“As you have heard, the major threat to the resident king salmon sport fishery is the non-resident sport fishery in outside waters,” said Larry Edfelt of Juneau, representing the Territorial Sportsmen. Prior to the meeting, the trollers association and sport fishing group Territorial Sportsmen issued a joint statement asking for a resident preference in king salmon management. ![]() We lost six weeks of winter troll fishery, and non-resident charters are allowed to fish.”īut there was an opening for compromise. “We have had more than a 60% reduction in king salmon from several treaty negotiation. “So far, commercial trollers have carried the weight of king salmon conservation in Southeast Alaska,” said Sitka troller Jacquie Foss. That’s meant sport fishing closures throughout the inside waters and closures or reduced areas for commercial fishing. Since 2018, some local runs have been listed as stocks of concern because of low numbers. Sport and commercial fleets catch a mix of chinook, but the bulk of those come from rivers in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Giving up fish when the troll fleet needs them the most is counterproductive to our fishery.”Īlaska has seen reductions in its king catch under the treaty negotiated between U.S. “I for one on lower abundance years need more fish, not less. “I’m opposed to any borrowing of king salmon quota from other user groups in years of low abundance,” Stillwaugh said. He and other commercial fishermen, like Brett Stillwaugh of Wrangell, didn’t see any logic in one side getting a greater share of kings when fewer fish are around. Where does this elitist sense of entitlement end?” asked Alaska Trollers Association president Matt Donohoe of Sitka. “The sport charter sector is now making the claim that they of all harvesting groups should not be held to the agreement they themselves helped negotiate. To keep bag limits stable, the charter industry proposed a higher sport percentage when king numbers are down and a lower percentage in times of abundance, but still meeting that 80/20 split over time. ![]() That number changes from year to year based on the abundance of kings in the previous winter’s troll fishery. “It would kill that fishery for us, and we just basically would lose probably a third of our income if we were forced to just have a one or two annual limit there in June because there’s no cohos around typically until about the 10th or 15th of July,” Steenstra said.Īlaska’s annual share of king salmon is split 80% and 20% between commercial trollers and sport anglers, after a small portion is taken out for commercial seiners and gillnetters. Lodge and charter businesses said their packages are based on a minimum of three days of fishing, with the opportunity to catch a king on all three days.Ĭharter business owner Joel Steenstra of Craig was among those opposing the state’s current strategy of lowering the total that non-residents can keep in a year in response to concerns over low abundance. “If we have an allocation that doesn’t even allow us to fish or closes us down in the middle, then we can’t run our businesses, people aren’t going to come,” Wedekind said. Many, like Ketchikan charter fishing captain Jeff Wedekind, asked the board for a new approach to keeping Alaska’s harvest on target. The Department of Fish and Game has used in-season management to stay below that number, and that’s meant reducing the resident bag limit on sport-caught kings over the summer or even prohibiting non-residents from catching them at all.Ĭharter and lodge operators said clients book trips well in advance and want to be able to keep a king salmon. ![]() It’s an attempt to balance the needs of charter fishing businesses and the commercial troll fleet while setting a priority for resident anglers.Īt issue is a new provision of the 2019 Pacific Salmon Treaty agreement that requires Alaska to pay back the following year when the commercial and sport fleets catch more king salmon than they’ve been allocated. King salmon landed in the commercial troll fishery in the summer of 2019 (Photo courtesy of Matt Lichtenstein)Īlaska’s Board of Fisheries on Sunday agreed to a compromise for king salmon in Southeast that would leave sport fishing bag limits unchanged throughout the season.
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