Cook Inlet's fortnight of fish

Gillnetters at ease in the Kenai River. Deckboss photo

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is now two days into a meeting set to last a solid two weeks, until March 5.

That's obviously a long, long time to talk fish. But the talk always runs at length whenever the topic is Upper Cook Inlet finfish management.

The board has more than 210 proposals before it — ideas from anyone and everyone looking to tweak, modify or flat-out revolutionize the fisheries.

Deckboss reviewed the proposals and frankly found little to get too excited about. Most are pretty arcane, so we're unlikely to see any genuine revolutions or knockout victories from this marathon meeting.

That's mainly due to the bitter battles of the past, which seem to have created pretty much of a stalemate between the commercial, sport, subsistence and dipnet fishermen competing for salmon in Alaska's most popular fishing hole.

But certainly we'll keep an eye on the meeting, open to the public at the Egan Center in downtown Anchorage.

If I had to pick one area of interest, it would be the proposals from commercial fishermen to restrain a growing rival — the dipnet fisheries that draw thousands of Alaskans each summer to the Kenai and Kasilof rivers to scoop up salmon returning from the sea. One proposal would cut annual household limits to prevent "excessive harvest beyond actual food needs."

Hmmm, can't imagine a fight over that.