The Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group in their Thursday meeting passed a motion to support the Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s request for a 3 day 4-inch set net fishing opportunity in the Kuskokwim despite fishing restrictions in place until after June 11. Managers say it contradicts their mission to provide an equitable harvest up and down the river.
KYUK: Historic agreement gives Kuskokwim tribes say in fish management
The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission signed a historic memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement is the first formalization of co-management between the Alaska tribes along the Kuskokwim River and the federal government.
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Chair Mike Williams Sr. signs the MOU with USFWS Yukon Delta Refuge Manager Ray Borne. (Photo by Charles Enoch, KYUK – Bethel)
The full Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission, made up of representatives from village tribes all along the Kuskokwim, gathered at the Cultural Center in Bethel to take part in the Commission’s annual meeting, including the signing of the memorandum of understanding. Mike Williams Sr. of Akiak is the Chair of the commission.
“I’m really excited about the MOU, to work formally with the USFWS and the KRITFC, to make sure that our people have enough to eat and that we have enough escapement of our king salmon and salmon upriver,” Williams said.
KYUK: KRITFC Signs an MOU With USFWS
KYUK: Managers Restrict Kuskokwim King and Chum Except to Qualified Users
KYUK: Tribal fish commission seeks larger role in Kuskokwim salmon management
The path to unified management of Kuskokwim salmon stocks is uncharted, but along the way, the newly established Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Commission wants involvement at each step. That begins with tribal consultation in preparations for another summer of sacrifice. The commission’s inaugural meeting concluded Wednesday in Bethel.
Alaska Journal of Commerce: Bering Sea salmon bycatch caps are cut
The most iconic Alaska fish is in puzzling decline, and the mission for both state and federal fisheries managers is to spread the pain as evenly as possible.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously on April 11 to pass an amended package of chum and chinook salmon bycatch avoidance measures, including reductions in the performance standards and hard caps for chinook bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery in years of low in-river abundance.