With just a little over only half of the MINIMUM level of escapement of chinooks achieved, should the board leave it up to the Dept to open the east side set net fishers who will get and kill Chinooks while fishing for the last remainder of the sockeye run? This will take away the discretion of the Dept and my guess with all the pressures on it they would welcome the board's decision to close it for the first two weeks of August. Which come first, the fish or the fisherman?
Not so in Norton Sound where subsistence fishers have faced 30 years of restrictions with no relief in sight. The situation is documented so history will not be pretty for those names on record.
Board turned down request to keep set net fishery closed on a 3 to 3 vote. However the Dept. just issued an EO closing the set net fishery on the east side from their regular period which would have been 7 AM tomorrow until 7PM. It also closed the drift fleet from fishing area 2 and restricted the sports fishery to no bait to the Soldotna bridge. Their reason was simply to protect Chinooks for the Kenai and Cohos going to the northern district. Sounds like they are doing their job and did not need the board to take their discretion away, at least for now.
This was the right call (again) by the Board. Vince said it well about second-guessing inseason management (he said the same thing on the teleconference last week, too) Glad to see ADFG pulled the setnet period, too. Just doing their jobs, despite the mistrust from KRSA. BTW, WTF were the Valley folks actually asking for? Could anyone ferret that out from their obtuse letters?
I'm also glad to see ADFG doing what needs to be done in the Cook Inlet. Administration should allow those biologists to micro-manage other parts of the state where salmon stocks are crashing yet fishing is continually being allowed.
We shall see! There is another scheduled opener Monday. If the Dept. is serious about protecting the chinook, it will be closed by EO. Lot of political pressure in this election year, however. My guess is that since they took away bait in the river they will indeed close the next period.
The valley folks were pissed that the Department went outside the management plan to keep the drift fleet in the expanded corridor, which was created to move fish to the northern district.
District wide openings for the drifters were supposed to be restricted to no more than once a week. On Saturday, July 21, the department put the drift fleet in Area 1 and the expanded corridor for the second time in a week.
The concept of a conservation corridor only works if you don't fish district wide openers more than once a week.
That is why the northern district / valley folks were pissed. But there is not much that could be done after the fact.
With just a little over only half of the MINIMUM level of escapement of chinooks achieved, should the board leave it up to the Dept to open the east side set net fishers who will get and kill Chinooks while fishing for the last remainder of the sockeye run? This will take away the discretion of the Dept and my guess with all the pressures on it they would welcome the board's decision to close it for the first two weeks of August. Which come first, the fish or the fisherman?
ReplyDeleteFish should always come first.
ReplyDeleteNot so in Norton Sound where subsistence fishers have faced 30 years of restrictions with no relief in sight. The situation is documented so history will not be pretty for those names on record.
Board turned down request to keep set net fishery closed on a 3 to 3 vote. However the Dept. just issued an EO closing the set net fishery on the east side from their regular period which would have been 7 AM tomorrow until 7PM. It also closed the drift fleet from fishing area 2 and restricted the sports fishery to no bait to the Soldotna bridge. Their reason was simply to protect Chinooks for the Kenai and Cohos going to the northern district. Sounds like they are doing their job and did not need the board to take their discretion away, at least for now.
ReplyDeleteThis was the right call (again) by the Board. Vince said it well about second-guessing inseason management (he said the same thing on the teleconference last week, too)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see ADFG pulled the setnet period, too. Just doing their jobs, despite the mistrust from KRSA.
BTW, WTF were the Valley folks actually asking for? Could anyone ferret that out from their obtuse letters?
I'm also glad to see ADFG doing what needs to be done in the Cook Inlet. Administration should allow those biologists to micro-manage other parts of the state where salmon stocks are crashing yet fishing is continually being allowed.
ReplyDeleteWe shall see! There is another scheduled opener Monday. If the Dept. is serious about protecting the chinook, it will be closed by EO. Lot of political pressure in this election year, however. My guess is that since they took away bait in the river they will indeed close the next period.
ReplyDeleteThe valley folks were pissed that the Department went outside the management plan to keep the drift fleet in the expanded corridor, which was created to move fish to the northern district.
ReplyDeleteDistrict wide openings for the drifters were supposed to be restricted to no more than once a week. On Saturday, July 21, the department put the drift fleet in Area 1 and the expanded corridor for the second time in a week.
The concept of a conservation corridor only works if you don't fish district wide openers more than once a week.
That is why the northern district / valley folks were pissed. But there is not much that could be done after the fact.