This is totally fucking disgusting. From Jill Burke at The Alaska Dispatch:After the fisherman were given the OK to head out with their nets, the silver surge slowed, and what could have been a much-needed financial boost became yet another bust in an already tough season.
Jack Schultheis, general manager for Kwik'Pak fisheries, estimates a disappointingly low number of fish - about 400 or so -- were caught. He suspects the catch was low because of bad timing. Fish travel in groups, called pulses, and Schultheis thinks fishermen on Sunday caught the run at a lull.
Nick Tucker Sr., a fisherman from Emmonak, says that by the end of Sunday he had lost $40. He made $90 on the 11 silver salmon he caught. He would have needed $130 to break even after paying for gas and supplies.
Gauging from radio traffic on the boats, Tucker says about halfway into the six-hour fishing window, many of the 82 fisherman were calling it quits; better to cut the day short and divert to camps and moose hunting than to waste their remaining gas on a lost effort.
I don't know where to begin, but I'll try. 400 fish for the entire fleet? When I fished for Silvers on the Copper River, back in the 1970s, I was not what anyone might call a "highliner." I was a slacker during Silver season, decades before the term "slacker" was invented. But some nights, I caught 200 myself, over 400 for the opener. And my fuel cost me 60 cents a gallon.
Nothing would have been done this past weekend regarding any opener at all, had it not been for the persistence of people like Nick Tucker. The opener was most likely hastily improvised with no regard to sensible Alaska Department of Fish & Game information on the ground on the lower Yukon Delta. Probably, it was a Denby Lloyd-John Moller-inspired public relations stunt that they probably gambled upon. Not only didn't it work, it has got to have been a morale deflator in the towns along the lower Yukon.
Were Moller and Lloyd watching early last week and late the week before, attempting to assess the feasibility of a commercial opener for Coho? We'll probably never know. But the way this was handled shows as much lack of professionalism on the part of ADF&G and what Moller's office is supposed to stand for as I've yet seen.
Let's hope things get better. Maybe it is time for Lloyd and Moller to turn their office keys over to adults.
image -Oysters4me
14 comments:
Got this news last night...
Been waiting all day to hear if Mr Tucker's experience was the norm...
To hear if more openings will be allowed...
Hadn't got there yet but am now...
think you are right...
Now I'm waiting to hear some sets of keys hit a couple desks and some doors close ...as in "don't let the door hit ya on the way out boys..."
Call around Unalaska/Dutch Harbor and ask about John Moller's reputation.
It does smack of tokenism. Also too it's amateurish and/or lazy to merely open a tiny window briefly, when we're talking subsistence.
That Yukon River fishery is a tough one. I'm not defending John Moller because I think that's a separate issue from the fishery management.
Most Alaska fisheries are managed for river escapement up past the mouth of the river. This one has fisheries all the way up the Yukon and even treaty agreements with Canada for their escapement.
So while the Emmonak fishermen need their fish, the people upriver want theirs as well. They look at the Emmonak guys as intercepting their fish. Remember, very few of these fish actually spawn in the Yukon, they almost all go up local tributaries.
This Yukon fishery has to manage hundreds of local fisheries and then allow Tucker to catch his fish at the expense of all the people upriver, most of whom catch their fish for personal subsistence, not for a cash sale.
I think you are focusing on the travails of Emmonak and Tucker while neglecting all the villages upriver. Every fish Nick Tucker catches is one that isn't available in Kaltag.
And most of the people upriver were planning to eat that fish personally, not sell it to someone who would ship it to Seattle.
Anon @6:30 am,
Re Coho and treaties with the Canadians. I didn't think that they were covered by the treaty. Maybe I'm wrong.
You raise good points about the needs of communities upriver for subsistence, vs. those fishing on the lower Delta commercially for firms like Kwik Pak. However, managing the Yukon for the various runs of Chinook, Chum and Coho has been done for several decades. The current level of mismanagement seems to be a recent development.
Reflecting on Moller's possible role in this overnight - he may not have even been involved. But this opener appears to have been, as one commenter above observed, "tokenism," or politically motivated.
Trawler Moller and Pollack Lloyd could give a rats ass about anything but themselves...
Denby Lloyd has a few internal issues and being Commish of Fish and Game only makes it harder for his tiny brain... Denby doesn't like rural priority... But Denby loves to hobnob with the folks at NMFS and NPFMC... It is best done in the Washington state area, so he can't be seen where his real alliance lyes...
Trawler Moller is the same fool who decided to tape a Elder and figured it would be good to post it in the Gov's state web page... the thing is, the taping of the Elder is fine, but to use it as proof that folks are getting their fish enlight of the economic crisis last winter, is just classic subtle racism... sickening and disgusting... Trawler Moller just partied way too much and never paid attention to anything else...
To think Trawler Moller actually reported to the now Ex Gov Palin, that residents in the Emmonck area had 50% of their subsistence needs met, was a huge clue... was Trawler Moller hoping the world wouldn't see his lie? Or figure it out? The guy is a total front for the trawler industry cocaine buddies... who by the way totally laugh at his "natave roots" when he goes to the men's room to piss out all his booze...
Yes, fire those two fools...
... "The guy is a total front for the trawler industry cocaine buddies... who by the way totally laugh at his "native roots" when he goes to the men's room to piss out all his booze..."
BINGO!
I don't understand the complexity of this fishery, but I am surprised ADF&G couldn't time the opening better. The fish run often hits in pulses and it would be a shame if a big run came a few hours before or after the opening.
From what I understand, Kwikpak was extremely generous and ate a lot of the fuel cost.
Phil, I'm not totally sure about the treaties either. Maybe that's only for kings.
But it's a tricky situation to manage this fishery and be fair to all the people along the river all the way up.
I do agree that it sounds like tokenism. As far as timing, you know as well as I do how that works. It's real difficult to time the fish openings. I don't know what the tide might have to do with it but it's a tricky one.
I don't think Emmonak should get all the news, this is a much bigger problem than just this fishery.
The state needs to wrestle with what to do with all these villages that were located in these locations because it was a good spot for a school, or a church, and was OK for subsistence on a seasonal basis.
The reason for their existence is really a figment of the transistion from a pure subsistence culture to a combination cash economy and subsistence economy.
Because of their permanent status they don't work well as a subsistence location and because of their remote location they are difficult to justify economically.
I think the only real long term solution is a combination of local cottage industry supported by sales over the internet and remote work where the income comes into the community from slope jobs, fishing jobs, and/or other jobs outside of the community.
How many Japanese nationals work in roe houses on the Yukon??
Who gets the fish and sells it when Japanese get the roe?
Phil-
the Pacific Salmon Treaty affects ALL the salmon fisheries on the Yukon.
This is a nice overview of many of the issues involved along the river and some basic info .
http://www.yukonsalmon.com/whatwedo/handbook.pdf
Whether I agree with one commenter here or not about the remarks about commercial v subsistence , the peoples all up and down the river have a complex relationship with it and each other.
This commercial opener gave hope to folks who need it... whether the actual timing was off or poorly thought out doesn't matter in the end. It feels like tokenism...
Especially in this year when all people on the Yukon have been struggling...
alaskapi,
The treaty is a Salmon treaty, but do Coho travel from the mouth up into Canada? That would be quite remarkable.
from the handbook I linked earlier...
It is indeed quite a feat!
Salmon are amazing creatures...
"THE SALMON
The three primary salmon species of concern addressed under the Agreement are Canadian-origin
Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, commonly referred to as ‘king’ salmon), chum (O. keta,
commonly referred to as ‘dog’ salmon), and coho (O. kisutch, commonly referred to as ‘silver’ salmon).
----------------
2) WHICH SPECIES OF SALMON ARE CONSIDERED UNDER THE
YUKON RIVER SALMON AGREEMENT?
Although the Yukon River Salmon Agreement applies to all salmon originating in the Yukon River,
the focus is on Canadian-origin stocks, which includes Chinook, chum and coho salmon. No differentiation
is made between summer or fall chum salmon in the Agreement, but summer chum salmon,
genetically distinct from fall chum salmon, spawn primarily in the lower 500 miles (805 km) of the
Yukon River drainage and in the Tanana River. Canadian-origin coho are predominantly found in the
Porcupine River. The Agreement states that once sufficient information becomes available for Chinook
and coho salmon stocks originating in the Porcupine River in Canada, the YR Panel shall develop a
conservation and management program for these stocks upon recommendation from the JTC."
30 years of this stuff...you can find the same issues, with the same responses, and the same Canadian treaties going back to the 70s.
Clem Tillion, Denby Lloyd, now John Moller. WHY, and HOW, is John Moller an "expert" in Alaska fisheries?
This is the stuff of anarchy and revolution...
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