Sac Roe Fishery
Dear Editor: The effects of commercial fishing for herring sac roe on salmon.
In the early days of fishing the herring, the fishermen were allowed 10 percent of the biomass and the populations of herring increased.
Since then, the way the fishery has been managed has changed. Now the take is 10 to 20 percent of the biomass.
Since this increase, other forage fish have all but disappeared. Herring are the last forage fish and the salmon seem to have gotten smaller and there are fewer making it back to the local streams and commercial and sport fishermen have had to take closures.
This has happened before, according to my elders. Back in the ’30s and ’40s, the herring reduction seiners caught nearly all the herring and the halibut and salmon stopped coming into Sitka Sound. The fishermen and the citizens of Sitka asked that the fishery be stopped in Sitka Sound, and it was.
Since about 2004, the Sitka Salmon Derby has not seen too many 50-pounds-and-over salmon, and may go the way of Juneau and face closure of the derby or limiting to only one salmon, If we lose this herring as the last of the forage fish, we will lose the salmon.
Harvey Kitka, Sitka
Herring Conservation
Dear Editor: As Alaskans, we are lucky that our natural resources are, for the most part, governed by democratic processes. Fishing is Sitka’s most important industry, and so the Board of Fish’s visit next week is open season for that democratic process.
It looks like it could be a historic year for herring. For practically the first time in history, STA, the Assembly, the Local Advisory Committee and the overwhelming majority of public comments are all in agreement; our herring population needs to be managed conservatively.
Whether you choose to look at the history of collapses up and down the Northwest Coast, the declining ocean survival rates of other species that depend on herring, the increased humpback whale populations, the warming oceans, the expansion of market squid into Sitka Sound, Tlingit elders’ testimony based on thousands of years of oral history, or any of the other warning signs, its clear that our herring population, the last viable population on the Pacific Northwest Coast, is facing a lot of risk factors. Wise fishery management would suggest that we manage conservatively.
Whichever way you look at the issue, the beauty of the Board of Fish process is that it is a (mostly) democratic one. The BOF is accepting general public testimony on Monday, Jan. 15, and Tuesday, Jan. 16, at Centennial Hall. It’s not quite an election, but it’s still an important civic duty, so get out there and let the board know you support herring conservation!
Matthew Jackson, Sitka
Tobacco-Use Age
Dear Editor: The following letter from Sitka’s Healthy Organizations People and Environments Coalition was presented and submitted to the City and Borough of Sitka Assembly on Jan. 9.
HOPE Coalition supports the idea of adopting a health promoting ordinance to raise the minimum legal sales age to buy tobacco from 19 to 21. To date more than 280 communities and five entire states have taken this important step in protecting youths.
For years, adolescent smoking rates have been coming down, although nearly one in five high school seniors still use tobacco. Now, however, adolescents’ use of e-cigarettes, nicotine vapor devices, hookahs and small cigars has gone up dramatically, threatening to completely erase a decade of progress.
During the years from ages 18-21, experimentation often accelerates into addiction and daily use. It’s a time when the adolescent brain is highly vulnerable to the effects of a powerful addictive agent like nicotine. Exposure during this period may result in permanent neurological receptor changes that lead to a lifetime nicotine habit and resulting illness.
Raising the nicotine/tobacco age also better protects younger teens, as 90 percent of those who provide cigarettes to kids under 18 and themselves under 21. As a result, raising the tobacco sales age to 21 has shown to reduce high school smoking by over 50 percent. The sooner this policy is enacted the sooner we will experience those kinds of benefits in our schools.
Thank you for your service, consideration and actions to support young people.
HOPE Coalition Members:
Cheri Hample, Julia A Smith, Vera Gibson, Julie Platson,
Doug Osborne, Laurie Hood,
Jeremy Bingham, Dan Etulain, Charlie Woodcock, Clara Gray, Loyd Platson, Dawn Johnson, Amanda Roberts, Paul Cotter,
Chris Duquay, Jennifer Herrera
Herring Proposals
Dear Editor: Just wanted to write in support of Sitka Conservation Society and Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s herring conservation proposals 98, 99, 105 and 106. It seems clear to myself and others that drastic steps of conservation are needed at this time to protect this vital and fragile resource.
This is the last remaining subsistence roe harvest on the west coast, a harvest of vital cultural and nutritional value to all Alaskans, particularly the tribes which have been harvesting them for thousands of years. It is a keystone species and forage fish which greatly benefits the entire ecosystem, despite ADF&G’s failure to designate it as such. The salmon which feed on them support the single-largest sustainable industry in our town and in our state – commercial and charter fishing. These same salmon are crucial to the subsistence life which is foundational to what makes us Alaskan and why we live where we do. Please consider supporting Proposals 98, 99, 105 and 106 and giving testimony at the upcoming Board of Fish meeting.
Ben Timby, Sitka
