Yukon fish managers defend decisions

Published on October 22nd, 2009

By ALEX DEMARBAN

Outraged fishermen lashed out at state fishery managers Oct. 12, telling them at a House Resources Committee meeting in Bethel that they mismanaged struggling salmon stocks on the Yukon River at the expense of rural Alaskans.

John White, former chair of the state Board of Fisheries and a Bethel resident, said their decisions showed "antagonistic disregard for the people of Western Alaska,"

Mike Smith, a resource manager with the Tanana Chiefs Conference in the Interior, called it "arrogance."

Myron Naneng, head of the Association of Village Council Presidents in the Bethel region, said villages should not honor any state fishery plans unless they helped develop them.

"Right now, Lower Yukon villages are experiencing economic genocide," he said.

A small group of state fishery managers sat in the audience for much of the meeting, taking the heat.

Speakers were angry that the state had used unreliable data while banning commercial king fishing this summer and sharply reducing subsistence fishing.

They attacked the state's reliance on lower river sonar equipment that undercounted the run, allowing extra fish to pass into Canada 1,000 miles from the river's mouth. An estimated 67,000 kings crossed the border this year, about 10,000 to 13,000 more than required by an international treaty with Canada.

The "unprecedented" limits came about because the state had to meet the obligations of that treaty, something it hadn't done the previous two years, said John Hilsinger, head of the state's commercial fishery division.

About half the king run originates in Canada, so getting those fish to those spawning grounds is critical to future returns, he said.

He acknowledged that high, muddy waters caused the sonar and test fishing on the lower Yukon to undercount the kings. But state officials described the problems during weekly teleconference meetings held with villagers to shape management decisions, he said.

Next year, the state hopes to get a more accurate in-season count. That might mean putting sonar counters in new locations, including on a floating barge instead of along the banks.

"It's important that we do a better job and try to improve the precision in our management," he said.

The speakers raised familiar arguments, including that the state hasn't done enough to stop the powerful pollock fleet that has caught and tossed away hundreds of thousands of king salmon since 2000.

They also argued that the state has steered research money away from the Yukon and Kuskokwim region in recent years.

Jack Schultheis, plant manager for one of the two remaining seafood processing companies on the lower Yukon, said fishing in the area was once a profitable activity that provided jobs, paid bills and generated tax revenues for cities.

But those days are over, he said.

According to state figures, more than 800 commercial fishermen held permits to catch kings and summer chums during much of the 1980s and 1990s.

The permit-holders collectively earned more than $10 million during the best summers, or about $12,000 a permit. That's not much, but fishing was the one economic bright spot in the villages.

Then the runs crashed in 1998. They haven't recovered.

This past summer, fishermen earned less than they had in at least 38 years, according to a recently released state assessment. Only 387 fishermen held permits to fish. They made $555,000. That's about $1,400 per permit.

At another recent meeting attended by state Fish and Game officials in the Yukon River village of Marshall, several people cried as they talked about struggling to pay bills and find work, Schulteis said.

"The Yukon's a mess, period," he said

In Bethel, six state representatives attended the committee meeting, most by phone. In person were committee co-chair Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, and Bob Herron, D-Bethel.

Hilsinger was the top fishery manager in the room. When he took questions from committee members, he sat with three colleagues, including subsistence director Craig Fleener, originally from the Interior village of Fort Yukon.

But the committee members honed in on Hilsinger.

At one point, Hilsinger suggested that Fleener should speak.

Neuman refused.

"That's why I got you on the hot seat, John, so let's stay with you," he said.

Neuman and Herron wanted to know what happened to millions of federal research dollars that should have gone to Western Alaska projects.

Hilsinger said the money went to those projects and he'd provide a detailed list of those expenses for the committee.