{"id":8057,"date":"2015-04-30T17:25:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T01:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aksalmonalliance.org\/staging1\/?p=8057"},"modified":"2015-04-30T17:25:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T01:25:26","slug":"ajoc-editorial-legislature-votes-for-factions-over-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aksalmonalliance.org\/staging1\/2015\/04\/30\/ajoc-editorial-legislature-votes-for-factions-over-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"article-title\">Alaska Journal of Commerce<\/h1>\n<p>AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish<\/p>\n<div class=\"by-line\">By Andrew Jensen, Managing Editor<\/div>\n<div class=\"share-tools\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"datepublished\">Published: <time datetime=\"2015-04-22 14:25\">2015.04.22 02:25 PM<\/time><\/div>\n<p>The mantra \u201cFish come first\u201d has been exposed as nothing more than a fish tale.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Bill Walker\u2019s second crack at a Board of Fisheries nominee was defeated April 19 in the Legislature by a 30-29 vote when Robert Ruffner of Soldotna became the latest trophy \u2014 though likely not the last \u2014 mounted by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.<\/p>\n<p>Just as it did two years ago to oust board member Vince Webster by an identical 30-29 vote, KRSA engaged in a heavy-handed lobbying effort of distortions and character assassination, this time against a candidate who has devoted his professional career to conservation as the executive director of the Kenai Watershed Forum.<\/p>\n<p>While KRSA claims \u201cFish come first\u201d in its slick propaganda to mask its true purpose as a guided fishing lobbying group, Ruffner has actually lived that motto.<\/p>\n<p>By engaging in a campaign to smear a man who does the work KRSA claims to believe in, the group revealed itself as representing a faction first \u2014 not the fish.<\/p>\n<p>For an organization that downplays the linkages between its members and the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance trying to ban setnets in Cook Inlet via a ballot initiative, the guilt by association aspect of its attacks on Ruffner was particularly brazen.<\/p>\n<p>Because they had nothing to pin on Ruffner himself, KRSA cherry-picked the most controversial board proposals from anyone who supported Ruffner as if their own membership isn\u2019t advocating for the most radical change in Cook Inlet by banning a gear group that has coexisted with sustainable salmon runs for more than a century.<\/p>\n<p>Then there was the laughable claim that Ruffner should be rejected because he doesn\u2019t live in Anchorage. What a pile of fish guts.<\/p>\n<p>In its letter to legislators, KRSA argued that Ruffner would be less accessible to residents of Anchorage because he lives in Soldotna. It\u2019s funny\u00a0 they didn\u2019t have that concern when the last board chairman spent half of every year living in Arizona more than 3,600 miles away from Anchorage and only came back to the state in the winter for board meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Nor should anybody believe KRSA would have made the residency argument about Anchorage had Walker nominated Joe Sportfishing Guide from Kenai for the seat.<\/p>\n<p>This residency argument against Ruffner \u2014 beyond the sheer hypocrisy of it given KRSA\u2019s unequivocal past support for having a snowbird serve as chairman of the board \u2014 is ridiculous on its face.<\/p>\n<p><em>Due to copyright law, the Alaska Salmon Alliance cannot repost full articles. You can read the whole article\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alaskajournal.com\/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce\/April-Issue-4-2015\/AJOC-EDITORIAL-Legislature-votes-for-factions-over-fish\/\" target=\"_blank\"> here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Because the Alaska Salmon Alliance wish to provide a wide breadth of information, we sometimes provide links and documents that may conflict or present only one perspective on an issue.\u00a0 Because of that, we feel it is important to note that none of the content provided on our website necessarily represents the views or opinions of the Alaska Salmon Alliance, excepting, of course, those articles authored by us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alaska Journal of Commerce AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish By Andrew Jensen, Managing Editor Published: 2015.04.22 02:25 PM The mantra \u201cFish come first\u201d has been exposed as nothing more than a fish tale. Gov. Bill Walker\u2019s second crack at a Board of Fisheries nominee was defeated April 19 in the Legislature by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish - Alaska Salmon Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aksalmonalliance.org\/staging1\/2015\/04\/30\/ajoc-editorial-legislature-votes-for-factions-over-fish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish - Alaska Salmon Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alaska Journal of Commerce AJOC EDITORIAL: Legislature votes for factions over fish By Andrew Jensen, Managing Editor Published: 2015.04.22 02:25 PM The mantra \u201cFish come first\u201d has been exposed as nothing more than a fish tale. 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