence fishermen and fishing means survival.
“It’s like taking away food from our table,” said one person who testified.
Alaska Wildlife Trooper Sergeant Walter Blajeski arranged the meeting. He said that he wanted to give the community an opportunity to ask questions they might have on both fishing opportunities and restrictions.
“And, you know, I think the meeting was a success. Our goal was just that: to be available to answer questions and to provide maybe some explanation as to why restrictions were going to be occurring. And I think we accomplished that,” Blajeski said.
Non-salmon fishing will still be permitted during the closures, but with restrictions. Gillnets will be limited to 4-inch or smaller mesh and 60 feet or less in length. These nets must be operated as a setnet and should be set near shore.
Blajeski said that troopers can’t always enforce these regulations; they do it when weather and time permits.
“We don’t often get to the coastal villages. But when we do, we usually go there, you know, for the day. And those types of enforcement patrols are usually conducted, you know, onshore in the village, walking around the village because we just don’t have the resources to get out there,” Blajeski said.