Fishery Board Hears Crab Quota Protests

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Created on Thursday, 30 January 2025 15:15

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By ANNA LAFFREY
Ketchikan Daily News
    Forty-four public testimonies about Southeast Alaska shellfish and groundfish fisheries filled up a short second day of the Alaska Board of Fisheries’ 13-day Southeast/Yakutat finfish and shellfish regulatory meeting in Ketchikan’s Ted Ferry Civic Center.
    Personal statements and Alaska Department of Fish and Game Advisory Committee reports ran for just over five hours on Wednesday. The public comment session followed up on a full day of ADF&G staff reports on Tuesday.
   Board members reconvened at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday to begin “committee of the whole” work on 30 regulatory proposals that address all fisheries for crab species, and 21 proposals regarding all groundfish fisheries. Voting on the crab and groundfish proposals is slated for Friday morning, ahead of committee work on “miscellaneous shellfish” species.

Crab, shrimp and miscellaneous shellfish
    Commercial crabbing was a major subject of individuals’ public testimony Wednesday, with about 10 Petersburg- and Juneau-based fishermen speaking against a proposal (242) that would stop commercial red king crab fishing in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game management section 11-A near Juneau by allocating 100% of the area’s quota to resident personal use fishermen.
    Many Juneau residents submitted written public comments to the Board in favor of the 11-A reallocation, as proposed by Territorial Sportsmen Inc., because it would secure more harvest opportunity for recreational, small-boat harvesters in an area that’s close to town.
    Nels Evens, a Petersburg-based crab fisherman, said that the proposal would affect “unnecessary reallocation” and could have an “influence on whether or not we have this (commercial) fishery,” as a commercial closure of 11-A would preclude the area from ADF&G biomass surveys that determine whether the fishery can open.
    Meanwhile, most crab fishery stakeholders supported an ADF&G proposal (243) to allow a commercial fishery for red and blue king crab at lower levels of abundance by using new management mechanisms, including an “individual catch limit.”
    People expressed split views on an individual’s Proposal 251, which would change the Southeast commercial Dungeness fishery summer season start date from June 15 to July 1.
    Representatives from the Ketchikan, Klawock and Craig ADF&G advisory committees opposed a proposal (250) to reduce the minimum size limit for male Dungeness crab in subsistence and personal use fisheries, preferring to “tread lightly” with the species.
    Dungeness populations are struggling in some areas due to pressures such as sea otter predation, bark deposition that’s harmed habitat, as well as near-shore development projects, per an ADF&G staff presentation on the species.
    Given local shellfish population concerns, and to protect resident harvest opportunities, Ketchikan ADF&G AC members recommended that the Board close the Ketchikan-area Traitors Cove to commercial and sport crab and shrimp harvest.
    Beau Dale, who chairs the Ketchikan ADF&G AC, said that the cove is “important to locals, there’s a nice dock to tie up to,” and expressed concerns about a charter lodge that’s been concentrating sport shellfish harvest effort in Traitors Cove.
    However, the Ketchikan AC, and multiple community members, opposed a proposal (260) to close commercial shrimp and crab fisheries in a significant portion of available Ketchikan-area fishing grounds (George Inlet, Carroll Inlet and Thorne Arm).
    Speakers were split on two commercial shrimp proposals that seek to reverse the recent pot shrimp season change from a fall Oct. 1 season start to a May 15 start. The Board approved the change in 2022.
    Some speakers agreed with the biological reasoning that inspired the Board to change the season start date. ADF&G suggested in 2022 that a springtime shrimp fishery would allow eggs on female shrimp to mature and hatch before they’re susceptible to the commercial fishery.
    Other fishermen said that they’ve found more soft-shelled shrimp, and catch a higher proportion of female shrimp in the spring than they did when the season opened in October.
    Among other shellfish talks, Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association Executive Director Kate Sullivan discussed 11 proposals by commercial dive fishermen and SARDFA members that would liberalize commercial harvest of geoduck clams and sea cucumbers, and potentially encourage some red and green sea urchin harvest.
    Sullivan described how SARDFA currently excises a 7% tax on geoduck fishery landings, and a 1% tax on sea cucumber landings, to provide funding for shellfish testing, and ADF&G’s management of the dive fisheries.

Groundfish
    ADF&G advisory committees for Ketchikan, Klawock and Craig all supported a proposal to increase the daily bag limit for sablefish (black cod) in the sport fishery; both the Ketchikan and Craig ACs passed amendments to the proposal so as to only increase the resident limit.
    Meeting participants shared broad support for a proposal (206) that would reopen the yelloweye sport fishery for residents, allowing for a daily bag limit of one fish and a possession limit of two fish, with no annual or size limit.
    ADF&G determined in an analysis of Proposal 206 that allowing residents a limited opportunity to harvest yelloweye is “not projected to exceed the sport allocation of DSR” in Southeast outside waters, “and maintains a conservative approach to management.” Concerns about yelloweye and other DSR species that have affected recent sport fishery closures, and populations have since improved, according to ADF&G.
    While supportive of resident yelloweye fishing opportunity, stakeholders were more split over proposals (207, 208) that would allow nonresidents anglers to retain one or two demersal shelf rockfish each year.
    Speaking with concern about the nonresident DSR harvest proposals, Sitka ADF&G AC Chair Stacey Wayne spoke about how recent limits on nonresident chinook and halibut retention, and growing visitor industry demand, is affecting a “huge uptick” in nonresident (unguided or charter) rockfish harvest.
    On the other hand, Kurt Whitehead, who serves on the ACs for Craig, Klawock and East Prince of Wales Island, said that “it makes no sense that nonresident anglers can’t keep one DSR fish” when ADF&G has limited data about the health of DSR species other than yelloweye.
    At the end of the meeting day on Wednesday, Whitehead and a group of southern Southeast residents stuck around in the Ted Ferry Civic Center to work with a Board member to develop substitute language for proposals 207 and 208.
    The group is seeking to allow for a nonresident annual limit of one demersal shelf rockfish (of any DSR species, including yelloweye), with a nonresident retention closure before July 1 “to protect the (DSR) spawning biomass,” and with the option for ADF&G to close the nonresident fishery if catch is projected to exceed harvest quota, according to Whitehead.

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