Rural Alaska

Federal Subsistence Board considering limits to Alaska's Yukon king fishing

The battle over Yukon River king salmon seems ready to rage at next month's Federal Subsistence Board meeting, as riverside communities fight for their share of the dwindling run.

Several proposals before the board are designed to help more fish reach spawning grounds, but they have many detractors, including a batch from a Mountain Village group aimed at several upriver communities.

Beginning at the village of Grayling and extending hundreds of miles to the Canadian border, those proposals would limit fishing gear, end the sale of subsistence-caught fish and outlaw all salmon from being used as dog food in most areas.

Fishermen in the upriver districts 4 and 5 called the downriver warning shots an affront, according to online backup materials provided for the Jan. 18-21 meeting in Anchorage.

"This sounds like Mountain Village Working Group has something against the Upper Yukon region," writes James Kelly, with the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments in Fort Yukon, responding to one proposal.

"What will come next? Totally restrict (us) so Mountain Village can enjoy fishing at the expense of others?"

The Mountain Village group's proposals, which would leave the village and other downriver communities in districts 1, 2 and 3 untouched, are likely doomed. They're opposed by regional advisory councils and subsistence-office staff. But they symbolize the depth of frustration along the 2,000-mile long waterway after several seasons of limited commercial and subsistence fishing.

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Annual commercial harvests of kings dropped from more than 100,000 annually in the 1990s to almost nothing in 2009, prompting Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to declare a fishing disaster for 2008 and 2009. Annual subsistence harvests of kings fell from a multi-year average of 50,000 to 33,000 in 2009.

The Mountain Village proposals are part of nine measures that would limit Yukon king fishing. Collectively, they've opened a discussion that could lead to further limits river-wide in customary trade, as the tradition of selling subsistence-caught fish, often in the form of fish strips, is known.

Other Yukon king agenda items:

• A fishing moratorium of at least 12 years on the "first pulse" and possibly "second pulse" heading upriver, from the mouth to the Canadian border, a move that would protect the bulk of the run.

• Prohibit customary trade when subsistence fishing restrictions are implemented.

• Divide an upriver subdistrict -- 5D -- into smaller subdistricts to allow more precise management.

• Allow Yukon River households to sell no more than $750 of kings annually to nonrural residents. Under federal law, customary trade is not limited by a specific figure, but it can't constitute a "significant commercial enterprise."

The Office of Subsistence Management opposes all the Yukon proposals, but says in the meeting notes now may be a good time to define "significant commercial enterprise."

Regional advisory councils along the river have recently taken up the issue of customary trade, and some members worry that it's grown, perhaps in response to the drop in commercial fishing. Federal wildlife agents have said they are investigating large-scale sellers. That investigation continues, according to the meeting notes.

The state Department of Fish and Game, which often plays a key role in federal subsistence decisions because of its long history tracking animal populations, said it supports the $750 limit on customary trade.

That proposal, recommended by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Advisory Council, also calls for a permit to sell and would require that sales must be recorded.

The Yukon-Kuskowkim advisory council, as well as the two Interior regional advisory councils, should come together and work out a limit for the sale of customary trade along the river, the federal subsistence-office notes.

The meeting at the Egan Civic and Convention Center also includes a Jan. 21 public interaction with tribal leaders to develop a tribal consultation plan.

Other proposals on the agenda include reducing the king crab harvested in the Kodiak area, opening closed sections of the Chignik River fishery and customary and extending the sockeye salmon fishery in Klawock.

Alex DeMarban can be reached at alex@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at (907) 348-2444.

Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or alex@adn.com.

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