Original Source: BY MOLLY DISCHNER, ALASKA JOURNAL OF COMMERCE
Upper Cook Inlet fishermen aren’t the only ones concerned for their future.
In the Northern District, managers and users are worried about the increasing number of stocks of concern — and how those stocks are managed.
The issue isn’t anything new.
The Northern District is dependent on Cook Inlet stocks making it through the Inlet, and back to rivers and streams that travel to the Matanuska and Susitna valleys.
The Mat-Su is home to seven salmon stocks of concern, and has failed to meet other metrics of healthy salmon stocks. For kings, 13 of 17 escapement goals were missed in the Mat-Su in 2012, and the Little Susitna coho salmon has not made escapement for four years.
The area has also had a decline in sportfishery participation, although historically it has had a large portion of the state’s sport fishery, with 300,000 angler days in 2007.
According to the borough’s Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan, retired Board of Fisheries member and former Alaska Department of Fish and Game member Larry Engel has been heading up much of the work to raise Northern District concerns.
Engel is a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s Fish and Wildlife Commission. The Commission has been working on the issues since the last fishing season ended, and met with area legislators to talk about fisheries in that region in November.
In February, the commission went to Juneau to make a presentation to the House and Senate Fish and Game Finance subcommittee, to see if the legislature could help.
Now, Matanuska-Susitna area lawmakers are also weighing in on Northern District issues.
Rep. Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, has proposed House Bill 98, which would codify the process for how ADFG manages stocks of concern. Managers would have to work with the Board of Fisheries to set escapement goals, and the goal could not be lowered if it was not met.
Additionally, ADFG would have to set the management objective for any stock identified as a stock of concern, alongside the Board of Fisheries. Those management objectives would include a sustained escapement threshold, and an optimal escapement goal.
The bill is currently in the House Fisheries committee.
That’s similar to an action before the Board of Fisheries at its statewide finfish meeting in Anchorage taking place March 19 to 24, which was proposed by the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association and would require a sustained escapement threshold be set for stocks listed as a yield or management concern.
Molly Dischner can be reached at molly.dischner@alaskajournal.com.
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