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Federal Subsistence Board Defers Action on Federalization

Shane Iverson, KYUK

 

The Federal Subsistence Board decides to take no action for now on management of salmon stocks on the Kuskokwim or Yukon Rivers.

 

KYUK, Bethel: The Federal Subsistence Board is not taking any action now to federalize management of salmon stocks on the Kuskokwim or Yukon Rivers. The board voted unanimously Thursday afternoon to stay with the status quo now, but they would be ready to revisit the special actions on the Kuskokwim if it becomes necessary for conservation or to provide subsistence access.

The board met Thursday to consider proposalsto have federal managers take control of management of the Kuskokwim and Yukon salmon fisheries on federal lands this summer, plus limit the fisheries to local residents, and develop an allocation strategy.

USFWS Regional Director Geoff Haskett made the motion and called for collaboration.

“We’d like to see the federal and state managers work closely to manage the river to allow harvest opportunities in communities throughout the drainage, not just on the federal public waters including people along the river, said Haskett.

Haskett noted that chinook still require serious conservation efforts and that the board still has the power to federalize later if necessary. Another below average run is expected.

Several Kuskokwim subsistence advocates asked the board for federal control. Attorney Sky Starkey, who does work for the Association of Village Council asked for intensive tribal consultation, steps towards co-management, and more collaboration with the state.

“We want it to be joint management. We don’t want federal agencies to pull back and wait until there’s a crisis to engage. We want them to be there. If you need to build capacity in federal manage to do that, I hope you can do it and fully step up to jointly management those other salmon stocks, to make sure that people are getting what they need and all our salmon stocks are being taken care of” said Starkey.

There was a high level of state participation, with a message by Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott on the phone plus the Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten in person, who says the state hasn’t wavered from its subsistence priority. Both federal and state law have subsistence priorities but federal law critically includes a rural preference, allowing managers to restrict harvest to local people.

The state asked for the board to reject the proposals, citing new management tools they have for more nimble salmon management. Jeff Regnart, director of the state’s commercial fisheries division explained that state hopes to be able to offer a small directed king salmon fishing opportunity this summer.

“It’s our intent if these numbers in the forecast come to be realized in season, at some point in June we could very well give a directed king salmon fishery in tech Kuskokwim river, although with less net and just a few hours, but we feel that is quite possible with the tools we have and the forecast we have. That’s not a guarantee, that’s something we would assess in season like we do in all the salmon runs across the state,” said Regnart.

The tools include requirements to keep early season whitefish set nets within 100 feet of shore to reduce the number of king salmon caught. They can also set nets a certain length for better control. The state believes that vast majority of the around 12-thousand king salmon harvest last year were caught in the early season 4” net fishing.

The state is expecting another below average king salmon run. The forecast of 96,000 to 163,000 king salmon, is up the 70,000 to 117,000 they predicted last year, but the 25-year average is double the forecast size, around 243,000 fish. King salmon have been in decline for several years.

The board avoided the daunting task of developing an allocation strategy, which as drafted by staff would allocate fish based on a 20 year community harvest average for villages and fish-camp based permit system for Bethel.

Last year the board took action based on a single request from Napaskiak and delegated chinook management to federal staff.