Letters to the Editor

Letter: Government failure on the Copper River salmon run

Thanks for the recent editorial on the consequences of a declining dipnet run. You missed one real big, seismic one, though.

The Department of Fish and Game actually closed the sockeye dipnet fishery and also the Copper River sockeye sport fishery. Not only will the dipnetters miss out, but Alaskans and tourists alike are also not be able to take a sockeye out of the mighty Copper River with a rod and reel as of June 18.

According to the Glennallen Fish and Game office, they may also close the subsistence fishery if the numbers don't increase. That means no fish for those Alaskans who have survived on this resource for centuries.
I don't have a problem with outsiders paying $45 per pound for sockeye. I do have an issue with folks in Peoria, Illinois, eating Alaska sockeye, while we go without; some poor members of this community may face starvation. It's just not right.

Further, as the Copper River Valley depends on the sockeye and chinook fishery for an annual economic boost, it now faces an economic catastrophe.
It appears the commercial fishermen have succeeded in lining their pockets at the expense of Alaskans and it's tourist business. The commercial sockeye season in Prince William Sound was shut down May 28, well after the damage was done.
Both the state of Alaska government and the U.S. government have failed the people and visitors of Alaska. Shame on them.
— Mitch Sayegh
Copper Center

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