{"id":8093,"date":"2015-06-18T11:55:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T19:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aksalmonalliance.org\/staging1\/?p=8093"},"modified":"2015-06-18T11:55:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T19:55:18","slug":"examining-anti-setnet-groups-claims-about-bycatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aksalmonalliance.org\/staging1\/2015\/06\/18\/examining-anti-setnet-groups-claims-about-bycatch\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining anti-setnet group\u2019s claims about \u2018bycatch\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"by-line\">By Laine Welch, Fish Factor\/For the Alaska Journal of Commerce<\/div>\n<div class=\"share-tools\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"datepublished\">Published: <time datetime=\"2015-06-17 14:43\">2015.06.17 02:43 PM<\/time><\/div>\n<p>A one-handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000-signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week.<\/p>\n<p>It means enough signatures were gathered to include the question on the 2016 primary election ballot, and let Alaska voters decide whether to ban setnets at Cook Inlet, Mat-Su, Anchorage, Juneau, Valdez, Ketchikan, and any communities designated as \u201curban\u201d and \u201cnon-subsistence\u201d in the future.<\/p>\n<p>The ban is being pushed one-handed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance, or AFCA, whose board of directors delivered stacks of signature booklets, followed by a press conference rife with talking points, table pounding, bravado and buzzwords.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe now more than ever that Alaskans want to end the devastating and outdated mode of commercial fishing called setnetting,\u201d exhorted Joe Connors, AFCA president, and a Kenai lodge owner and sportfishing guide. \u201cI spent six years as a setnetter in Upper Cook Inlet and during that time I caught a lot of red salmon. However, my nets also caught sharks, birds, ducks, flounders, Dolly Vardens and a lot of king salmon. Setnets are decimating other species in Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUrban, commercial setnet fisheries are unhealthy and unmanageable,\u201d echoed AFCA member Derek Leichliter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSetnets are a predatory means of fishing that kill or maim most anything that gets in their path. It\u2019s time to put the fish first and end this setnet bycatch,\u201d said AFCA founder Bob Penney, to the sound of loud duck quacking from an errant cell phone in the background. \u201cWe strongly support commercial fishing; it\u2019s just this one gear type that we oppose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If salmon setnets are such indiscriminate killers, why aren\u2019t they banned statewide? \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d the AFCA group retorted with hearty chuckles.<\/p>\n<p>Better hold that laughter.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 10 years the harvest by Alaska\u2019s 2,200 setnetters was 99.996 percent salmon, according to data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo .004 percent would be species other than salmon, what some might consider bycatch. It\u2019s almost not measurable,\u201d said Jeff Regnart, Director of the Commercial Fisheries Division.<\/p>\n<p>The breakdown of 2014 setnet participation in the regions where it would be outlawed includes: Valdez\/Cordova-29 permits; Ketchikan-0; Juneau-12; and Upper and Lower Cook Inlet-735, which includes Anchorage and the Mat-Su. Of those regions, 84 percent were Alaska residents. In total, the setnetters topped $47 million in gross earnings, according to data compiled by United Fishermen of Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>Support for the setnet ban has yet to extend beyond Cook Inlet. Of AFCA\u2019s $116,000 in campaign contributions, $97,000 was donated by Bob Penney, the rest came from Southcentral donors, plus $200 from Oregon. AFCA also bankrolled the signature booklets by paying $87,000 to the Alaska Libertarian Party to gather the names of voters, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.<\/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\/June-Issue-3-2015\/FISH-FACTOR-Examining-anti-setnet-groups-claims-about-bycatch\/\" 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>By Laine Welch, Fish Factor\/For the Alaska Journal of Commerce Published: 2015.06.17 02:43 PM A one-handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000-signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week. It means enough signatures were gathered to include the question on the 2016 primary election ballot, and let [&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-8093","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>Examining anti-setnet group\u2019s claims about \u2018bycatch\u2019 - 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\/06\/18\/examining-anti-setnet-groups-claims-about-bycatch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Examining anti-setnet group\u2019s claims about \u2018bycatch\u2019 - Alaska Salmon Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Laine Welch, Fish Factor\/For the Alaska Journal of Commerce Published: 2015.06.17 02:43 PM A one-handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000-signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week. 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