'Slinky Pot' Viewed As Fish Board Starts Work

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Created on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 13:56

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By ANNA LAFFREY
Ketchikan Daily News
During a break in the Alaska Board of Fisheries Southeast Alaska/Yakutat finfish and shellfish regulatory meeting on Tuesday in Ketchikan, Petersburg crab fisherman Jared Bright unfurled a webbed “slinky pot” in the parking lot of the Ted Ferry Civic Center.
    Bright showed off the groundfish slinky pot to fellow Petersburg fishermen Joe Willis and Nels Evens, and explained how he opens and collapses the pot around a large coil spring.
    Bright, who grew up in Ketchikan, submitted five proposals last year for the Board of Fisheries to consider at this meeting, seeking to open up uses of slinky pots and “pot gear” in fisheries for pacific cod and shrimp, and as a means to catch cod as bait for crab fisheries.
    Bright, Willis, Evens and dozens of other Southeast fishermen traveled to Ketchikan this week to give public testimony, and hear Board deliberations on Southeast finfish and shellfish fishery regulations that are addressed by a total of 159 formal proposals.
    Session One of the Board meeting on all “groundfish and shellfish” issues began on Tuesday; Session Two on all “finfish” (herring, salmon and trout) regulations is scheduled to begin on Feb. 2.
During a phone call earlier this month, Bright said that his slinky-pot-related proposals that the Board will hear in Session One this week are “cleanup, tinker toy type things” geared mainly at allowing crab fishermen to set slinky pots to catch bait.
    He explained how he and his business partner Sean Griss in 2020 designed their own special slinky pot, which they sell on-demand through “Slinky Pot Inc.” by way of a manufacturer in China, because they didn’t like other slinky pots that are available on the market.
    In recent years, many groundfish fishermen have switched to longlining with slinky pots as an alternative to traditional hook-and-line longline gear, as pots are easy to work with, require less bait and can reduce bycatch of non-target species.
    Bright’s focus going into the Board meeting isn’t all about slinky pots. He said that he will testify to the Board against one “frustrating” proposal that would reallocate the Juneau-area red king crab/red blue crab fishery quota entirely to personal use, and oppose a proposal (156) that would limit hatchery production of pink and chum salmon by cutting all permitted “egg take” levels in Southeast by 25%.
    Willis, who fishes for tanner and golden king crab, sea cucumbers, herring spawn-on-kelp and other fishery resources, said he’s glad to attend the full, 13-day Board meeting after missing the 2022 and 2018 meetings for Southeast regulations due to “family life trumping meeting life.”
    The meeting kicked off on Tuesday with Board member introductions and opening business. The seven Board members include Chair Märit Carlson-Van Dort of Anchorage, and Gerad Godfrey of Eagle River, Tom Carpenter of Cordova, Mike Wood of Talkeetna, Stan Zuray of Tanana, Greg Svendsen of Anchorage and Curtis Chamberlain of Anchorage.
    About 40 members of the public sat in on the Board meeting, while about 25 ADF&G staff members lined the meeting room. About 75 people were streaming the meeting online in the early afternoon.
    Meeting participants spent the morning listening to Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff reports on subsistence harvest of shellfish species, the commercial Dungeness crab fishery, commercial and personal use fisheries for male golden, red and blue king crab, and the commercial fishery for tanner crab in Southeast. Staff presentations included a rundown of 27 total regulatory proposals to the Board regarding all the crab fisheries.
    In the afternoon, ADF&G staff gave presentations about management and current regulatory proposals for: commercial groundfish fisheries (lingcod, sablefish, pacific cod and rockfish species); sport fisheries for different rockfish species; the Southeast commercial shrimp pot fishery; and the commercial dive fisheries for geoduck clams, sea cucumbers and sea urchins.
    Groundfish presentations covered Board proposals to reopen the yelloweye sport fishery for residents (Proposal 206) or to allow for limited retention of demersal shelf rockfish, except yelloweye, by nonresidents (207 and 208).
    Also on Tuesday afternoon, ADF&G Policy Coordinator Dani Evenson gave an overview of the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act, as relates to a proposal (105) by a California fisheries advocate that would remove “differential regulations for resident and nonresident sport anglers fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone,” which begins 3 miles offshore of Alaska and stretches out to 200 miles.
   Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, equal bag limits are required for all U.S. citizens fishing in federal waters.
    Evenson discussed how ADF&G last year received a “consistency review” over the department’s differential bag limits for residents and nonresidents fishing in federal waters, and how the Board could affect regulatory changes to settle the issue.
    “It is in the best interest of the state to have regulations consistent with MSA for all state-managed fisheries in federal waters, or we risk losing management authority,” Evenson said.
    The Board meeting closed out at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, and picked up at 8:30 a.m. today with public testimony on all Session One (groundfish and shellfish) topics.
    Sign-ups for testimony on Session One topics closed at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. Public testimony is set to begin on Monday for all Session Two (herring, salmon and trout) topics.
   After participating in the meeting, Bright and Willis plan to rush home to prepare their boats and fishing gear for crab fishery openings on Feb. 17.  ADF&G delayed the fishery opening from Feb. 10, in large part so that crab fishermen could participate fully in the Board meeting.

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