The Lake Iliamna Advisory Committee met Monday in Iliamna to discuss proposed changes to Bristol Bay fisheries ahead of this December's board of fisheries meeting.
Audio Transcript posted below:
The committee came out in favor of requiring fishermen to drop their blue card at the start of the season, rather than waiting until after a free week, and againstchanging the 48-hour wait to transfer districts or allowing permit stacking.
Chair Randy Alvarez, of Igiugig, said the committee had concerns about fairness if some people could fish more than one permit.
“One of the guys commented that you’d get back to rich people owning more of the fishery.”
Alvarez said the committee amended a lake-specific proposal that addressed sport fishing for whitefish and other non-salmon species.
“What we supported was, make it all of Bristol Bay instead of just Newhalen River. If you’re under 16 years old you can rod and reel fish where subsistence activities are taking place.”
The committee supported two proposals that would pull three fishing areas near Port Heiden into the Bristol Bay Management Area. Those are currently managed as part of the Alaska Peninsula.
And after a lengthy discussion, Alvarez says the committee also supported an effort to allow fishing in the Alagnak to support a new processing facility at Levelock.
Fish and Game biologist Travis Ellison said the Alagnak had a good red return this year.
“You know, I had suspicions, ‘cause graveyard point setnetters had huge catches and there were a lot of reports from fishermen of big fish over on the Kvichak side, which made me think they were a lot of those Alagnak side, and sure enough, it was really, really strong.”
The committee also heard other updates from Fish and Game. Ellison said there were fish throughout the watershed when he flew a fall survey.
“And actually Kullik was the big one. Kulik we estimated a half a million fish staging. And then Iliamna, the island beach spawners were pretty good. It wasn’t like one of the huge years like we’ve seen in the past. Knutsen beach was very good. As far as the rivers, Gibraltar, Copper and Iliamna were all packed full of fish.”
And a sport fish update of note – that division pulled its rainbow-counting weir on the Lower Talarik Creek for good this fall.
The AC will submit its comments to the board before the December meeting. Written public comments are due November 19.
