Bristol Bay fishing limits are costly, frustrating - and possibly avoidable

When limits or suspensions are imposed, they create severe economic waste and represent a significant challenge to fishery managers and processors.

But first and foremost, these events are a searing experience for fishermen and their crews. Through no fault of their own, our members are forced to sit helpless on anchor while their income swims away upstream.

Many Bristol Bay permit holders earn the majority of their family's annual income in the feverish few weeks of a Bristol Bay season. They invest heavily, prepare their vessels, train their crews and then compete for earnings in one of the greatest commercial fisheries on the face of the planet.

Now they're angry - mainly at the conditions that created this situation, as well as the lack of common energy going into solutions.

Between 2003 and 2008, foregone harvest cost Bristol Bay fishermen $131 million. It's 2009, and that number is still climbing.

Yes, foregone harvest is a complex set of intersecting issues; there is no single, simple solution to be had. And yes, Mother Nature makes a lot of the rules in this game. But complexity will not excuse inaction or lack of focus -- in fact it compels us to work harder and focus more closely.

For the past two years the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association has been bringing this challenge to the attention of policymakers, fishery managers, processors and regional partners. Responses have been encouraging, but muted, uneven and insufficient considering the crisis.

As stakeholders in the world's greatest salmon fishery, each of us - fishermen, processors, managers and policymakers - is impacted differently by foregone harvest. Some may place blame more on one sector than on another, but we are united in the need to remedy this economic waste.

Today our members are on limit in Bristol Bay, with their sleeves rolled up, ready to work. The urgency they feel is the same urgency the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association will bring to every discussion and every decision that addresses the missed economic opportunity of foregone harvest.

It is time to shoulder this work, and we call on every stakeholder in Bristol Bay to roll up their sleeves alongside us.