As the battle brews with the Kenai fish wars, one scientist is hoping management decisions about opening day will consider more the human aspects of the fishery.
Philip Loring, assistant professor of sustainability sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, spent two summers interviewing commercial fishermen on the sociological and cultural impacts of closing "opening day" on their ability to fish. Loring's paper detailing the issues, "'That's what opening day is for': Social and cultural dimensions of (not) fishing for salmon in Cook Inlet, Alaska" was published Thursday in the Maritime Studies Journal.
The idea for the paper came while Loring and University of Alaska Fairbanks master's student Hannah Harrison were on the Kenai working on research for other topics related to the controversial Cook Inlet salmon fishery.
Closing opening day "just sort of appeared as this really interesting, important thing," Loring said Friday. "People want to talk about it, so we just pulled on the thread a little bit."
The paper focuses specifically on the sociological and human implications on what the opening -- or lack thereof -- of the fishery means to commercial fishermen. The findings are the result of the 22 life history interviews, in-depth experience working on a set net crew and living in fish camp that Loring and Harrison conducted on the Kenai in 2011 and 2012.
The paper suggests that management should consider the cultural implications of closing "opening day" and how the cumulative effects can negatively impact the fishery.
"I always thought there was something a little dehumanizing about talking about fishing as pressure and thinking about it as numbers," Loring said. "It's a little too far away from the fishermen for my taste."
Loring said in his experience working with the fishermen he found that many of them declared commercial fishing to be one of the main components of their lives, even if they only actually fished for a few months out of the year. He said they name their children nautical names and keep fishing paraphernalia and photos throughout their homes.
"When you're around the people long enough you learn that they approach it as more than just an economic enterprise," he said.
While the latest paper focuses solely on commercial fishermen, Loring said the heart of the paper could be applied to any of the other user groups on the Kenai. He said the values of commercial and sport fishermen are more or less the same, but that the groups argue over the "how, or who does it right or who does it better or which is more sustainable."
"The irony is they share the same values," Loring said. "But they're so divided they can't effectively collaborate to come up with a better solution."
In the paper, Loring suggests that managers should consider the following when making decisions related to the opening of the fishery:
•How will this change impact gear, readiness and safety or other material considerations?
•How will this change interact with or perhaps undermine intergenerational teacher or existing social networks, rules and norms?
•How will this change impact the individual fishers' relationship with their profession and the fishery?
He said considering those issues might not create changes that are immediately quantifiable, but they would create a sense of "goodwill" among groups and perhaps less resentment toward closures.
"(As Harrison's paper points out) the fishery is dysfunctional to the point of vulnerability because of the conflict," Loring said. "Anything that can increase goodwill is a step in the right direction."