Daily Sitka Sentinel

10-Year Pact Signed On Pacific Salmon

By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that a new 10-year harvest agreement between the United States and Canada on the Pacific Salmon Treaty has been reached by the Pacific Salmon Commission in its just-concluded negotiations.
    “Those that were the most intimate in each and every one of the various challenges that we faced and the situations that we faced, although there was a lot that they did not like, they felt, and were fairly unanimous, that once they viewed the entire landscape from that lens, if you will, that this was probably the best deal that we were going to get,” Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Fish and Game Charlie Swanton said. He is the Alaska commissioner to the Pacific Salmon Commission.
    In today’s announcement, Fish and Game said a diverse group of 59 Alaskans spent more than three years negotiating for the best deal possible for Alaska while ensuring conservation and sustainable access to the valuable shared North Pacific salmon fisheries.
    Under the agreement, every participating jurisdiction accepted a reduction in the number of fish that can be harvested, unlike recent treaties in which Alaska bore the majority of the burden. Alaska sustains a 7.5 percent reduction, compared to a 12.5 percent reduction for Canada, and reductions ranging from 5 percent to 15 percent for Oregon and Washington.
    In an interview with the Sentinel today, Swanton said:
    “I don’t think that anybody is happy with taking any harvest reductions over what have been taken over the course of the last couple of 10-year periods.
    “It was truly a sense where if we, in fact, as a state and as an institution are going to be conservation minded for our own stocks. Then we have to also maintain that same mindset for other stocks. And some of these stocks are in pretty poor health. The reductions are a means to turn around and try and address some of those conservation concerns for stocks to the south.”
    Gov. Walker commented in the release: “I regret the reduction of even one salmon available to Alaskans for harvest. However, this treaty agreement protects the health and sustainability of our salmon stocks and guarantees Alaska’s ability to directly manage our fisheries without federal interference.”
    Walker said he met with fishing groups that opposed the treaty and took their message to D.C. in a meeting with the Secretary of Commerce to explore the option of a one-year delay, but that didn’t prove feasible.
    “I realize some fishery groups are unhappy with this outcome,” he said. “But I commend Commissioner Swanton and his team of industry and fishery negotiators for their tireless effort to get the best deal possible for Alaska.”
    The diverse group of negotiators included representatives from seine, gillnet, and troll fisheries, recreational lodge owners, representatives from private non-profit hatchery programs, federal employees, state employees, fisheries advisers.
    “And a couple lawyers thrown in for good measure,” Swanton said.
    This is the first time since the treaty was originally negotiated in 1985 that the treaty team unanimously approved the final deal.
    “It speaks volumes that salmon subsistence users, seafood industry leaders, commercial fishermen, and recreational representatives all ended up endorsing this deal,” Swanton told the Sentinel.
    Swanton said there were sticking points in the negotiations at every turn.
    “From language to numbers to timing … there was nothing over the course of the last three years that wasn’t a sticking point at one time or another,” he said. “We have different viewpoints on the quality of science and those were sticking points. And data collection. And the quality and the quantity of the data, and the years that are used for base periods. In some cases there were certain things we certainly tried to negotiate and have embedded within the treaty but we were unsuccessful and we have to rely on the other parties to turn around and recognize that these were major pitfalls but they needed to do a better job on improving their science.”
    He said there were commitments from the other parties to do just that and said it was incumbent for the ADF&G to follow through as well, to make sure escapement goals are being developed and are of sufficient quality.
    “These are sticking points that have been around for a lengthy period of time,” he said. “In some cases they will probably continue to persist because not everybody views the sciences as all being equal, which it is not. Some are better than others and some approaches are better than others.”
    As a result of these negotiations, when abundance increases harvests will increase proportionally. New accountability provisions advocated by the Alaska treaty team enact limits on the number of fish available for harvest relative to how many salmon return that year: this “Calendar Year Exploitation Rates” approach improves upon previous standards and will lead to more accountability for all parties.
    More than 34 indicator salmon stocks, spread from Cape Falcon in Oregon all the way to Yakutat, are impacted by the salmon treaty. Every year the catch limits for stocks will still be allotted.
    “One of the salient changes that we did make is relying on a model that will be based on Catch per Unit Effort of the troll fleet in the early winter fishery around Sitka,” Swanton said. “As a means to gauge abundance of Chinook ... we found that there is a relationship there that is fairly strong so therefore we don’t have to rely on a very complex coast-wide model… we can rely on a model that is a bit more geared towards Catch per Unit Effort in our own waters.”
    Swanton said that the biggest change fishermen must grasp right away, regardless of their user group, is that Alaska is in a period of poor productivity with local Southeast stocks.
    “Although we have seen a little bit of positive indications we have several more years of poor productivity to experience. So some of the restrictions that were in place in 2018 are likely to persist for the next several years,” he said.
    Swanton said some of the recommendations that have come from the industry relative to mitigation funds are going to be addressed on a national level.
    He said there is a commitment from the U.S. Government to seek monies for mitigation for harvest losses and for focusing on Southeast hatchery production.
    “Actually the Chinook that are produced here in Southeast Alaska,” Swanton said. “And finding ways of relief for the fishermen who are paying for the production of those fish and trying to offer some relief in terms of that true federal money. We will increase the marking rates on hatchery production so we can do a better job of managing those spring fisheries, and harvesting, and being able to show we are harvesting local stocks.”