Herring
Dear Editor: Has anyone thought about what would happen if the herring didn’t come?
The equinox snow has fallen, so the herring can’t be too far behind, can they? They’ll be here soon. Or will they?
Has anybody thought about what it would mean if the Southeast Alaska herring fishery was to collapse?
Or about what would be the immediate and longer-term impacts of such a collapse? On the commercial fishery? On subsistence? On seabirds and lions, and bears and whales, and eagles and ravens and, perhaps above all, on ‘‘forests that grow salmon on trees?’’ On life for Alaska Natives and non-Native Alaskans alike in the second decade of c21? Oh my. (To say nothing of all the tourists who would probably stay away in droves.)
Is such a collapse possible? Or simply the sadomasochistic auto-infused delusion of one more in a long chain of Chicken Littles?
SOMETHING happened in and to the Southeast herring fishery last year. Does anybody deny that?
The question is: was it simply a one-time failure of predictive models – used by the ADF&G to determine anticipated biomass and thus ‘‘sustainable’’ harvests – that will statistically cancel itself out over the ‘‘long’’ run (whatever that is); i.e., just an anomalitic blip? Or, was it the beginning of a trend? Or, that trend’s logical and inevitable (albeit just a bit more dramatically manifested than anyone could have reasonably have been expected to have anticipated) continuation? Or, more ominously, something else; something that we haven’t even dared imagine yet?
I’m brand new to the Southeast, having – with a lot of help from my friends – brought my 48-foot sailboat, Wayfinder, from San Francisco to Sitka in a 40-day voyage that concluded in late August of this year. So I honestly don’t know, but ... can anybody tell me: are there anywhere near the herring that there once was, even since, say, World War II? Or Watergate? Or September 11? I’m told that the herring have returned to San Francisco Bay, after an absence of what, 30 years?
I’ve heard numerous rumors of hundreds if not thousands of miles of spawn that lasted for days on end here in the Southeast – can you imagine? And last year in Sitka Sound it was what: ‘‘... almost prit’near just under 60 miles for what, two, three days...?’’
Is it just me, or is it possible that the Southeast herring fishery has entered into a ‘‘tipping zone,’’ where human decisions and actions could very well precipitate a tipping point? And that perhaps last year’s herring ‘‘no show’’ was nothing more (or less) than a friendly warning sign from somebody who loves us very much, and who would really hate to see us screw everything up so completely? And more than we already have?
If the very foundation of the whole marine food-chain disintegrates, what happens next?
Has anybody thought about what it would mean if the Southeast Alaska herring fishery were to collapse?
Has anyone thought about what would happen if the herring didn’t come?
Thank you for your consideration; may all be well with all that you love.
J.G. Moebus, Master Sergeant,
U.S. Army (retired), Sitka
Fish to Schools
Dear Editor: With the end of another school year in sight, Fish to Schools would like to offer a tremendous thank you to Sitka fishermen and processors for supplying our program with enough locally caught seafood to serve over 3,000 healthy and delicious local fish lunches since January 2011.
We would especially like to thank Craig Shoemaker at Seafood Producers Coop and John Baird at Sitka Sound Seafoods for taking on last summer’s coho donation drive, which drew generous participation from our local fishermen. This successful drive allowed us to introduce tasty salmon entrees at Keet Gooshi Heen, Blatchley Middle School, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Pacific High School and Sitka High School.
Did students love them? You be the judge! Visit the Sitka Conservation Society website or listen directly here: https://soundcloud.com/cbobsin/blatchley-students-love-local. And catch the next Local Fish Lunch on Wednesday, March 27.
Fish to Schools
Sitka Conservation Society
Tourism and Tongass
Dear Editor: Did you know that the tourism industry in Southeast supports 10,200 jobs? This particularly interests me because I’m one of them. I run a small wilderness kayak guiding business in Southeast. Our guests come to the Tongass to see healthy forests, intact watersheds and the bears, salmon, and trees that thrive there. They also spend a lot of money to do it. Not including air, ferry, or cruise spending, tourists contributed $524 million directly to the Southeast economy between May 2011-April 2012.
As residents of Southeast, we all know how connected we are to the Tongass National Forest. I believe the same goes for the more than 1 million visitors who travel to Southeast each year. All tourism in Southeast relies on the Tongass in one form or another. As the agency responsible for the Tongass, the Forest Service has stated that their job is “caring for the land and serving people.” The Forest Service invests an average of $6.1 million a year on recreation and tourism. When you compare that to the $22.1 million it costs tax payers to fund logging and roadbuilding every year, an industry that only supports about 200 jobs, the Forest Service’s priorities look askew.
To really care for the land and serve the people of Southeast Alaska, the Forest Service needs to redistribute its budget priorities to reflect the real situation on the Tongass. As our second largest industry after fishing, our entire community benefits from tourism on the Tongass. It is our responsibility as a community to make sure the Forest Service makes tourism a priority.
Stephen Van Derhoff, Sitka
