The coho returns measured at the Deshka and Little Susitna weirs as of July 31 showed 999 fish through the Deshka and 118 through the Little Susitna weir at its relocated position at river mile 32.
The Deshka run is poor. The Little Susitna minimum escapement number is 10,100 coho. Do you think that river will see 10,000 more coho over the next month or so? I don’t, and if I’m correct, the Little Susitna will qualify to be listed as a Stock of Concern for coho salmon, giving the Northern District the unique distinction of having three of five Pacific salmon species in stock of concern status.
I understand that sockeye returns as measured at three weir sites along tributaries of the Yentna and Susitna rivers show that one system will probably make its minimum, one is at about 50 percent and the third is only at 25 percent of minimum to date. My guess is that at least one of the three will fail to make its minimum. Fish Creek is projected to fail in achieving minimum sockeye escapement, which means no dip net fishery in the Valley this season.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) held an emergency teleconference hearing on Wednesday to decide on accepting three emergency petitions submitted by individuals who are members of the Mat-Su Fish and Wildlife Commission requesting some relief in the way Fish and Game has managed the northern bound stocks of sockeye and coho salmon this season. I missed the hearing for reasons I’ll say later, but the BOF voted not to accept the petitions. I was told the reason why was because Fish and Game assured the board that all sockeye escapement goals would be met and that it was still too early to project the strength of the coho return.
Having been in that position during my time on the board, I can’t fault them for going with assurances from the “experts” that all is well. The only problem is that all is not well with our Northern District salmon stocks. At some point, either Fish and Game needs to be more honest in its assessments or board members need to quit taking the department at its word until a solid track record of projections being met in the Northern District has been established.
I sympathize with the setnetters in the Central District. The loss of this season’s fishing will have a major economic impact not only for the individual setnetters, but also the local economy dependent on the commercial fishing industry. But let’s not forget the impact this poor season has on the sports fishing industry here in the valley. Some rough numbers to compare and contrast: the setnetters might have lost something like $10 million to $20 million in income and the area. If we use seven as a multiplier through the local economy, that adds up to the area potentially losing $70 million to $140 million.
That’s a lot. But here in the Valley, the sport fishing industry has a worth of $80 million to $150 million per year. I don’t know if the sport fish numbers include the multiplier, but you can see the potential economic loss to this region as well. Both industries need to be viable to keep things on track.
So why don’t the two groups work together to try and solve these problems? Beats me. If you can find out a good answer, I’d love to hear it. All I heard while on the board was the “I want you to take it away from him and give it to me” approach, usually couched in “save the resource” terminology that was essentially meaningless. All the finger pointing should be at Fish and Game and how it manages the runs, not the user groups that only do what they do quite well — catch fish.
The resource must always come first. That’s what’s hurting the setnetters, because Fish and Game is protecting the weak Kenai king salmon run intercepted during sockeye fishing. Now, if we could just get Fish and Game to understand and use the same approach for the Northern District; namely, shut the drifters down occasionally to get some fish north. Is that so hard to figure out?
A couple of personal items: this marks the beginning of my 12th year of writing this column and I missed the BOF teleconference because I was driving home from a fishing charter in Seward. Hey, they at least have a few fish there.
