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.