As another longtime sport fisherman on the Kenai River, I 100 percent agree with Tom Wellman's assessment of how the Department of Fish and Game's commercial interest mismanagement has destroyed salmon runs on the river. The only thing that he left out was the impact to Soldotna and Kenai local businesses.
I personally witnessed droves of people leaving the campgrounds and the emptying of business parking lots as more restrictions were put on sports fishermen. What did our illustrious governor do? He met with his commercial fisherman cohorts to apologize for the closing of the river to them. Did he meet with the sports fishermen or local businesses? Of course not. We don't put enough money in his campaign coffers.
It's time Gov. Bill Walker and the existing commissioner went and a new governor with the smarts be brought in to overhaul the Board of Fish and appoint new personnel to restore the Kenai salmon runs to the level they were before Gov. Walker took office.
— Dave Catchpole
Anchorage
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