The fishery, also known as the Area M or False Pass fishery, has long been controversial as an "intercept" fishery in which seiners and gillnetters targeting sockeye sometimes catch chum salmon bound for Western Alaska.
Western Alaska is experiencing a salmon crisis, with chum and Chinook runs crashing. That's put enormous public pressure on the Board of Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to take action to reduce salmon bycatch in fisheries such as Area M and the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery.
State Sen. Mike Cronk, R-Tok, was among those urging the Board of Fisheries to take action to conserve salmon headed for Western Alaska rivers.
Two commercial fishing groups — Concerned Area M Fishermen and the Area M Seiners Association — opposed language the board ended up passing on a 4-3 vote.
I watched it, the board was do dead set against shutting area m down. How can they vote when chair lady is from chignik and the other two are from the Yukon? Seems like that shouldn't happen, I'm not even from area m and that meeting pissed me off. That is the worst board meeting I ever seen so clear who they where voting for before meeting ended.
ReplyDeleteFunny how Bristol bay catches more chums closer to the source of the problem but nothing was said at there meeting.
ReplyDeleteDo you have data to back that statement up
DeleteAll catch data on ADFG website
Delete589,433 chums caught in Bristol bay 2025
DeleteChum escapement in the Nushagak is 370,000, "well above the lower end escapement goal of 200,000 at the Portage Creek sonar. Blame Bristol Bay for catching some local chums???
DeleteIronic that any fishery but trawling can be shut down immediately.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how confident you are despite not knowing what you are talking about. The trawl fleet has a cap of 45k chums. Area M can now catch as much chums as they want.
DeleteGodfrey did briefly bring up Bristol Bay chum catch. I think his comment was basically “That nut is too hard to crack”.
ReplyDeleteTrawlers take 45K western Alaska chum and everyone screams. Bristol Bay takes 500K and it’s crickets. Sooner or later they’ll do the math and come for you too.
DeleteHe’s an advisor to Shelley Hughes
DeleteBB took 7 and 6 million fish in 2016 and 17, right before the crash.
DeleteI used to fish bb now false pass there's a lot more dogs up north that are big dogs, area m all small Asian dogs.
DeleteYeah. BB is catching Yukon spawners.
DeleteYou guys need to learn how to read. 589,433 catch, 41% below the recent 20 year average of 1 million harvest, with a sonar count of 370,000 escaped at Portage Creek well above the lower sustainable escapement goal of 200K. Once we put you back into a terminal harvest area like Bristol Bay you could save yourselves, and catch your own chums instead of Bristol Bay's, and AYK's. We love those Area M Chum Chucking Tickets the Troopers write, those have always been my favorite!
DeleteKRSA pulled the strings on this meeting going back to the BOF appointments last year. Their mission is to get every single king back to the rivers (so they can toy around with them and smoke cigars). This meeting should be a wake up call to fishermen in Alaska. They are going after hatcheries and small boat trawlers in two weeks at state wide. Then it'll be Cook Inlet and Kodiak.
ReplyDeleteThe Aleutians East Borough and tribal governments are calling on the Alaska attorney general to act on an ethics complaint filed against members of the Board of Fisheries. Here's a press release:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aleutianseast.org/borough-and-tribal-leaders-call-on-alaska-attorney-general-to-investigate-board-of-fisheries-conflict-of-interest-following-vote-todismantle-alaskas-most-successful-salmon-conservation-program/
You can tell right off the start of meeting
ReplyDeleteChamberlin and the two ladies had there mind set. It should be if your from a area you can't vote.
Someone will always be upset . Think long term fish for future generations - if conservation is a goal then we’re all having to give something up
DeleteWhat an empty statement. Did you read the board action? The board (KRSA) got rid of the triggers that limit chum harvest. They cut fishing time in half but the end result is going to be more chum caught.
DeleteHere's some commentary from the Tanana Chiefs Conference:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tananachiefs.org/interior-voices-drive-change-in-state-and-federal-fisheries-management/
This is what happens when fishermen start attacking each other, First the trawlers, then Area M.... and now that those Chum aren't caught at Area M, they are going to get caught in Bristol Bay, which will be the next group to get hammered.
ReplyDeleteYup. It's driven by NGO-funded fishing orgs like ALFA, all the Hannah Heimbuch groups (AMCC, U60 cod harvesters, CDFU), commercial fishermen for Bristol bay (salmonstate), etc. these groups are funded off the self creation of conflict and issues.
DeleteHahaha cdfu having funding that's a good one. Bunch of broke gillnetters trying to protect what little bit of a fishery they have left and you think they're some kind of soros dark money black ops program. Might be time for you to go to a actual meeting not just argue on the internet
DeleteFunny that they have enough money to hire an NGO-linked consultant that then pushed them to support policies that close fishing grounds all over the state to Alaska-based fishermen and has zero impact on 'what little bit of a fishery they have.' I'm getting that straight from the CDFU website.
DeleteMaybe he picked a bad example in CDFU, but the economic model for these groups is real, and far bigger than most people realize.
DeleteAnd don’t forget they’re going after hatcheries and trollers. If your name isn't on the list yet, it will be.
This is why we need science-based fisheries management, not DC ngo political advocacy management.
Here's some science, catching salmon In intercept fisheries is bad management. Salmon fisheries 101: terminal harvest management to ensure escapement. Salmon fisheries that target non local stocks should be closed starting with the West Coast and se troll and sport fisheries. If commercial fishermen are afraid to call out bad actors in our industry than the ngos will do it for us in a much less nuanced way
DeleteBut, what if you don’t have a processor in that terminal harvest area? Are all those fish wasted?
DeleteHere's some reality, there are very few non-intercept fisheries in the state, maybe only Chignik Lagoon and terminal harvest hatchery. There's always an upstream user, mixed stock, or multiple encampment river systems in the larger fishery. Mutlistock fisheries can be effectively managed; they only require additional buffers for uncertainty.
Delete