Board of Fisheries to hold special meeting Friday

The Alaska Board of Fisheries will convene a special meeting online at 1 p.m. Friday to consider four board-generated proposals.

Proposal 192 is drawing the most interest. It would make a change in eastside Cook Inlet legal commercial fishing gear, replacing set gillnet gear with set beach seine nets.

Beach seining could be a way to allow fishermen to harvest sockeye salmon while safely releasing scarce king salmon, says this Alaska Department of Fish and Game commentary on Proposal 192.

But the proposal is expected to draw opposition.

A new approach on the Yukon

Commercial fishermen will have a 12-hour shot Tuesday, from noon to midnight, to harvest summer chum salmon in District 1 on the Lower Yukon River.

What's really interesting about this opener is that fishermen can use only beach seines and dipnets, rather than the usual gillnets.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries acted this year to authorize the new, nonlethal gear types as a way to allow chum fishing without seriously impacting the expected poor Chinook run.

Fishermen using beach seines and dipnets will be required to release incidentally caught Chinook back to the water immediately, and alive.

"In the event that a Chinook salmon is killed by these gear types, the dead Chinook salmon must be recorded on a fish ticket and forfeited to the state," says this press release.