Daily Sitka Sentinel

Fish Board Turns to Chinook Escapement

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    As its meeting here continues, the Alaska Board of Fisheries will turn this week to management plans for improving escapement of Chinook salmon on the Unuk, King Salmon and Chilkat Rivers and hundreds of salmon, herring and other finfish proposals.
    “It’s a tough time to be a king salmon in Southeast Alaska; it’s also a tough time to be a king salmon fisherman,” summarized Ed Jones, the Chinook salmon research coordinator for the Department of Fish and Game, in his report to the board.

Centennial Hall is standing-room-only as the Alaska Board of Fisheries begins taking public testimony on finfish Monday. (Sentinel Photo)

    He was one of several department officials giving reports Monday as the fisheries board closed in on the halfway mark of the 13-day meeting at Centennial Hall.
    The shellfish portion of the meeting wrapped up on Sunday. (See story, this page.)
    On the agenda for this week are herring, salmon and other finfish proposals, including groundfish. Proposed regulations will cover commercial, subsistence, personal use and sport fishing.
    The Board of Fisheries meets three to four times a year, with regional meetings held in Sitka every three years. This is the first time the Board has met in the newly renovated Centennial Hall. Those testifying sign up and wait for their turn to be called. Seventy-five names were on the list this morning, but the tally will be revised as more add their names. Video screens, and radio headsets are available in the building hallways for those who want to keep track of the meeting without sitting in the main auditorium.
    The Department of Fish and Game is recommending four Southeast salmon stocks be designated as “stocks of concern,” including the Chinook salmon on the Chilkat, Unuk and King Salmon Rivers, and the McDonald Lake sockeye salmon. ADF&G is proposing options for action plans, some of which call for the same management as in 2017, eliminating or reducing fishing areas or fishing times, and reducing the sport take.
    The options range from “status quo” to more drastic actions. 
    Fishermen testified Monday afternoon in favor of “using a scalpel, not a sledgehammer” in addressing the issue. Many were upset that the management plan last year to protect stocks on those rivers left more than 31,000 king salmon uncaught in August, a value of $2.7 million, while the sport allocation went over by 20 percent, troller Jeff Farvour told the Sentinel.
    “We recognize we need conservation measures for the stocks, and we need to protect them,” he said. “The department knows enough to do that, so we can harvest our allocation and protect the stocks we need to protect.”
    Charlie Swanton, deputy commissioner for the Department of Fish and Game and Alaska Commissioner to the Pacific Salmon Commission, also gave a report this morning. When questioned by board member Robert Ruffner about Swanton’s work in negotiations for the Pacific Salmon Treaty, Swanton said, “I can tell you from Alaska’s perspective, I’m not giving anything away.”
    Sitka Tribe of Alaska submitted a long list of speakers signed up to testify in favor of three proposals to conserve herring stocks in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery.
    Proposal 99 requests the reduction in the maximum commercial guideline sac roe herring harvest level from 20 percent to 10 percent of the spawning biomass. Proposals 105 and 106 request an expansion in the protected core area for subsistence harvest on the shoreline of Halibut Point Road.
    “For us the herring are the foundation of our traditional lifestyle,” said Louise Brady, a member of STA. “Not having herring eggs, not being able to gather eggs, is like going without air. I feel as if the experience of sitting around our kitchen tables, bagging eggs, or serving herring eggs to our honored guests at our traditional ceremonies, or sharing the eggs with our family and friends in other communities whose herring stocks are gone, may soon be a thing of the past.”
    Ed Young had similar comments. He said it appears herring is less plentiful since openings have gone from about an hour to more than a week to catch the quota.
    Other comments from supporters of STA proposals stressed the need for conservation, and in favor of providing ample opportunity for traditional egg harvest.
    They were among more than two dozen in a lineup to speak about herring this morning.
    Seiners also are weighing in, testifying against the STA proposals, and in favor of those submitted by the Southeast Herring Conservation Alliance and commercial fishermen.
    Proposal 104 requests removal of the protected subsistence core area to allow commercial seine openings to be held in that area; Proposal 94 requests reducing the “Amount Necessary for Subsistence” figure in Sitka Sound, or approval of a program for further study to corroborate the conservation alliance’s harvest numbers.
    “The current ANS numbers for herring eggs are not founded on good information,” the proposal states. “If the current ANS 136,000-237,000 (pounds) were not being used as a tool to shut down the sac roe herring fishery, it would be immaterial. However, the ANS has been artificially inflated for that very reason.”
    Among the groundfish proposals is Proposal 116, by Carina Nichols, to establish a sport fishing bag limit for black cod.
    The proposal would set a regional bag limit of four black cod daily, four in possession, and an eight fish annual limit for sport fish.
    “Significant sport fishing pressure is a recent occurrence that has increased steadily, with estimated harvests nearly tripling from 2010’s estimated harvest of 4,793 fish to 2015’s estimated harvest of 13,33i fish,” Nichols wrote in her proposal. “Sablefish biomass is stable but near historic lows in abundance. Considering this and changing ocean conditions, it is important to carefully manage all user groups to prevent unrestrained growth in harvest.”
    The proposed bag limit could result in a 2.5 percent reduction for sport anglers, Fish and Game said this morning.
    Other sport fish proposals Fish and Game sport fish division called attention to include:
    Proposal 137 would increase the regional resident king salmon possession limit when the preseason king salmon abundance is greater than 2.0, to three kings per day for residents, with a posesseion limit of 6.
    Proposal 138 would allow for the retention of other salmon while fishing for king salmon with two rods.
    Proposal 125 would eliminate the wording “All nonpelagic rockfish caught must be retained until the bag limit is reached” on the requirements for retaining nonpelagic rockfish.
    “The harvest and waste of nonpelagic rockfish can be prevented if the regulations allowed discretion in the release at depth of such fish prior to achieving a limit,” wrote Don Westlund and Larry McQuarrie, who put in the proposal. “Release at depth is estimated to result in 80 percent survivability but a rockfish retained results in 100 percent mortality. The resulting waste causes frustration to clients and guides alike, and calls into question the practicality of the regulation as written.”
    Proposal 126 would extend the requirement to release all nonpelagic rockfish at depth to all sport fishers, including the requirement to have on board at least one operable at-depth release mechanism.
    “Currently only guided fishers are required to release nonpelagic rockfish at depth,” the proposal said. “While it is not practical for the commercial fishery to release at depth, there is no reason why all other sport harvesters should not also be required to release nonpelagics at depth in order to conserve the resource.”
    In commercial fisheries, the board received two proposals to change the rotation of gillnet and seine fishermen in the Deep Inlet fishery, submitted by Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, to correct an imbalance.