Something's Fishy on the Yukon...

Ready for some fishy number crunching?

The run of chinook (king) salmon up the Yukon river historically numbers about 250,000 fish. Last year's run was 180,000. The year before was 175,000. It takes a minimum of 170,000 fish to sustain the fishery for subsistence use, and to ensure that there are enough fish to repopulate the river next year. The projections for this year tell us that this minimum number may not be reached. Do the math. We are tiptoeing on the edge of disaster.

Anticipating another poor run of king salmon in the Yukon River, state and federal fisheries managers announced there will likely be no commercial fishing for kings on the river this summer and subsistence fishing will be substantially reduced in order to get more fish to Canadian spawning grounds.

Why do the fish need to get to Canada? Because that's where the Yukon starts, and our two countries share the responsibility for managing this fishery. The number of king salmon reaching the Canadian border the past two years has fallen short of the number specified in the U.S.- Canada Yukon River Salmon Agreement which was signed by the U.S. and Canada in 2001. And as is the way with international treaties, they're not supposed to be violated.

If only there were more fish...

The sad truth that the state of Alaska doesn't want to deal with is the fact that there ARE more fish. Lots more fish. And what's happening to tens of thousands of those king salmon that are swimming toward the Yukon River right now as you read this? They will be caught in the nets of factory trawlers fishing for pollack off the coast, they will be hauled out of the ocean, and they will die. As WASTE. These precious king salmon that should be feeding Alaskans, sustaining a commercial fishery, and helping us fulfill our treaty obligation with Canada are thrown overboard dead.

How can this happen? This is the fallout caused by bad policy. The notion that it's OK to waste these fish that are so desperately needed, as the fishery teeters on the edge of collapse, was discussed during the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting in Anchorage last month. This is where all these problems get talked about, where everyone on every side of fishing issues gets to air their grievances, make suggestions, and work out solutions to this kind of problem.

Native leaders, subsistence users, and others that depend on this fishery all had the opportunity to speak to this issue. What were they asking for? A safe cap of 24,000 for the king salmon "bycatch". Bycatch is the name used for all the extra creatures that come up in nets that you weren't really trying to catch, but you did anyway. So, if you want pollack and you get king salmon, that's bycatch. If this were the military, it might be called "collateral damage". Oops....didn't mean to kill you. Sorry.

What people who depend on this fishery asked for is that no more than 24,000 king salmon should be allowed to be wasted each season. This would allow the salmon to rebound, and reach sustainable levels again.

Up until now, the limit for bycatch has been nonexistant. No cap. They can take as many salmon as they want. And because of that, during some seasons more than 120,000 fish were wasted. The great compromise this year? The state has decided they will cap the number at 68,000 ....two seasons from now in 2011.

Fishermen on the upper Yukon River have been trying for years to get the state to institute net restrictions that would protect king salmon, but the state Board of Fisheries has rejected those proposals, in part because the Department of Fish and Game has not supported them. "Every conservation effort ever put in front of the Board of Fish those guys have argued against, and now they're asking us to reduce our subsistence harvest," Smith said. People living in villages along the Yukon River are worried about whether they will be able to catch enough fish to feed their families this winter, Smith said. "They're scared," said Smith, who has talked to villagers up and down the river.

Victoria Briggs is a Bristol Bay village resident and fishing permit holder involved in the Alaska-based fish processing business. She has been heavily involved in the food drive for residents of Bristol Bay villages that have been hit hard by bad salmon runs leaving them with inadequate income, and food.

"As someone who attended the meeting in Anchorage on this by-catch issue, listened and read reports, and sat through days of public, state and industry testimony, I was extremely concerned by the lack of science being used to manage this resource.

My understanding of the state of Alaska is that fishing resources are to be managed for sustainability and the good of Alaskan residents.

To not err on the side of conservation in this matter, to me, seems to fly in the face of that policy.

I am afraid this might well be the canary in the mine of fishing sustainability for the state of Alaska if we do not manage it better."

An email from Yup'ik leader Myron Naneng, President of the Association of Village Council Presidents asked the following:

Commissioner of Fish and Game, Denby Lloyd, made the motion at the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) meeting earlier this month of the high bycatch rate of 68,000, even when his staff who work on the Yukon river was to report to the stakeholders on the Yukon the forecast for 2009 a week after the NPFMC meeting, which is dismal. KTUU has in its webpage the report of the the dismal 2009 forecast that the Alaska Department of Fish &Game released recently. Did the motion justify 68,000 in light of the current chinook salmon status on the Yukon River? Or was it just plain lack of concern by the Palin Administration?

(Raises hand) That would be answer B!

If the salmon are the collateral damage, then the losers of this war are those who have for thousands of years depended on the bounty of the Yukon. That bounty is now being dumped overboard for the benefit of the winners - out-of-state factory trawlers that supply breaded fish sticks for the masses. The losers are the people of Alaska.

We watch as salmon fisheries are closed, and as residents worry they will not have enough food. We watch as we put ourselves in danger of violating an international treaty. We watch as private citizens try to organize food drives, and as the governor shows up with food provided by a religious organization, and a plate of cookies as a way to make this all better.

The state has so far not been willing to deal with any of that. And yet we hear over and over the battle cry, "We don't need the feds!" "They need to keep their noses out of Alaska!"

We're beyond milk & cookies. We need the feds.

Comments

[anelder]

Greed leads to power which naturally leads to greater greed. We know this as a weakness of man which individually we strive to overcome. What we have to acknowledge is that this weakness or character becomes stronger in groups and therefore the desire to overcome becomes nonexistence.

Sorry, in reading I see this sounds so preachy, but sometimes it cannot be said any other way.

Let's back the plan to replace the words 'global warming' which seem to prevent so many of us from hearing the facts with specific problems which we can make more relevant to individuals.

They say we number this problem 20th in our list of problems. I say this shows a clear lack of concern for our children and their children. Only when it comes to taxes do people rise up and lament the burden on their children. Both of these ourlooks can be explained by the reality of our caring only for whether a problem affects us.

[EdgedInBlue]

Latest tweet from Ms. Palin:
AKGovSarahPalin

1. Learn how Wild AK Seafood can help combat world hunger. Pure, healthy, abundant protein; exciting initiative rolled out in NY this week.about 13 hours ago from web

LOL!

[northofdenali]

If Alaska's fisheries are endangered, so is an entire way of life, and an economic disaster. Agreed with AKM - mudflatters all - we need the feds to step in and put a stop to factory trawlers off our coastlines.

[cuppajava]

Thank you, AKMuckraker, for taking a complicated subject and breaking it down into understandable parts.

Like you said, Alaskan and federal fishery managers just ordered extreme restrictions, even closures, on salmon fishing by small subsistence and small commercial Yukon villagers in the upcoming season.

The big corporate pollock fishing industry still has TWO MORE SEASONS to trash the salmon bycatch in the seas as collateral damage before the ridiculous 68,000 bycatch cap even comes into play in 2011, while, at the same time, harvesting their vast millions of tons of pollock now and again in 2010, and pocketing their beaucoup millions of dollars in profits.

In reality, however, that 68,000 bycatch cap could very well be a moot issue in two years. After all, overfishing and bad government policy already killed off and/or closed salmon fisheries in the North Atlantic Ocean and off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington states. The sustainability of wild Alaskan salmon is now threatened in some of the last remaining fisheries in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.

Meanwhile, the small-time Alaskan fishing villagers, who depend on salmon for their own limited livelihood and to feed their families throughout their hard winters, get screwed, yet again.

AKMuckraker gives permission to anyone wanting further information on this subject to link over to the blog discussion at Anonymous Bloggers dot Wordpress dot com.

[joebaggadonuts]

I think all one can do is work harder to stop this practice. Maybe requiring salmon caught in nets to be processed or sold to processors outside the factory trawlers would allow better tracking of the waste and less waste as it gets turned into food. Better would be to outlaw by international treaty factory trawlers.

[mlaiuppa]

Add this to the "Factory Farms" that are probably responsible for the latest swine flu epidemic and what do you have? Greed trumping life.

Get rid of anything with the word "Factory" in it. These trawlers should be banned. Let fishermen make a livelihood again. And those farms? If the animals are producing more manure than the farm can handle, then they're too big. No amount of animal waste should be dumped to pollute the water table and surrounding streams and rivers. If their animals produce more waste then they can process into fertilizer or whatever...then they have too many animals.

While we're at it...start feeding those poor beasts what God intended. And God didn't intend a steady diet of corn. So you can do away with some of the antibiotics, also polluting our ecosystem, right there. With less animals contained in a space (why don't you free range them?) you'll also have less disease. Less antibiotic­s...AGAIN.

Sometimes I wonder if big Pharma is behind Factory Farming. Wonder what the drop in revenue would be if farmers stopped buying their antibiotics.

In the meantime, I won't be eating any fishsticks. Haven't had any for years, but now there's no reason to have them any more.

BTW, if you love fishsticks, you *can* make your own. Out of better fish, too.

[MiamiJanie]

Bring some of that attitude over to Anonymous Bloggers. We're at WordPress - you can Google us.

[TheRubberRoomHotel]

AKM, Thanks for bringing this to national attention.
It would be so nice if our new administration could take notice of this.
My community that is already facing so much hardship with the cost of fuel and goods. This will impact it very badly. The sad thing is that people who have commercial permits here paid a great deal of money for them sometimes upward of 60 thousand dollars, and they are no longer worth the paper it is written on.
Very sad time in Alaska indeed.

[Hoken]

For several years I flew for seafood buyers on the Alaska peninsula and the Bristol Bay area, and had contact with many Native villagers. The thought of seeing these wonderful people's means of supporting their way of life wiped out by glutonous, irresponsible commercial interests - while being left unchecked by the government - has me furious. The decimation of the king salmon run would mean the permanent end to a way of life thousands of years old - there is no alternative economy for them. This is but one of the fruits of the sorry $-first mentality that pervades the Republican party. Palin also worked against an initiative that would have brought the Pebble Mine under the discharge restrictions of the Clean Water Act - a mine located on the Kvichak River, where its effluent threatens the the largest salmon run in the world. It, too, supports a number of Native villages, and is a long-term resource that is threatened by quick-buck commercial interests. This is no small deal. I'll do an email blast to BIA and Interior. What federal department can do direct intervention? In the meantime folks, NO FISHSTICKS!

[plebeianswillrevolt]

So it's Palin... protecting the deep-pockets of the pollock fishermen. You wonder why a populist state like Alaska would get so far up the bungholio of the Rethuglicans? Stupid! Wipe them out.

You guys must figure out a way to get rid of the Republican thieves. That is your only chance. Really sad to hear about this..... 180,000 salmon... that's all. I saw a CNN report on sharks. The average Singapore trawler catches (and fins) 180,000 sharks per haul. The fins, made into Chinese shark fin soup, are easy to freeze and store. They kill and "fin".... (dumping the live shark back into the water) 54 million sharks a year. 54 MILLION!

And you are only asking to sustain a population of 180 thousand king salmon.

LQQK!...... the bottom line is that you need to make the Republicans extinct, before they do the same to the salmon. Good luck!

[DreamEmbraced]

The lack of attention and fortitude by the Palin Administration is indeed a travesty in this matter (and so many others)....but what is most disconcerting is mans way of impeding the natural laws of order, which further devastates the ecosystems....and the many lives that depend on it for survival (national treaties, notwithstanding).

Thanks for sounding the alarm AKM...and continue to beat the drum.

[WorldPeaceService]

Do you really expect Palin and her administration to care about these issues? She's got 2012 on the brain. I don't know about you but, I can't wait to see Obama turn her into mincemeat.

Just get your popcorn out and watch the best made- for- television movie of the year!