Yesterday, the Alaska Board of Fisheries failed to take decisive action to protect a key migratory corridor for Western and Interior Alaska chum and Chinook salmon stocks by not instituting meaningful windows in the South Alaska Peninsula June commercial salmon fishery.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) voted this week to adopt new management measures for Western Alaska chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. While the action represents a step beyond the status quo, it falls far short of what Tribes across the Yukon‑Kuskokwim Delta and Western Alaska have consistently called for: meaningful limits that reflect Traditional Knowledge and the ongoing collapse of salmon runs.
The Departments of Interior and Agriculture are currently considering a petition that would effectively eliminate the Federal Subsistence Board and end the rural subsistence priority in Alaska. Here’s what you can do.
In a decision released January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revisit the 9th circuit’s decision that defended the Katie John cases and subsistence fishing rights, which were under attack by the State of Alaska.
North Pacific Fishery Management Council
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) voted this week to adopt new management measures for Western Alaska chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. While the action represents a step beyond the status quo, it falls far short of what Tribes across the Yukon‑Kuskokwim Delta and Western Alaska have consistently called for: meaningful limits that reflect Traditional Knowledge and the ongoing collapse of salmon runs.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, along with its Advisory Panel (AP) and Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), are currently holding their October meetings to discuss federal fishery management in Alaska. We urge every subsistence fisherman and woman on our river to provide a testify to them.
The following statement was issued by five leading Alaska Native Tribes and Tribal organizations, including regional non-profit consortiums for 76 Tribes, in response to the introduction of the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA-2) and Rep. Ed Case (D-HI-1).
New state data reveals that the number of king salmon returning to the Kuskokwim River has been inflated for decades. Now, the state is recommending that the body governing the Bering Sea pollock fishery adopt this new information. If it does, restrictions on the fleet’s bycatch of king salmon could tighten, and a long-voiced demand from Kuskokwim residents could be met.
