Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Cook Inlet commercial fishermen take a licking

Deckboss finally found some time this afternoon to drop by the big Board of Fisheries meeting on Upper Cook Inlet finfish issues.

Although the meeting is scheduled to last into Saturday, commercial fishermen told me they've already been routed.

They said sportfishing interests today and yesterday won board approval of proposals that will seriously limit access to salmon for drift gillnetters as well as setnetters.

David Martin, president of United Cook Inlet Drift Association, estimates the drifters will lose 30 to 40 percent of their catch.

Board member John Jensen, a Petersburg commercial fisherman, confirmed the commercial boys are "having a rough go of it" at this meeting.

Proposals 126, 143 and 147 were among those the board passed, after amendments. You can find and read the original proposals here. They're quite complex, but in general the objective is to restrict commercial fisheries to allow more king, sockeye and coho salmon to pass through for the benefit of anglers and dipnetters, and to reach the inlet's Northern District.

The Kenai River Sportfishing Association and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor's Blue Ribbon Sportsmen's Committee offered the proposals.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be curious to hear how individual Board members voted on these proposals. I continue to be surprised that the judge who retired to Arizona gets to be a policy maker on Alaska fishery issues. If nothing else, I think a sitting member of the BOF should be an Alaska resident, but that's just me, I guess.

Anonymous said...

...same goes for Ed Dersham. I don't think he even has a summer residence up here anymore.

Anonymous said...

And never forget Mel Morris, and his associate Klansmen at their best friend Lance Nelson at the Department of No-Law, shown best in Chignik with the infamous Grunert example.

Illegal, Equal Protection, Allocation Within, and of course the greatest amusing theory of all, "in violation of the Limited Entry Act."

Never forget to send in your dues to the Uneducated Fishermen of Alaska, UFA I Vote Scab!

Anonymous said...

what a fucking nutbag...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous@5:17 am--One can always recognize your posts on fish blogs, even though you sign in as "anonymous". They're like your fingerprint. It's always the same mish-mash of gibberish, conspiracy-theories, and pseudo intellectual babble. Get a life.

Anonymous said...

Cook Inlet salmon fishermen act like an abused woman - they continually get the shit kicked out of them and keep coming back for more. UCIDA needs to file an injunction against this last loss of fishing time, form a Political Action Committee to educate the public & politicians about the abuses to the resource on the Kenai & get involved in Alaska politics.
The system is broken & those nutcases on the Board of Fish will destroy the salmon runs on the Kenai Peninsula if left unchecked.

Anonymous said...

anybody want to buy a cook inlet drift permit im tired of the bull shit.im taking my money to the bay.where they let a guy fish

Anonymous said...

dipshit blowhard (anonymous #3) also fancies himself as some sort of legal expert...

Anonymous said...

And Parnell's new Blue Ribbon Committee from the same old blind dipshit blowhard committee, and his new Blue Ribbon additions?

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.bofmembers

Get a life?

How about get an education, but wait, it's soo expensive in the state of "Vote for Pipers Mom?"

Anonymous said...

^^^^^you need to get off the Rock more^^^^^

for all alaskans said...

The fact is that the judge you refer to IS an Alaskan resident. He receives a permanent fund dividend and spends far more time in the state then in Arizona. He travels from Arizona at his own expense and spends more than 50 days in Board meetings and travel each year. He has been a resident of Alaska since 1967. With his background as a commercial and sport fisher and his experience as a judge, what better combination could we ask for in a policy maker?

Lance Nelson said...

Gee whiz, JT, last year I was the head Jewish lawyer and now I'm in the Klan? I'm very confused about my identity as a villain.

Lance Nelson

Anonymous said...

At least we don't have to pay the judge's way from Prescott to attend BOF meetings. That's nice. I heard he wanted the State to pay his way up from Arizona for his confirmation hearings when he was appointed, but he he was told no. Maybe the PFD people need to check his status out?

for all alaskans said...

It is nice to be"Anonymous" isn't it. If you had listened to the judge's confirmation hearings with both House and Senate committees and the final hearings, you would have discovered that he participated by telephone as did most of those who also testified. Very few are asked to attend in person. But go ahead and spread unfound rumors if it makes you feel good. You probably do not know how much time a fish board member puts in in preparation and travel on top of actual meetings. I would never consider such work for the small honorarium they are paid only for attendance at the meetings. It is a thankless job and if everyone is disappointed after a few meetings the board is probably doing a good job.

Anonymous said...

for all alaskans...You sound like a fan...KRSA member perhaps? Don't think the commercial guys are quite so fond of the good judge.

for all alaskans said...

For Anonymous, I am sure that you are correct in saying that the commercial guys are not so fond of the"good judge". Not a fan of any user group, but am a fan of the resource. Unfortunately the drift fleet was restricted so that the northern district could get back on its feet. They have been denied the harvest ability on reds for a long time while the central district fleet ("commercial" guys") have been intercepting their fish in varying degrees resulting in the Susitna/Yentna being declared stocks of concern. This simply required special action by the Fish Board which regrettably may take some fish away from the drift fleet that they probably did not deserve in the first place. I wouldn't consider being a member of KRSA which in my opinion is very greedy. No, I am just like many Alaskans who think that the fish should come first and hope that the Board members feel the same way. If it were left up to the user groups to manage the resource it probably would not be to long before we would be almost out of fish.

Anonymous said...

Just checking in four years later to review the sky is falling assertions of Cook Inlet commercial fishermen.

Average harvest in 2011- 14 for sockeye salmon was 3.3 million pounds, above the 50 year average of 2.9 million and on par with the average harvest from 2004 - 2013.

The years from 2011 - 2014 have been the four most profitable years in the last two decades and have averaged $40.7 million, doubling the average ex-vessel value since 1993.

So did the sky fall for commercial fishermen and processors because of adjustments to the Upper Cook Inlet salmon management plans?

Based on ex-vessel value and pounds of fish harvested, no - just the opposite.