A proposal by sport fishermen on the Kenai Peninsula to ban commercial set net fishing in Cook Inlet, and other areas of Alaska considered urban is drawing fire from United Fishermen of Alaska.
UFA, the statewide commercial fishing industry trade association, issued a sharp response Nov. 12 to an announcement from the recently formed Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance that it was seeking a ballot initiative application to ban commercial setnet fishing in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Anchorage, Matanuska Susitna Borough, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan.
The state Law Department has 60 days to decide whether to allow backers of the ballot initiative to begin collecting the required 31,000 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot for the August 2016 primary election.
“UFA is opposed to the AFCA efforts that pit Alaskans against Alaskans,” said Jerry McCune, president of UFA and Cordova District Fishermen United.
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