Fish Board Tackles Rockfish Negotiations

Details

Category: News

Created on Friday, 31 January 2025 13:47

Hits: 529

By ANNA LAFFREY
Ketchikan Daily News
Negotiations over state-managed groundfish harvest, including proposals to open up demersal shelf rockfish fishing, sped by on the third day of the Alaska Board of Fisheries’ Southeast Alaska/Yakutat finfish and shellfish regulatory meeting in Ketchikan on Thursday.
The Board held quick “committee of the whole” hearings on crab and groundfish fisheries before wrapping at about 3 p.m. on Thursday. Come sundown, meeting participants lingered at the Ted Ferry Civic Center to work with ADF&G staff and Board members on substitute regulatory language that the Board could vote on Friday morning among all of the crab and groundfish regulations at hand.
Committee work on “miscellaneous shellfish” species was set to follow the first round of Board deliberations today.
Following Board hearings on groundfish topics on Thursday, ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang cautioned that he held an earlier meeting with staff “because I have had concerns about yelloweye (rockfish) in general,” which could affect the outcomes of groundfish fishery stakeholders’ proposals.
“One thing we talked about is just becoming a little bit more precautionary moving forward,” Vincent-Lang said. “One way we can do that is to reduce the (total allowable catch) even further than what the precautionary TAC is that was set by the federal government.
“So you may see something coming forward as substantive language that is reduced TAC,” Vincent-Lang said. “So now we’re trying to determine what that means in terms of some additional opportunity under that reduced TAC for both non commercial and commercial uses.”
Two main proposals before the Board seek to authorize more harvest of demersal shelf rockfish species, including yelloweye.
DSR are long-lived species that are susceptible to overfishing. Yelloweye rockfish are the most-studied DSR; managers have less information about other DSR species in Southeast (canary, China, copper, quillback, rosethorn and tiger).
Concerns about yelloweye and other DSR species have affected sport and commercial closures in recent years; populations have subsequently improved, according to ADF&G data.
During Thursday’s committee session, meeting participants shared broad support for one 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 granting residents a limited opportunity to harvest yelloweye is “expected to be within sustainable harvest levels for all Southeast waters and within sport allocation for” Southeast outside waters.
Emily Scott, an outreach coordinator for the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said that ALFA supports the proposal to increase opportunities for residents “based on the projection that it would not pose a threat” to the yelloweye population.
Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Ketchikan Community Council Delegate Keenan Sanderson expressed general support for the proposal.
“In both the Ketchikan and Prince of Wales area … if we had to choose one rock fish to harvest over any others, it would absolutely be yelloweye rockfish.”
Meanwhile, participants were split over a proposal (207) by Klawock resident and fishing guide Kurt Whitehead, which would allow nonresidents a daily harvest limit of one and annual limit of two demersal shelf rockfish, excluding yelloweye.
As written, the proposal would likely cause harvest “to exceed the overfishing limit for (non-yelloweye) demersal shelf rockfish” species, according to ADF&G.
But ADF&G staff recommended in a presentation on Monday that a shorter nonresident season for DSR, including yelloweye, could “keep the sport fishery within allocation.”
So, Whitehead this week has been working with staff to draft substitute language that would allow nonresidents each year to harvest one demersal shelf rockfish, including yelloweye, with a nonresident retention closure before July 1 to avoid harvesting the fish before they spawn, and with the option for ADF&G to close the nonresident fishery if catch is projected to exceed harvest quota.
Whitehead said that the proposal is important for nonresidents, as yelloweye are a “golden carrot” for the Southeast visitor industry.
Southeast Alaska Guides Organization Assistant Executive Director Kim Landeen said that SEAGO supports a short nonresident season for all DSR species “if there’s allocation and if there’s a biomass to support that.”
Scott said that ALFA opposes the proposal, as nonresident fishing for DSR “will place excessive pressure on this stock and is projected to go over the overfishing levels.”
Sitka ADF&G Advisory Committee Chair Stacey Wayne concurred, noting that the Sitka AC recently “heard a (department) presentation about the increased intake of rockfish from the charter fleet, you know, to try and fill the gap of fewer healthy salmon.”
ADF&G staff seemed “very concerned about what the future would hold with no limits on the number of charter operators, and ever-increasing pressure” on rockfish harvest, Wayne said.
“We want to be really cautious about that, and that’s why our AC was in opposition to opening to nonresidents,” Wayne said.
Crab
Thursday’s Board session opened with a “committee of the whole” hearing on 30 proposals for golden, red and blue king crab, tanner crab and Dungeness crab fisheries.
Fishermen on Thursday continued to protest 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.
Crabbers rallied for an ADF&G proposal (243) to allow a commercial fishery for red and blue king crab at lower levels of abundance by adopting new management mechanisms.
Former Alaska Board of Fisheries Chair and Petersburg fisherman John Jensen testified to “begrudgingly” support Proposal 243 because it could “really help out local economies,” as most all red king crab permit-holders live in Petersburg or elsewhere in Southeast. 
Jensen said that, after meeting with Board members, ADF&G staff and fellow fishermen, he “came around” to the proposal that would allow ADF&G to open a fishery when the estimated biomass of legal male red king crab is below 200,000 pounds, the current threshold for conducting the fishery. Given a low biomass, the fishery has opened only twice since the mid-2000s.
As the Board picked up Dungeness harvest regulations, Sanderson spoke about the recent march of invasive European green crab into Southeast Alaska waters, and how the threatening species could affect shellfish fisheries.
Sanderson also spoke on behalf of CCTHITA against two proposals (258 and 259) that would reopen areas that have been closed to commercial Dungeness crab fishing due to population concerns and conflicts with resident personal use harvesters.
Representatives of federally recognized tribal governments in Hydaburg and Kasaan also opposed the proposal to rescind closed areas, while commercial fishermen asked the Board to re-open all or some of the 20 closed Dungeness areas throughout Southeast, all of which are located near towns and cities. 
Tanner crab fishery proposals that address “housekeeping” matters drew little testimony in committee.
Jared Bright, who submitted proposals that would allow crab fishermen to set “slinky pots” to catch bait for each of the crab fisheries, told the Board that he is working on a substitute proposal that “everyone is happy with,” and which would not involve the Dungeness crab fishery.
Day four of the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting began just after 9 a.m. to Feb. 9.

• < Prev
• Next >