Purse seiners in Sand Point and King Cove are voluntarily sitting out this week's salmon season opener as a way to avoid intercepting chums possibly bound for Western Alaska rivers.
Here's a press release from the Aleutians East Borough.
We saw the seiners stage a similar goodwill shutdown in 2005 when chums were running too thick in what's known as the Area M or False Pass fishery.
The seiners fear that netting too many chums while chasing their main quarry, sockeye, could result in ruinous fishing restrictions to protect Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim salmon runs.
Now that's what I call being EMPATHETIC to your fellow neighbors problems and others should follow their lead. They are part of Western Alaska Community Development Association also known as the Coastal Development Quota or CDQ group that intercepts fish before the salmon return to their spawning grounds in the Arctic, Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. They know they don't have a river system like ours on the AYK regions and probably know what they are doing. Thanks to them, I hope they have started a trend which will start others to follow up what can be done about our low run of salmon for so long.
ReplyDeleteYou must be kidding me. They are standing down now, so that when area m's butt is on the line, again, in front of the next board of fish meetings, they can say..."we didn't catch yer fish, so we are innocent"...but what the board and nmfs doesn't know, is that they have been catching winter kings and chums in their unobserved trawler fleet. Now they are crying that they don't have any fisheries left. They have abused their privaliges , by being seedy chancellors the resources. Shut em down, and make them buy heating oil for $7.00 a gallon.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see the research that claims they are not do not catch AYK chums.
ReplyDeleteTo see this quoted in articles or news releases and not cite the studies is LOUSY reporting.
I for one feel the Area M fishermen are trying some pre-next board cycle, for the BOF when the genetics will be completed, PR!!
I also would the break down that shows that most of the permit holders in Area M are Native. I don't care where they live but I still do not believe it is actually Native dominated. LOCAL Area M holders MIGHT be but that is not what it is saying unless I misunderstood.
This kind of PR needs to be looked, and either backed up by cited research or called on the carpet for what it is....bull pucky!
Rose Rau