OPINION: We need to face the real causes of salmon declines

We are leaders of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc. (APIA) and The Aleut Corp. (TAC), and we work to serve and benefit the Unangax̂, or Aleut people. APIA is the Alaska Native nonprofit consortium of the 13 federally recognized Unangax̂ tribes of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands region, and our mission is to promote our self-sufficiency and independence of our people, which can only be accomplished by protecting the tribal right to a sustainable economy. TAC is the regional Alaska Native corporation representing the Aleut shareholders of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Region. TAC’s mission is to maximize dividends and opportunities for our shareholders. Many of those opportunities revolve around the fisheries in our communities.

While we adapt to economic changes to sustain our people for another 10,000 years, our current and primary economy is fish. Our communities are tied to every species and gear type in the Bering Sea and North Pacific. On our small islands, our commercial fisheries are our subsistence access, especially since the marine mammals we have always depended on continue to decline and waves continue to grow.

As it is for Alaska Native cultures across our great state, our Unangax̂ values direct us to live in balance with the lands and waters by caring for the resources entrusted to us by the Creator. It is our duty to gratefully accept and fully utilize what the sea gives us. Single-stock fisheries management was imposed on our historic mixed-stock fisheries, but we continue to adapt. It is part of that same stewardship to act when our shared fisheries are in trouble, as demonstrated by the Eastern Aleutians fishermen effectively halving the chum taken in their mixed-stock salmon fishery this summer through voluntary measures.

We applaud these fishing families and their continued commitment to stand with communities across Alaska suffering from the recent chum failures. Sadly, harvest data and science tell us that the Eastern Aleutians chum catch cannot solve the Western Alaska chum failures. Similarly, closing the Eastern Aleutians mixed-stock summer salmon fisheries, as has been divisively demanded in spaces where unity once prevailed, will devastate more families who do not have economic or subsistence alternatives, while still failing to restore chum stocks in other areas. The last imposed fishery cap forced down the value of Area M permits, as low as one-tenth of the original permit value. When the annual permit payments exceed the permit value, local Unangax̂ fishermen are forced out of the fishery, losing their boats, permits and source of income, devastating the lives of these fishermen and their families.

We know the pain that failures in fisheries bring, because we are surviving and continuing to experience these devastating losses. The Pribilof Islands blue king crab stock has failed to rebound some 20 years later, casting a long shadow on this year’s crab failures. As we brace for widespread impacts that gut the state’s most remote small governments’ budgets, we pray that it does not bring another school closure.

Respect requires reciprocation. The respect shown for our relations across Alaska by our fishermen standing down to protect shared resources still has the opportunity to be returned. Science is telling us long-term impacts and losses are caused by changes we have yet to fully understand, but to which we all contribute. Fight the urge to reach for an easy but ineffective scapegoat. If we continue to delay facing the real sources of our problems, it will only serve to undermine our unity, delay an effective response and leave us to face these monumental challenges alone.

We, as APIA and TAC, support effective, voluntary industry-led efforts, expanded research and innovative management to find science-based solutions throughout the state that work for all communities and allow all communities to work. Join us as Alaskans united at the Board of Fisheries meetings this winter to deliberate our changing environment and treasured returns with great care for one another and caution for the future.

Dimitri Philemonof is the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc., a position he has served his Unangax̂ people in for over 40 years. He is originally from St. George Island.

Skoey Vergen is the President & CEO of The Aleut Corporation. He is an original TAC shareholder, a shareholder of the Akutan and Shumagin Corporations, and a member of the Qagan Tayagungin Tribe of Sand Point.

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